What an Odd Thing to Say.

In today's column David Brooks' argues that Republicans are "surging" toward victory because of their narrative of the danger that our Muslim in chief poses for all that it is good and pure about America.  In the course of recounting the ins and outs of this narrative he mentions Paul Ryan and  Arthur Brooks who insisted

in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, “The road to serfdom in America does not involve a knock in the night or a jack-booted thug. It starts with smooth-talking politicians offering seemingly innocuous compromises, and an opportunistic leadership that chooses not to stand up for America’s enduring principles of freedom and entrepreneurship.”

He loves them; he adores them; they're smart, articulate, and kinda of hunky. They

are two of the most important conservative thinkers today. Ryan is the leading Republican policy entrepreneur in the House. Brooks is president of the highly influential American Enterprise Institute and a much-cited author. My admiration for both is unbounded.

  However there is a bit of a downside because

the story Republicans are telling each other, which Ryan and Brooks have reinforced, is an oversimplified version of American history, with dangerous implications.

Leaving aside Brooks' own tendency to oversimplify history in the service of bad policies, is it possible to find   a duo of smart sexy beast of a thinkers smart and sexy despite finding their overly-simplified narrative dangerous your country's political, economic, and social life?  Wouldn't the responsible, intellectually honest, and serious thing to do here be excoriate them and the Tea Party Patriot nut cases who represent the surgers in the Republican's surge?  The answer is yes, of course it would be.  And that means that Brooks' isn't a responsible, intellectually honest, and serious person.  He a flying monkey.