Snakes

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I like David Brooks. He’s been on PBS as a “conservative” commentator for years but he’s thoughtful and appalled by the Trump years. It has taken a long time to recognize how perilous they are for the long tradition of American democracy. In 2021 a column he wrote provoked me to call him out for being slow to recognize what Trump was doing to the United States. So I wrote the column The Monsters we need calling Brooks out for being blind. In fact my columns title came from a man Brooks was quoting. This man was warning his kind that they might have to be willing to become monsters to attack the people he regarded as the real monsters…..meaning non-Trump people. Of course the monsters he was worried about were the Renee Goods of the world.

So I can’t argue with Mr. Brooks when he now says that classical liberals must finally open their eyes. He’s talking about himself. I will say I agree with his choice of a passage from the New Testament where Jesus warns that his followers should be as wise as a snake and as innocent as a dove. He veers into the theologian Niebuhr first but then lands on snakes and doves writing:

Opinion: “Niebuhr is rooting for the children of light, but he wants them to be less naïve about human nature: “The preservation of a democratic civilization requires the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove. The children of light must be armed with the wisdom of the children of darkness but remain free from their malice.””

Here are two more of my columns with that passage as a theme: Cricket and The Snake

And speaking of the evils of liberalism here’s a story from today’s New York Times about Texas deciding that college profs have to censor Plato. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/us/tamu-plato-race-gender.html

About the author

Harry is a ferociously good natured eccentric in Duluth Minnesota who detests traitors dressed up as Uncle Sam. You can find somewhat better edited writings of his at the Duluth Reader "contributors." page. The URL is:

https://duluthreader.com/contributors/h/84/284-harry-welty