Some Questions for David Brooks

David Brooks seems to be having a hard time lately; he isn't wedded to the Glenn-Beck, Sarah-Palin style of, er, conservatism. He tends more toward another David, Hume. But Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are what the Republicans seem to like right now. So our poor David has been rattling back and forth between ideas, and nobody in the Republican Party seems to be listening.

I usually find him pretty much fact-oriented, but today the wear and tear is showing: he's really missed something.

Government should do what it’s supposed to do: schools, roads, basic research.

David Brooks, where have you been? The schools must be subject to vouchers and choice, with for-profit entities showing the government the way. Roads are to be built by private companies and paid for by tolls on their users, not those ridiculous taxes spread over even those who don't use them! And basic research is better done by those who will make a profit from it. Never mind that you don't know what that is going to be and that even the pharmaceutical companies, held up as paragons of basic research, are cutting funds. I guess, as some believed in the end of the 19th century, we've discovered everything and can shut down the Patent Office.

So, David, are you bucking for a RINO stamp? Or is the fact that this column is about independents an indicator of the direction of your thinking?