What we might call ‘pragmatic compassion’ may soon be about to take over U.S. politics as the post-boomer generation matures, according to political columnist David Brooks. Christians should enthusiastically welcome such a development: It would represent a victory for Jesus’ core values of facing the facts of the universe God wrought — which loving God with your whole mind necessarily entails — and seeking the best for others as for yourself.
(Not coincidentally, our living by these twin core values helps humanity participate more effectively as workers in in God’s continuing creation.)
In his NY Times column today (subscription required), Brooks reports on some of his experiences teaching a political theory course at Duke University. He summarized the life stories of a few of his students and how their views seem to have been shaped:
In general, their writing is calm, optimistic and ironical. Most students in my class showed an aversion to broad philosophical arguments and valued the readings that were concrete and even wonky. Many wrote that they had moved lately toward the center.
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Jared Mueller [… is] a big fan of school vouchers and now considers himself a moderate Democrat: “I’m a Democrat because I think the Democratic Party is a better vehicle for the issues I care about: balancing the budget, checking President Bush’s foreign policy and curtailing global warming. However, I’ll switch to the Republicans in a heartbeat if I believe my ideas are better received in the G.O.P.” […]
Many showed a visceral distaste for people who are overly certain or unable to see some truth in the other side. One student, Meng Zhou, quoted one of our readings from Reinhold Niebuhr: “A too confident sense of justice always leads to injustice.” Another, Kevin Troy, cited a passage from Max Weber’s essay “Politics as a Vocation”: “Politics means slow, powerful drilling through hard boards, with a mixture of passion and sense of proportion.”
If my Duke students are representative, then the U.S. is about to see a generation that is practical, anti-ideological, modest and centrist (maybe to a fault).
That’s probably good news for presidential candidates like Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, whose main selling point is their nuts-and-bolts ability to get things done.
But over all it’s bad news for Republicans. While the G.O.P. was once thought of as the practical, businesslike party, now most of my students see the Republicans as the impractical, ideological party — on social and science issues as well as foreign and domestic policy.
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