One of the most unavoidable facts of life is that when David Brooks tries to display the intellectual depth of his mental ocean, he proves that he really has an old kiddie pool, with a couple of holes in it, for a mind instead.
See! The Smithsonian and PBS, thew same thing! NPR and a national park? Peas in a pod! Good grief David, I hope you did not pull a hamstring making that absurd stretch! Now, David is correct about our national culture, and the importance of assimilating newcomers to that culture. But, NPR, and PBS as essential tools in that quest? Good grief!
darcprynce
Dave C
Gatordoug
If anything, I’d say that NPR/PBS work against assimilation with their slavish dedication to multiculturalism, and that the blame-America-first view they promote divides the country far more than it unites it.
Beyond that, I question that most basic premise they all seem to accept as given, which is that the federal government should be funding national parks and the Smithsonian. I don’t see where that fits into the founders’ vision for our nation, and even if it does, I think the case can easily be made that state or local governments would be better custodians.