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When you cover politics, you realize that knowing how to talk about character matters more and more. The way we hold ideas is more important than the ideas.

David Brooks

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David Brooks
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: August 22
Editor
Journalist
Politician
Pundit
City of Toronto
Character
Cover
Ideas
Matters
Matter
Realize
Important
Hold
Way
Realizing
Knowing
Politics
Talk

More quotes by David Brooks

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Basically, less educated or high school-educated whites are going to Donald Trump. It doesn't matter what the guy does. And college-educated going to Hillary Clinton.
David Brooks
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You figure out, what is the crucial issue facing the country right now? And for Trump, it was that the global economy and the international world order were failing regular people.
David Brooks
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One of the things I think about with Donald Trump is what are his words actually attached to? With Trump, I'm not sure the words have roots. They are emanations of his psyche, but has he thought it through? Is there an argument, is there a policy implication?
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I think there are two basic approaches you can use for campaign finance. One is complete openness, everybody knows absolutely everything, but no limits. But you let people decide.The other is just have a national public system.
David Brooks
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Maybe you're willing to tolerate a lot of bigotry from Donald Trump if you say, just change things, just change things.
David Brooks
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The brain is not the mind. It is probably impossible to look at a map of brain activity and predict or even understand the emotions, reactions, hopes and desires of the mind.
David Brooks
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The moral foundation of the society, the way we interact with each other is more fundamental than the Supreme Court.
David Brooks
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Putin's an egomaniac, so there are two ways he can process his ego mania. He can say, Oh, I stood up to the U.S., or, Hey, I'm essential to the world order.
David Brooks
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Two terrible behaviors don't make a good behavior.
David Brooks
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We are all fundamentally equal souls, and if you make a zillion dollars, you're not any better than anybody else spiritually. You're still an equal soul.
David Brooks
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When you talk about the problem of illegal immigration, people are angry and polarized. When you talk about the answers, the debate gets a little different.
David Brooks
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People generally don't suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities. Soldiers who've endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms. Trauma is an expulsive cataclysm of the soul.
David Brooks
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[Donald Trump] has shifted - President [Barack] Obama has shifted American policy in a much more critical way in Israel with the settlements than the previous presidents.
David Brooks
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[Mitch Daniels] was not a bad governor. He could be playful, but - or communicator.I'm just saying it will - I think will be - every candidate comes into the White House, assuming if [Hillary Clinton] wins, or if she does win, with strengths and weaknesses. This will be a weakness, because this was such an easy moment to show some heart.
David Brooks
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If you're cutting deals with one company or another, eventually, there's going to be a quid pro quo. There's going to be a bribe. There's going to be something.
David Brooks
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Liberals lost touch with working-class Americans because they never had to have a conversation about values with those voters they could just rely on the courts to impose their views.
David Brooks
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Since 2005, a majority of Americans, according to the Gallup poll, have said it was wrong and a mistake to go into Iraq.
David Brooks
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I think as we interpret him and frankly as the world learns to interpret Donald Trump, are these just words that are enigmatic things floating on air or are they actually shifts in policy and will they change moment by moment, day by day without any underlying connection to the actual stuff of governance? I don't know.
David Brooks
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The teachers union may not like Betsy DeVos, but she's clearly within the range of Republican policy-makers.
David Brooks
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The ugliness can sometimes be super ugly, but also a warning sign of something down below.
David Brooks