David Brooks on PBS Cuts: Conservatives Have Been Dreaming About ‘Defunding the Left’ for Decades

EXCERPT:

BROOKS: “Back when I was a baby pundit in my 20s, working in places like National Review and The Wall Street Journal editorial page, I recall writing pieces that said, ‘Defund the left.’ And in those days, we were — we conservatives were upset about something called the Legal Services Corporation, which we thought was — skewed left. And since then, to be fair, the government has contracted with, I think, two-thirds of the nonprofits in this country to provide services. And a lot of those money goes to pretty left-wing organizations. So conservatives had some basis in thinking that a lot of federal spending was going toward one ideological side more than the other. And so that ‘Defund the left,’ which conservatives have talked about since I was a baby pundit many centuries ago, now they’re actually doing it. The problem is that, say — well, we will talk about ourselves, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans have been going after that since diapers, since we were all in diapers. But there are always enough Republicans who understood what Jonathan just said, that, hey, I’m in Maine here and I like having some local media. And so there was always that rump that would stop it. But that rump is gone. And so all the defunding the left that conservatives have been dreaming about for decades, now they’re doing it. And I should say, perceived left. It’s not always that the institutions they think are left are left and anybody who doesn’t agree with them is left. And so they’re having their way.”

(via RealClearPolitics)