Brooks: Biden Is Countering ‘Amoral Realism’ of We’ve Got to Take Care of Ourselves

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that he likes President Joe Biden’s soul of America messaging because the election is a contrast “between a moral vision and an amoral realism” that is represented in the idea that “We’ve got to take care of [ourselves].”

Brooks said, “I love the phrasing, because the soul of America suggests that America has a moral essence, and that moral essence is under threat. And, in my view, it’s under threat from sort of an amoralistic realism, not only of Trump, but of Trumpism, and the idea that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, people are selfish, you’ve just got to take care of yourself. And I think that’s really at the essence of a lot of the Trump philosophy and the Trump worldview. A lot of the Trump supporters I talked to even this week, it’s sort of like, we can’t help the Ukrainians. We’ve got to take care of [ourselves]. And I think Biden’s instinct is just very different, that we have to have — we have to be a good country, and we have to be good in defending democracy. We have to be good on race. We have to be good on fairness. We have to be good to the marginalized. And so, I think there is — unlike other presidential elections, there’s really a contest between a moral vision and an amoral realism. And so, I think he’s right to highlight that difference.”

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