I almost feel bad for Brooks. Hes part the problem and probably doesnt realize it. He is the quintessential center-left self-identified intellectual. These are the people who associate intelligence and deep-thinking with positive outcomes. If only it were so...

Intelligent people dont always make the right choices, they make the novel choices. He got tingles because Obama was the novel choice, never expecting it to work out the way it has. Now he's looking at an America that is angrier and more deeply divided than ever. We are no longer united in purpose or national identity. We dont even agree on what it means to be an American. Now Brooks is saying, Oh crap.

Too late, Mr. Intellectual. You helped break it. This is what happens when the media and academia aligns itself with one political party. Now theyve unleased a diverse coalition or bad conservatives, tea partiers, libertarians, neo-reactionaries of various bents, protectionists, nativists, etc.

The intellectual classs should be freaking out.