What David Brooks of the NYT Gets Wrong About the Economy
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” — Benjamin Disraeli/Mark Twain
I wonder how intelligent and concerned writers like Brooks don’t understand that statistics may have no relation to what is actually happening in the real world. A recent post by David Brooks at the New York Times follows in time my last two posts on why I believe the Democratic Party is floundering. Essentially, it’s because they are misled by statistics.
Brook’s article is titled, Can We Please Stop Lying About Obama? (NYT, May 22, 2025)
He lumps Bernie Sander’s position on free trade and tariffs with Trump and Vance:
• “It’s a story told by right-wing populists like Donald Trump and JD Vance and left-wing populists like Bernie Sanders”.
• “The story goes something like this: There once was an America, in the 1950s and 1960s, that made stuff. People could go off to work in factories and earn a decent middle-class wage.”
• “The problem with this story is that it’s 75 percent bonkers — historically inaccurate on nearly every front”.
The problem with Brook’s story is that it is 75% bonkers– and historically inaccurate on nearly every front.
Anyone alive from that time, knows that there was a period beginning after the Second World War and stretching to sometime after 2010 when a family could afford a house, a new car every few years, a vacation and save for retirement.
Those of us who lived during that time know that to be true.
Brooks claims all this whining about the bad state of the economy is meritless. Clinton and Obama did well for it. Statistics show that America has never been better. His pitch is captured in a book he refers to for some of his statistics by Michael R Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, The American Dream Is Not Dead, but Populism Could Kill It. The promotional material describes it thusly:
“In this succinctly argued volume, he shows that, on measures of economic opportunity and quality of life, there has never been a better time to be alive in America. He backs his argument with overwhelming — and underreported — data to show how the facts favor realistic optimism”.
In praise of Strains work, Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw suggests a new slogan for Strain’s message for the ingrates who don’t know how good they have it:
“Michael Strain offers a trenchant look at the material standard of living of U.S. households. If his message were summarized on a hat, it would read ‘Make America Grateful Again’” (Amazon).
And, no matter what the statisticians say, it is not so now for many outside the privileged costal bubble in which Brooks — with an estimated net worth of $5 million — lives, works and plays. Strain describes Brook’s daily experience.
There are arguments why the statistics that Brooks relies upon our misleading.
For examples of why the statistics that claim the economy is performing well are misleading, see my article: How the Democrats are Kept Impotent (medium.com, May 14, 2025).
There are statistics from other sources that contradict them. How does the average reader choose between them?
The fault is in relying solely on statistics which may or may not reflect the reality they claim to describe. Compare Brook’s second-hand information — for that is what statistical data is — with the first-hand report by an investigative journalist like Chris Hedges who describes going back to his hometown Mechanic Mills in Maine that was once solidly Democrat:
Hedges describes the journey into town passing abandoned factories with weeds growing through the floors, empty stores on the main street, crumbling houses scattered everywhere and Trump support signs replacing Democrat ones. (The Chris Hedges Report, July 30, 2023).
Democrat, representative Jason Crowe of Colorado described the same situation in his district from his personal experience not statistics:
“We are losing support in vast swaths of the country, in rural America, in the Midwest, the places where I’m from,” …. “People that I grew up with who now support Donald Trump, who used to be Democrats. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have the support of these folks, other than we have pushed, in so many ways, these people away from our party.” (NYT, May 25, 2025).
While Democrat influencers like Brooks keep relying on unreliable sources like statistics, they will not get that party out of the deep hole it is in. But the path forward is clear when you rely on firsthand evidence. As James Carville said in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid”. Unfortunately, the Democrats have not been able to apply that insight. If they did, their policy would emphasize fair paying jobs and affordable housing before all else.
