David Brooks: The Capacity To Be Shocked By Our Politics Is Clearly Going Away
PBS NEWSHOUR: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including the government shutdown as it enters its third week as Trump shows no signs of wanting to negotiate.
AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: Well, look, let’s turn now to what we saw this week, which was big news for the president overseas, able to muscle through a major peace deal in the Middle East, and we saw still working to broker some kind of peace deal, hosting Zelenskyy at the White House and calling Putin this week as well. But, meanwhile, it is day 17 of the government shutdown back here at home. The rhetoric has not changed from either side, Jonathan. And the president hasn’t really engaged in the kind of brokering we traditionally see presidents do. Can he be a dealmaker back here too? JONATHAN CAPEHART, MSNBC: Yes, we have seen it.We have seen it. So if the president were to turn his attention to the government shutdown and figure out what both sides wants and then just say, this is what I want to do, of course, we have seen time and again Republicans will do whatever the president tells them to do, even if they have held an opposing position. So – but he hasn’t seemed like he wants to get involved, which makes me think he likes what’s happening. Maybe he likes what’s happening. Maybe given what we – the package on Russell Vought, maybe this shutdown does give him the opportunity, him and Russell Vought, the opportunity to slash at the federal government in ways they couldn’t do under regular order. And I don’t know. It’s a terrible game. It’s a terrible game for the president to play, because real people, Americans are getting hurt. NAWAZ: David, Jonathan raises a good point. Is there incentive for the president to want to end the shutdown? DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: Not particularly. The Republicans are not the party of government. They’re the party of shrinking government. And under the shutdown right now, he’s been blocked from really getting rid of what he calls Democratic programs, but he is able to fund the things he likes. And so they have managed to wrangle some funds for the servicemen. They have for TSA, for ICE, those sorts of people. And so they get to fund the things they like and don’t – and everybody else gets nothing. It’s – two things that are astonishing to me, one, how everybody’s blase about it. The whole – not in the DMV, in our area, but everywhere else in the country, it’s like, what do you do? And the capacity to be shocked by our politics is clearly going away. And so that’s the first thing. The second thing is I’m curious to know what happens over the next three weeks, because the notifications for the health care costs, those letters are going out. November 1, they really begin to kick in. And so maybe then we will see something. But I would not assume that this is going to end any time in October. I think when that November number comes out, we will see how the public reacts, if at all.
