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David Brooks Admits 'Conservative Ideas' Don't Work

In Friday's New York Times, Bobo writes yet another column praising Santorum -- and lets something slip. I’m to Rick Santorum’s left on most social issues, like same-sex marriage and abortion. I’m also put off by his Manichaean political

In Friday's New York Times, Bobo writes yet another column praising Santorum -- and lets something slip.

I’m to Rick Santorum’s left on most social issues, like same-sex marriage and abortion. I’m also put off by his Manichaean political rhetoric. He seems to imagine America’s problems can best be described as the result of a culture war between the God-fearing conservatives and the narcissistic liberals.

Like most Americans, including most evangelicals under 40, I find this culture war language absurd. If conservative ideas were that much more virtuous than liberal ideas, then the conservative parts of the country would have fewer social pathologies than the liberal parts of the country. They don’t.

That's true, but it's actually worse than that. You see, those "family values" Red States have higher rates of divorce and teen pregnancy than the godless, librul Blue States.

But it's not just conservative ideas with respect to morality that have failed. The most conservative states in the country are also the poorest.

So when will Bobo admit that the economic policies he's been cheering on for the past 20 years have failed?

I won't hold my breath.

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