Masquerading conservative op-ed columnist David Brooks nostalgically pines for those good ol' WASPy days when white Christian men from a selected gene pool controlled America - of course, he delivers it in a savvy, PC tone...
If you were an old blue blood, you traced your lineage back centuries, and there was a decent chance that you’d hand your company down to members of your clan. That subtly encouraged long-term thinking.
Now people respond to ever-faster performance criteria — daily stock prices or tracking polls. This perversely encourages reckless behavior. To leave a mark in a fast, competitive world, leaders seek to hit grandiose home runs. Clinton tried to transform health care. Bush tried to transform the Middle East. Obama has tried to transform health care, energy and much more.