David Brooks castigates the Republicans in the U.S. House who killed the bailout bill:
And let us recognize above all the 228 who voted no — the authors of this revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed. They did the momentarily popular thing, and if the country slides into a deep recession, they will have the time and leisure to watch public opinion shift against them.
Leave aside the issue of whether the bailout is a good idea. What bothers me more is the method that Brooks is saying congressmen should use to determine how to vote. If congressmen should have merely stepped in line with the wishes of administration officials and their party leaders on the bailout bill, then there is no reason that they should not do the same for all laws under consideration by Congress. Brooks is saying that individual congressmen should disregard their personal thoughts and feelings, as well as those of their constituents. (Public opinion seems to be overwhelmingly opposed to a bailout.)
Such a world would be neither a democracy nor a republic; it would be an oligarchy.
