DAVID BROOKS CHANNELS EDMUND BURKE

Atrios points out that David Brooks really does want the Villagers to rule America and Glenn does a full post-mortem of Brooks' latest babbling which includes this key observation:

David Brooks flew to London so now he's an expert on British politics, and in his New York Times column this morning, he explains why "the British political system is basically functional while the American system is not."  Here's the crux of what makes their system so admirable in his eyes:

Britain is also blessed with a functioning political culture. It is dominated by people who live in London and who have often known each other since prep school. This makes it gossipy and often incestuous. But the plusses outweigh the minuses.

It has long been the supreme fantasy of establishment guardians in general, and David Brooks in particular, that American politics would be dominated by an incestuous, culturally homogeneous, superior elite "who live in [Washington] and who have often known each other since prep school."

Brooks is simply advocating a modern, non-hereditary version of Edmund Burke's rule of the elite.