David Brooks offers road map to make U.S. morally sound

The United States is at a crossroads of sorts.

That wasn’t the exact phrase David Brooks said when he spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival this summer, but in part it was his sentiment.

David Brooks speaks at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June.

This was the 20th consecutive year the New York Times columnist and PBS News Hour commentator has been part of this confab in Colorado.

(Click here to watch and listen to his talk.)

Brooks isn’t a liberal. He’s not a Democrat. He calls himself a moderate Republican.

This is how the institute described his talk: “Many are disheartened by the state of the country—but history tells a different story. America has endured deep crises before, and found its way through. This talk offers a hopeful look at the recurring patterns of rupture and repair, along with practical ways individuals can help renew democracy, strengthen community, and show up for society in hard times.”

For me, one thing that stuck out is how Brooks describes the United States as an idea. It’s about movement and mobility, he said. The idea that anyone (no matter their color) can come here, anyone can aspire to be what they want to be, anyone can overcome where they started.

That has shifted with this current administration.

As Brooks said, the United States is a more individualistic country where families and communities are weaker.

“The moral order has been frayed,” Brooks said. “You can’t have trust if you don’t have moral order.”

We clearly don’t have moral order.

Brooks talked about how people and countries go through rupture and repair. That it’s cultural, civil and political.

“One of the problems with populists is they don’t respect institutions, and they aren’t really good at running things. They are good at destroying,” Brooks said.

He called DOGE a complete failure, pointed to how Trump has not ended the occupation by Russia in Ukraine, and that the flip-flopping on tariffs is doing no one any good.

Brooks said we will get out of this state of chaos with a spiritual and cultural uprising. It will take talking to each other. It means resistance. It’s creating that phenomenon where the United States is an idea, not just a place. That we stand for something greater than ourselves.

After all, it’s “we the people” not “I”—it’s about all us, not one person.

It’s not just Washington, D.C., that Brooks says needs fixing. The decay is rotting institutions, nonprofits, businesses and the individual.

Brooks’ talk wasn’t all doom and gloom. While part of it is filled with statistics, the underlying message is there is hope if we are willing to do the work.