the poster boy for CLUELESS.

It's taken a great deal of courage for a person who was the voice of the Republicans for years, to call Trump what he is: a fundamentally destabilizing force that threatens the entire American experiment. Which is what he said.

What's 'clueless' is to dismiss everyone one thought in the past as wrong/clueless as in that status always.

The fear and worry he expressed publically as was stated in OP was special..Brooks could be a sign that other so called "intellectual Republican leaders" will follow him. If that happens, there is a chance (yes, a small chance) that Trump could be forced to resign..

...he is in a well-fortified position. And the people who buy his book or hire him to give talks are in the cowardly "responsible Republican" crowd, not Kremlin Don's base.

extremist views to advance their agenda and grab power, never imagining that anyone expressing such views could be serious about holding the same.

Enter Trump, who told everyone exactly what he was about, and who is now proving that he wasn't simply lying to the racists to get their votes.

Which leaves David Brooks and other enablers clutchung their pearls over what they have enabled.

and often engages in useful and informative dialogue in that context.

He's one of us.

is going to lose its gov't funding. He makes me sick

He's a reasonable conservative, the kind that is virtually extinct now.

I guarantee you that he did not vote for Trump.