Institutionalize the Institutionists

In my more reductionist moments, this is how I think about the difference between Democrats/liberals/progressives and Republicans/conservatives/libertarians:

Democrats: fundamentally believe that the world was once bad, but can be made better because people are fundamentally good.

Republicans: fundamentally beleive that the world was once perfect, and we must continually fight against its inevitable dissolution because people (except themselves and their friends) are fundamentally bad.

But Brooks is out with another, maddening argument: that it's individualists (meaning, in this context, people who look out for themselves and believe they are better than the system) vs. institutionists (those who take their proper position in society and like it). I really hate being preached to by the penny loafer set, but think this merits some discussion.

JEK
Not a cog, to the benefit of himself and his apparatus