Politics | bailout DC's Moods: Excitement, Audacity, Anxiety Brooks sees three themes in the capital By Gabriel Winant Posted Dec 12, 2008 8:43 AM CST Copied Solar-powered homes built and designed by colleges and universities at the "Powered by the Sun 2007 Solar Decathlon" on the National Mall in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson) David Brooks "has been working tirelessly to understand the spirit of the American capital," and he lays out three main themes in the New York Times: This isn't so much a transition as a "season of rebirth.” The impending inauguration feels like an "ancient tribal rite—the purging of sin, the elevation of the pure, the moral regeneration of the nation’s soul." Maybe they’ll sacrifice a goat. “Second, there is a feeling of audacity sweeping the ruling circles.” America’s powerful treat $300 billion as they once did $3 billion. Health care and energy reform, once giant obstacles, are now mere "subplots" folded in to the economic stimulus. “And this leads, sad to say, to the third layer of emotion: anxiety.” No really knows if the premises of such dramatic action are sound, and perhaps “some unholiness is being unwittingly and rashly created.” Read These Next Mid That 'buy now, pay later' loan may soon hit your credit score. Actor Sam Rockwell gets residuals from movie he wasn't in. The Bezos-Sanchez wedding: guest list, cost, the dress, and more. Report an error