Putting it in historical perspective

David Brooks: The conflict we see across the country today is not about race. We have revived an old and deep division between populist and progressive traditions. Unfortunately, in my view, these are not the best terms to use, but the populist tradition go back to Jefferson and the agrarian tradition, Jackson who fought the Bank of United States, rural populism in the late 19th century which opposed monopoly. These people were hard-working, ordinary Americans, and sometimes they were rude: "Farmers ought to raise less corn and more hell! The progressive tradition, in this view, goes back to Hamilton who favored federal power over state's rights and included presumably the New Deal and Great Society, although Brooks does not lay out its lineage fully.

He may be on the right track here, but his idea needs work.