Using wit rather than analysis, Brooks compliments his readers on their quirky tastes while ignoring the vast number of Americans, and others, who do not fit his consumer taste class, either because they do not in fact share the values he describes or because they simply don't have the money. and now, a decade later, the description of the laid-back, tolerant wisdom of this "BoBo" class in ascendancy shows up as ephemeral, since we have spent a decade in which the ostentatious rich have led us into crushingly expensive wars, destroyed the financial markets, restored nepotism, and figured out how to feed the working class and rural dwellers a dangerous breed of hater-malarkey in order to grab and keep political control.