Like I said

Via today's Morning Jolt newsletter I find that Robert McCain is on the same page in regard to David Brooks (see my posts from yesterday):

"And here is why you’re a sap, Brooks: You looked at the long era of Republican ascendance (1981-2006) and decided that the cause of GOP policy failure was that Republicans were too conservative. Ergo, you reasoned, some sort of “moderate” bipartisan compromise was the solution. But the failures of the GOP are due to other reasons entirely — including the constant stream of disinformation flowing from the media — and so the bipartisan compromise approach you recommend only leads to Democrat victories."
http://theothermccain.com/2011/09/20/nyt-editor-we-wanted-to-believe/

I wouldn't single out the media, but the rest is spot on if "ascendance" is noted as a relative term.