Conservative columnist David Brooks follows July 4’s “Mother of All No-Brainers” epistle—which former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson considers a watershed moment in reversing the tide of conservative intransigence—with an even tougher column today.

Brooks saves his hardest hits for the “Beltway Bandits,” the interest groups that are most adept at frightening old people and scaring up lucrative lobbying contracts for themselves. Foremost among these, Brooks points to no-tax pledge author Grover Norquist.

Brooks:

“Norquist is the Zelig of Republican catastrophe. His method is always the same. He enforces rigid ultimatums that make governance, or even thinking, impossible.”

He pivots to land a few shots on the chins of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, radio shock jocks and the perma-campaigning class as well. Then, in one of the most thunderous denouements of Brooks’ careers, he goes in for the kill.

“All of these groups share the same mentality. They do not see politics as the art of the possible. … They believe that if they can remain pure in their faith then someday their party will win a total and permanent victory over its foes. They believe they are Gods of the New Dawn.”