PBS: In their first post-election Friday analysis, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the factors that may have contributed to Donald Trump's dramatic upset, including an American desperation for change.



Brooks said he is in "strange emotional territory" over a Trump victory and is trying to feel for the Trump voter. He said they wanted some sense of dignity.



"I’m sort of finding myself in a strange emotional territory, if I could lie on the couch here," Brooks said. "On the one hand, Trump appalls me. I won’t be shy about that."



"I think they also wanted some sense of dignity, some sense of being heard," Brooks said. "I mean, in some sense, there is something noble, in that people that was people who felt marginalized, working-class voters, A, taking over their party from basically what had been a corporate party, and then asserting their will on the country, against groups of people who were more privileged than they are, both on the left and the right."



Brooks, trying to understand the Trump voter, said people are willing to tolerate "a lot of bigotry" if you say you're going to change things.



"I think the voters who voted for him certainly are willing to tolerate a lot of ugliness, but maybe, if you’re in desperate circumstances, or you think the country is deeply in trouble, you’re willing to tolerate that without necessarily liking it," he said.



Brooks said there is "clearly a racial element" for some Trump voters, but acknowledged it is not a "dominant element" for most who voted for the Republican.



"I don’t have a machine to peer into the souls of the voters," Brooks admitted. "So I don’t know how much of the racial element was dominant, how much was there, something they tolerated, something they endorsed."



"Clearly, for some people, it was a large element," Brooks observed. "I do not believe, having spent these last many months interviewing Trump voters, that it’s a dominant element in at least a lot of the people I spoke to. They had good reason, as Mark just elucidated, for why they were really upset with the course of the country."



Brooks also warned his fellow "college-enlightened," "educated, enlightened" people not to look down at Trump voters as "those primitive hordes."



"Their culture, their life economically, socially, families breaking apart, drug use, it’s going downhill. And I think the two things — one, we don’t want to turn this into a children of light, children of darkness, where us college-enlightened people, educated, enlightened people are looking down at those primitive hordes. We do not want that," Brooks said.



However, Brooks said rapidly increasing technology has made life good for "people who are good at using words," but not so great for "people who are not good at using words."



"Condescension is what fueled this thing in the first place," Brooks said. "And so I don’t think we want that."



"We have had populist movements that often, often, often have this ugly racial element," he said. "But, often, there are warning signs of some deeper social and economic problem. And we have rapidly increasing technology, which is making life very good for people who are good at using words, and not so good for people who are not good at using words."



Brooks took a shot at Trump for putting some of his family on his transition committee.



"I’m obviously outraged Tiffany didn’t get a job. Maybe she will get Fed chairman or something," Brooks joked.



Transcript, via PBS NewsHour:





JUDY WOODRUFF: So, having said that, political earthquake. The earth moved under our feet, David.



How big an earthquake was it?



DAVID BROOKS: Well, it’s certainly the political shock of our lives, at least my lifetime.



It feels like almost the ’60s, sort of like political revolution, cultural revolution, aesthetic revolution, the things that now you can say and get elected president. And so it was all those things.



I’m sort of finding myself in a strange emotional territory, if I could lie on the couch here. On the one hand, Trump appalls me. I won’t be shy about that.



But having — with the elective democratic process having taken its turn, I sort of feel we have to owe some respect to the process and owe some respect to the electorate and the people who voted him, on the assumption that they have something to teach us.



And so all these people are marching in the street. There is all this hostility. I find myself — and I think this was the president’s attitude and frankly Hillary Clinton’s attitude — of respectful pause. Maybe I will be as upset at Trump as I was in another week, but what do they try to teach us? Just try to understand what the situation we’re in is...



DAVID BROOKS: Well, they certainly want change. We know that. They’re fed up with a lot of talk and no change.



On the issues, they preferred her. She got better marks on the economy and foreign policy. But they just didn’t get the sense she was a reformer. So they want some unnamed change.



I think they also wanted some sense of dignity, some sense of being heard. I mean, in some sense, there is something noble, in that people that was people who felt marginalized, working-class voters, A, taking over their party from basically what had been a corporate party, and then asserting their will on the country, against groups of people who were more privileged than they are, both on the left and the right.



And so there is something nice about that. I think Trump is the wrong vehicle for that. But, you know, you’re living in a town, there are no jobs in the town, you know your friends are dying of O.D.-ing on opiates or something, you’re having trouble paying your bills, you’re playing by the rules, and other people are getting benefits without playing by the rules.



Maybe you’re willing to tolerate a lot of bigotry from Donald Trump if you say, just change things, just change things.



And so I don’t — I think the voters who voted for him certainly are willing to tolerate a lot of ugliness, but maybe, if you’re in desperate circumstances, or you think the country is deeply in trouble, you’re willing to tolerate that without necessarily liking it..



DAVID BROOKS: Right. So, there is a racial element here. There is clearly a racial element.



And so I think that I don’t have a machine to peer into the souls of the voters. So I don’t know how much of the racial element was dominant, how much was there, something they tolerated, something they endorsed.



Clearly, for some people, it was a large element. I do not believe, having spent these last many months interviewing Trump voters, that it’s a dominant element in at least a lot of the people I spoke to. They had good reason, as Mark just elucidated, for why they were really upset with the course of the country.



Their culture, their life economically, socially, families breaking apart, drug use, it’s going downhill. And I think the two things — one, we don’t want to turn this into a children of light, children of darkness, where us college-enlightened people, educated, enlightened people are looking down at those primitive hordes. We do not want that.



That’s what — that condescension is what fueled this thing in the first place. And so I don’t think we want that.



Second, through American history, we have had populist movements that often, often, often have this ugly racial element. But, often, there are warning signs of some deeper social and economic problem. And we have rapidly increasing technology, which is making life very good for people who are good at using words, and not so good for people who are not good at using words.



And so the ugliness can sometimes be super ugly, but also a warning sign of something down below...



DAVID BROOKS: I’m obviously outraged Tiffany didn’t get a job. Maybe she will get Fed chairman or something.



I think when — the nomination of Mike Pence is more of a sign that he’s going for conventional Republicans. Until last summer, Pence was a very conventional. He was in the House, well connected with the conventional movement Republicans.



And I assume he will tap, he may be more conventional. I think Donald Trump is going to find it very hard to do the kind of massive change he wants. Obamacare is woven into the fabric of health care. It’s very hard to just rip it out, as he sort of acknowledged with The Wall Street Journal.



The Iran deal, maybe we can withdraw from the deal, but our other partners are not going to withdraw from the deal. When you get down to each of these individual things, deporting people, when you get down to each of the individual things, the barriers to change are massive.



And the simple promises he makes just don’t apply to reality. So he’s got to do some big changes, because what he was voted on. But when you think about how to do it, it would take massive expertise, which his people, believe me, do not have.