Maybe that's what he meant, but it would have been nice if he was more specific in his later comment. And as you said those are all rather vague goals and to pretend that Democrats aren't interested in those qualities and Republicans are is utterly absurd, if that's what he was getting at. Certainly honesty and reliability have not been GOP hallmarks, and they're now tearing down the ability of poor people to achieve the good health he praises. Brooks can have some good points sometimes, but he also seems to go out of his way to justify maintaining his "a pox on both your houses" attitude, even when it requires some disingenuous arguments.
David Brooks can eat a million dicks. He's another bullshitter about bourgeois values. The guy has the audacity to write a book called The Road to Character at the same time that he starts nailing his research assistant despite already being married.