Sunday, March 22, 2009

Why Frum's Straying Off The Reservation Matters

As you may know, I have been trying to fight my own little push back against so-called conservative Republican David Frum. Yes, it is a lot of inside stuff to a lot of people. But it is important to see why when people who are conservatives stray and get the loving from the Beautiful People, it is not a good thing for conservatism and or the Republican party.
Over at The Other McCain, Robert Stacy McCain has been "fisking" David Brooks for claiming to be a conservative. And, he is spot on about that. Mr. Brooks is not and has not been a conservative for a long time. But I have wondered why he has not joined the resistance to Mr. Frum.
In this post, he makes some salient points about Mr. Frum. At least over at the New Majority, there are some good conservative writers. And a lot of wusses. But, that and some history that Mr. McCain and Mr. Frum may have I think is clouding the judgement.
Here is why.
Mr. Frum made a very public break from his relationship with National Review magazine. It was not just to start the New Majority, but to imply that National Review is not that important in conservative thought any longer. That is very, very wrong. It is as important as is The Weekly Standard and The American Spectator. And while I do not think much about The American Conservative, for them I have the broken clock theory. Twice a day, a broken clock is right. So, Mr. Frum could have left National Review on good terms and added to the debate among conservatives. But, he had a pettiness about him. And aura of superiority.
For the record, as much as Mr. Frum has made me mad, I do think that the New Majority has some good writing and good writers. I do read a lot of it and even will link to an article that I think is worth reading.
Back to Mr. Frum.
Upon the launch of the New Majority website, he used it to bludgeon Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh?!
Well, he did not like that Mr. Limbaugh was the keynote speaker at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual confab in Washington, D. C. . And he did not just bludgeon him using his website. Mr. Frum used one of the pinnacles of the Dinosaur, Drive-By, Mainstream, Obama-Worshiping Media outlets-Newsweek magazine. And the honor that Newsweek gave Mr. Frum was his bash of Rush the front page photo and the main story.
OK, do you want more?
Here is more.
Mr. Frum was an early supporter and advisor to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. It is not a secret that Mayor Rudy was the most liberal Republican to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. And, the much ballyhooed campaign pretty much made a big, fat THUD! Mayor Rudy, who garnered a lot of conservative supporters did not even make any kind of last stand in Florida. A stand that he promised supporters he would make.
A lot of the reason that Mr. Frum supported Mayor Rudy is why a lot of people, your humble blogger included, California's current governor, Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger. To gain the support of people in the middle. And, as Mr. Frum himself would argue, the kind of people who live in Connecticut in the upper-class suburbs and the like.
What does not seem to get through to Mr. Frum and those that think like him is that they are not the loyalist of supporters. They basically stick their finger in their mouth, for moistness, take it out, stick it up to the wind and follow where the wind is blowing. And for them, sometimes it is with conservatives and the Republicans and sometimes it is not. Many of these people voted for President Obama. And maybe, just maybe they will vote Republican again.
And for Mr. Frum, he would just like the so-called culture wars to go away. Just do not need to talk about same-sex marriage. The decline of traditional marriage. Abortion. Anything that most people find difficult to talk about without the veins popping out of their neck.
But, Mr. Frum, here is a news flash. They are not going away anytime soon. If ever in our lifetimes. They are but a few social issues. Criminal justice is another. It used to be the social issue for conservatives. Another is protecting the borders of the United States. And, people like Mr. Frum's stand on how to do that and grant outright amnesty to 12,000,000 to 24,000,000 of those here illegally. These all count as social issues. And no conservative should be afraid to talk about them among each other and the Beautiful People.
I look to my displeasure with Mr. Frum and those like him as an intervention. I really think that he is a conservative. Fine, he does not need to address the pesky social issues. But some of us do and will. I do not like the fact that this family feud is out there for all to see. But it is and we need to get this resolved now.
The real enemy is President Obama, his administration and the current Democrat party.
It is why we need the kind of person like David Frum on the reservation. We need some one to spend the valuable time of the New Majority pointing out the wrongs of the other side.
I want Mr. Frum to come back and we can work together to bring in people to the conservative Republican cause.
But until then, Mr. Frum will be pointed out for doing our cause wrong.

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