Palin, Frum, and the Tea Party
The misunderstandings revolving around Sarah Palin and the Tea Party appear to be ubiquitous. Canada, where I live and write, is no exception to this tarnished rule. Sarah Palin is generally regarded as a hyper-emotional hussy whose message is purely reactive rather than proactive, while the Tea Party is supposedly vitiated by a lowest common denominator of right-wing vehemence, unbecoming religiosity, and a simplistic attitude toward political reality. This is strangely the case among many conservative intellectuals as well. The acclaimed commentator and beltway insider David Frum, a Canadian who makes his home in the U.S. and whose articles frequently appear in the Canadian media, provides one of the most celebrated instances of this dissenting perspective.
Even one of our sanest and most brilliant columnists, Barbara Kay of the (generally conservative) National Post, is highly skeptical of both Palin and the Tea Party’s motives and comportment. In a column for September 29, 2010 (“A Canadian Reverting to Type”), defending Frum who has run afoul of the Republican mainstream, Kay writes that Frum has justifiably objected to “the manner — hostile, inflexible, Palinesque … in which conservatism is increasingly expressing itself.” Frum’s call for conversational civility, it appears, stands in marked contrast to the apparent conservative and Republican bombast he associates with presumably strident evangelists like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and, from his point of view, the half-baked and feckless maunderings of Tea Party revivalists and their boosters. Similarly, an article by Thomas Walkom of the (left-wing) Toronto Star for September 25 takes it for granted, in the course of an otherwise respectable argument, that the Tea Party is “ultra-right, anti-immigrant, anti-government.” This sort of misconstruction has become standard fare by now, the Canadian legacy press aping the current memes and tropes of the American liberal-left media.
A good example of the American template is furnished by the Izvestian Frank Rich who, in a New York Times op-ed for March 27, 2010, notoriously referred to the “mob” which opposes Obama’s health care program as enacting “its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht” and branded the “Tea Party-Glenn Beck base” as “extremist”— as if the views he ventilates were not “extremist.” Although no one of any reputable standing takes Frank Rich seriously any longer, readers may be susceptible to the marginally more sophisticated Tom Friedman. In an op-ed in the New York Times for September 28, Friedman denigrates the Tea Party as “all steam and no kettle” which “can’t have a positive impact on the country” because it has not generated specific plans for debt reduction and productive growth.
On the face of it, this assessment sounds far more reasonable than Rich’s trademark ranting. But the Tea Party is not a registered political party, like the Democrats or the Republicans, and does not speak in the voice of a supervening committee with the authority to formulate policy. Further, it is still in its infancy and Friedman wants the toddler to get its driver’s license, its credit card, its college degree, and all its grown-up credentials while it is still learning to walk. This is a clever form of disparagement. One would expect no less from an untimely, self-inflated pundit who is prepared to quash the butterfly before it has emerged from the chrysalis.
Let’s consider the assorted actors featured in the current drama of redemption and damnation.
Ideally, David Frum may be right about the importance of civil discourse in contemporary political exchange — I have made similar arguments — but, on reflection, this may not be the time for gentlemanly palaver. It is extremely doubtful that one could reach consensus with Obama and his satellites, with Olbermann, Matthews, Schultz, and the lot, with MoveOn.org, with Counterpunch, with the Daily Kos, with ACORN, with the ACLU, with the SEIU, with Code Pink, with the vast tribe of neo-Marxist academic colporteurs busily canvassing their university clients (aka students), with Soros, with the Tides Foundation, and with innumerable other like-minded individuals and organizations. Indeed, it is totally implausible to infer communicative accord with the left in general where the levels of animadversion, pure hatred, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, reverse racism, sheer vulgarity, character assassination, tractarian defamation, downright lying, all the worst human traits, eclipse by parsecs anything one hears on the conservative side.
To my mind, Frum is tooling about in another galaxy; yet, oddly enough, his mugging of Sarah Palin in a series of newspaper articles belies his own recommendation. According to Frum, Palin is “rambling, angry, and self-pitying.” She self-immolated in the 2008 elections and is guilty of “dereliction of duty.” After having once dismissed her as a “neophyte” — what, one wonders, does that make Obama who, unlike Palin, had no governing experience whatsoever when he came to power? — Frum goes on to suggest that there is a “sexual dynamic at work” in the enthusiasm for Palin among a contingent of conservative men. What other reason, after all, could explain such advocacy? Palin is hot and conservative males are randy. “Whatever impulse it is that so excites Palin supporters,” he opines, “it is not shared by their wives.” Frum’s drearily incessant diatribes steer perilously close to unwholesome obsession, so much so that there seems to be something distinctly “Freudian” about his imagined relationship to the poor woman. It is as if, pace Frum, there were a “sexual dynamic at work” here too. Certainly, when it comes to Sarah Palin, he has not availed himself of the temperate address he solemnly urges upon others.
Furthermore, his criticism of Republican mugwumps like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh seems somewhat misplaced. He does not appear to understand the gravity of the current electoral situation or to realize, as does Lee Harris in his new book The Next American Civil War, that a kind of civil war is indeed brewing, that Thomas Paine is once again the go-to political thinker and Henry David Thoreau the literary source for principled resistance, and that a war is not a debate in which one can serenely abide by Robert’s Rules of Order. Nor does he seem to realize, as I’ve indicated, that Democratic invective rises to a crescendo that outstrips anything we find on the right and so demands, at minimum, to be robustly parried. True, Limbaugh has called Obama an “economic illiterate” and a “jackass” while Oliver Stone maligns Sarah Palin as a “moron” and implies that the suffragettes were “crazy stuff.” But if one studies the plethora of sites, interviews, and outlets on the right and the left, one quickly discovers there is no parity of execration. In the tournament of competing expletives, the left wins hands down.
Frum is way too nuanced about the battle for America’s soul that is playing out before our very eyes. He may ride a bicycle to the Washington Mall — a nice little touch — but he would be far more useful, metaphorically speaking, doing yeoman service in a tank. Frum, I suspect, was always a PRINO, a Prospective Republican in Name Only. It’s consoling to note that Frum seems to be wrong about most things. He predicted that the economy will have improved by this November and that the advantages of Obama’s health care legislation will have become evident by then. He predicted that Sarah Palin’s career “seems headed nowhere positive” with her approval ratings in free fall. Perhaps we should take a cue from Lewis Carroll and “shun the frumious Bandersnatch.”
First they ignore you
Then they insult you
Then they lie about you
Then you get elected.
What most people assume is that all these ‘events’ are important and somehow significant, even life and death, questions of responsibility and commitment. These are the ‘pits, holes, knots, mazes, conundrums, etc.’ to which we are obligated, or so some would like you to believe. Yet when therapeutically examined, these ‘necessary things’ are our own creation and generally not positive or beneficial to anyone except those people who stand to benefit financially or otherwise. On the contrary, there seems to be some perversity operating. In the face of some semblance of stability, tea baggers create the conflict that dogs them. When presented with the idea that they don’t necessarily have to suffer, they scoff and protest…”life is suffering and constant battle against the forces of evil.” “Okay,” I respond, “but let’s agree that that is your view and your choice, not an external reality.”
Tea baggers and other easily manipulated tools respond to all this as if there was no other choice. Whenever they feel that there are no alternatives in their self-made stressful situation, they feel doubly trapped…trapped by circumstances and by their lack of options. This is when the ‘normal’ neurotic among them go into more significant psychological dysfunction. A sub-diagnosis of this process is that by attending to the constant chaos of earning a living and the occasional crisis of life’s tragedies, they avoid the real issues. That is, the existential conflicts that haunt us all, the things that are really buggin’ us. And while it’s good for us to understand these people who have different values, stepping into the rotted pork stew of their lives gives us more grist for our philosophic mill. The Nazi numbskulls that tag along at their “parties” play their parts well. My only salient reaction is; What the hell do you see in them that probably isn’t there?” They live with the pain of their choices. And that’s why they stigmatize those around them, the “other”, in refutation of the fact that they are having to live with the choices they have made.
Drug or alcohol enhanced paranoia is a part of the diagnostic paradigm. I am always fascinated how isolated we become after our teenage years. What happens is a process of faulty thinking being confirmed because we either don’t present our ideas to a critical public, or we reject any criticism, as is the same problem that continually dogs the tea baggers. Rather they hold these half-baked “ideas” to the little rodent of their psyches which runs the Mobius wheel of their egos. One of the most common statements mentioned by neighbors after they pull the bullet riddled body of the sniper from the top of the water tower, “He was a good neighbor, though I never talked to him, he seemed to keep to himself. He kept his lawn mowed. He put a flag out on 4th of July.”
And immediately comes the leftist True Believer to spew his hatred far and wide, therefore perfectly illustrating the author’s point.
Can anyone have a conversation with a man who brands his opponents with obscene homosexual slurs? The sad part is he actually believes himself to be demonstrating his eloquence and wit by so doing. Instead, he demonstrates the opposite. This is my superior? I think not.
I’ll stand with the uncouth peasants, thank you very much.
Filled with that much bile and hatred, people like Carl here usually come down with some sort of cancer or other vile, wasting disease. Eaten alive by their own foul humors; consumed from within.
I suspect that Carl is practicing for his thesis in some “Social science” (Masters, Doctorate ?) in one of the blue state “elite” learning institutions”. e.g. Harvard / Yale /Stanford … some of whose graduates cannot use the national language of the US. adequately sans slogans or prompting. His language is straight out of instructions on how to say what to be sure to get the degree. Repeat the words and ideas of the academics who control the degree tollgate. Not an original thought here but the same old same old. A certainty to “win” the degree and ride the high horse to a significant career.
Did you know that “tea baggers” is a crude homophobic slur? You seem to want to use that phrase a lot.
Were I inclined to do so, I could step into the rotted pork stew of your life and suggest that your strange fascination with a repulsive homophobic slur that you keep using over and over again (like it gives you some sort of thrill!) indicates that you have some deep-seated issues with your own sexual preferences or even gender identity. You might have desires which are simultaneously enticing and frightening to you, and so to avoid the real issues you project your own dark side onto your political opponents, defining them as somehow diseased and inferior. This allows you to distance yourself from the things about you that you don’t like, and by doing so, kick the little rodent of your psyche which runs the Mobius wheel of your large but fragile ego into turbocharged overdrive in a barrage of half-baked pseudopsychological word-salad. Heck, you might even be suffering from drug- or alcohol-enhanced paranoia.
That would, of course, be absurd. I don’t know anything more about you other than what you’ve chosen to reveal in your essay above, and the only firm conclusions I can fairly draw from that are that you don’t like the tea party movement and you think you’ve a clever way with words. (Whether you do or not is a matter of subjective opinion which we’ll just set aside for now.) If I were a professional in the psychology field–I’m not, though my wife is–I would know better than to think I could accurately diagnose mental illness in a large group of people I’ve never properly met, much less assesed, based primarily on my dislike for their politics and perhaps the cultural sub-set they belong to. (They shop at Wal-Mart! Eeeewww!)
As a person making a living in what might be called the persuasion business, I can assure you to within three decimal places that a rude smartass comment like yours might make you feel clever and get you some “attaboys” from like-minded people, but you won’t convince anyone who doesn’t already agree with you, and you’ll repel people you might have had a shot at persuading.
I find it hard to believe that an immediate example is furnished without irony. Are you really serious or is this a parody ? If not, you have some serious problems, sir.
alas Carl, your usage of the “teabagger’ pejorative leads one to believe you have had a scrotum in your mouth one time too many. I guess that explains your bile and venom.
Hey, Carl I have a major insight for you. If you are so dismissive as to refer to the people in the Tea Party as “Tea-Baggers”, I suggest you do it somewhere else since I don’t read a word of anyones posting after I detect that word and you are wasting bandwidth. I suspect that many others would agree.
I’m amused by what the leftist/jihadist convergence considers to be an insult:
“ultra-right, anti-immigrant, anti-government.”
That’s what I call a badge of honor and a recipe for national survival.
“There is another factor at work in the demonizing of Sarah among people who should know better.”
SUCH AS YOURSELF?
This ridiculous article spends 90% of its time with insults (by others) about Palin, and misrepresentations about that reasonable (RINOs can seem reasonable…to the Democrats) Frum chap.
What is this tripe doing on PJM?!?
What is this tripe doing on PJM?!?
Are you referring to yourself, Ms Anonymous? Your contribution to this debate is zero. Solway is brilliant. I would put him up against any intellectual from the sinister side.
Hey, I like anonymous. He/she posts some good comments here. So cut him/her some slack.
Anonymous is a bonehead who obviously does not understand the article above. His/her unwillingness to sign a real name is interesting although at least most who do so here are creative enough to think of good nom-de-plumes.
Anonymous, Thanks hit that nail right where it needed to be hit.
Re Anonymous and Lawrence in New York: as usual, mere, negative assertions, with no documentation whatsoever.
Typical elitists: they’re apparently so open minded, their brains have fallen out. I’m altogether fed up with such whining ignoramuses and hypocrites.
Anonymous, the truth really bites, doesn’t it? David Solway is one of the most clear-headed, rational, and brilliant writers and it is a privilege to read his articles on Pajamas Media. Please get your head out of the sand and realize that we are in a fight for the survival of the United States of America. There are two choices on November 2: Vote for the continuance of our constitutional republic, with the goals of restoring our founding principles of limited government and FREEDOM; or vote to allow the country to devolve into socialism/communism. There are two weeks left before the election. You might want to use that time to read the histories of socialist/communist countries of the 20th century: Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, communist China, Cambodia, Uganda, Cuba, and various countries of South America, including Venezuela (where, by the way, there are no eggs because there are no chickens, no other meat, and the grocery store shelves are sparsely stocked). Pay special attention as you read to the almost 200 million people who lost their lives because of these evil governments. Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried. We’re seeing it fail in Europe right now before our very eyes. Why would any reasonable, sane, and intelligent person want to go down that road of poverty, misery, and death?
Frank Rich is right in a roundabout way. Go back 85 years to Weimar Germany and you’ll find people exactly like Frank Rich hacking away at German culture, religion, traditions, and history. After sitting on the sidelines and building up resentment to a boiling-point, the whole thing exploded among the German people in slow motion, from 1933 until Kristalnacht (and subsequent history). Our own Leftists are gonna find out that history repeats itself because (contrary to Leftist fantasy) Human Nature exists, and it does not change.
Relevant to your post:
This short take from Leonard Peikoff’s sobering work speaks directly to our present circumstances. For decades now, as Peikoff has said, we have been told by the intellectual elite that “man cannot live by principles, that reason is no guide to action, and that anything goes”.
We are witness now to that worldview in action as demonstrated by the filth currently infesting the highest offices in the land. We have seen the fruits of ‘values-neutral’ upbringing in children who murder without remorse. And, as ever, we have statist vultures hovering over the corpse of the nation ready to step in and claim their due.
Well, folks, it’s late in the day and the killers have taken over – it’s no longer a question of whether they will or not. The abrogation of the rule of law and the destruction of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution have proceeded apace for years now – and with no signs of slowing down, much less reversal. It is significant that mere mention of the founding documents of this nation is now sufficient to brand you as a dangerous ‘extremist’. Now is the time for those us who have not done so to consider where your ‘line in the sand’ is drawn. When will you stand up and say ‘no’ to the next intrusion into your lives? When will you resist those who have arrogated to themselves the right to determine the terms of your existence? When will you refuse to sacrifice your lives and your children’s lives to the statist monsters who claim them as ‘assets’?
We’re out of time…
Your last two paragraphs say it all. We are out of time. Bravo on a wonderful synopsis.
90% Is a rather high estimation; What Solway seems to be doing is acknowledging Palin’s detractors and then promptly showing them to be baseless.
Which reveals, in glorious Technicolor, the panicky paralysis among the mouthpieces of the Left. Every slander, every slur, hurled at Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement, or resurgent American conservatism causes it to swell and grow stronger.
The “stupid or evil” motif the Left has used for so long now works to the Right’s advantage. Voters in the unaligned middle band, generally credited with the determining power in our elections, are more repelled by it than by any other gambit in the political playbook…yet the Left appears to have nothing else in its arsenal.
Two weeks more, friends. Keep the pressure on, and be vigilant!
Voting to throw the bums out, if successful, is the first step only.
Unless electing principled persons, not mere opportunists who see their chance in the disarray of the political parties, your vote will have little effect in “taking the nation back”. Back to its birthright and promise in the founding documents. Promise magnificently fulfilled.
Until the “liberal/democrat / leftist / progressive /statist” predators saw this fat, healthy, robust, energetic and creative people as their meal ticket. Seduced Americans to believe the waste material and poison from other failed governments disguised as “fairness, equality and compassion “.. was for the “good of the people”.(a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down?)
The principle of “business as usual” in the government, local, state and federal must be “Changed”. That requires self-governing which takes time, energy, committment and continual knowledge as to what your “representatives” are doing in your name. Successful self-governing, as we have learned to our shame and peril, requires ETERNAL VIGILANCE.
One codicil: Refuse to elect reprehensible characters because they have a pretty face, a resonant voice, tell you what you want to hear but not the truth, and are amusing. A person’s character in his private affairs is signal to his behaviour in public. Nobody’s perfect but such characters add to the problems of a self-governing people. Why would, why have, Americans elected people of proven self-indulgent, uncontrolled and dishonest behaviours to take the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the USA, when they have a life history of adhering to oaths only when expedient.
Wonderful, and damning, writing. The choice of words delighted me.
We are already engaged in a Civil War… a Cold Civil War. We must win this, or it will become a Hot Civil War.
We are not slaves, wont to contentedly don our yokes. This the Alinsky-ites cannot grasp. This is not the Old World. There is an instinctive revulsion to those who would be the New Aristocrats. Ours is an egalitarian society. We do not embrace masters.
Oh, we have those amongst us who embrace the siren song of socialist Utopia. There is a growing number of people who are simply weak-spirited or mean-spirited. The rugged individual seems to be a scarce breed. Or did. The tea Party is revealing that they yet exist, and in substantial numbers.
Those individualists have risen to do battle with the Collectivists. We shall do it at the ballot box, but for that to be effective, we have to make it clear that we ARE willing to reach for the ammo box. These tyrant wannabes only respect force.
We have police and armies, because there are always those who will only respond to ultimate force. These are necessary evils. In the political arena, it is necessary as well. We are approaching the decision point.
We either call this evil for what it is, as the writer has done ever so eloquently, or it will only grow stronger and hungrier. As Reagan brought down the Soviet Union by declaring it an “Evil Empire” and built up to fight it, we must do the same to these new Soviets.
Call it evil. Prepare to fight. Keep your powder dry.
so true. I have English friends that tell me they are dyed in the wool capitalists, and in nearly the same sentence tell me about their wonderful entitlements, which make their lives so much better than what you poor Americans have…
I really think that we have to argue the entitlements out, even though it is going to hurt…the problem is the crooked people out there that twist things into their favor…
And how many of your acquaintances in GB / Europe are anti-American?
Do they know, do they care, their entitlements have been made possible ONLY because Americans’ defense, military and diplomatic, of the Western ethos. At great cost in treasury and blood, against socialist/communist threat/promise to take over the world. Whether or not the world wants to be taken over.
Since the Western nations of World War II agreed, FDRoosevelt the driving force, to demands of the erstwhile ally Joseph Stalin to”give” the territories and peoples of Eastern Europe and Germany to his prison state. Since when he and his Union of Soviet Socialist “Republics” have engineered ever more takeover of nations, covertly and overtly. And in so doing depriving their own populations of the easy, comfortable lives enjoyed by the Europeans with their “entitlements”.
The money spent by Americans and therefore not necessary from the British and Europeans could be and was spent for those vaunted “entitlements”. This is not news, nor a specilist reading of the facts since 1945.
Defense also made possible, even given the courage and resolution of the British, against that earlier “socialist” threat Nazi Germany , by the consistent and generous aid from the Americans.
re; the “Siren song of socialism” – the problem is, this has been a creeping move towards the abyss, spanning 50+ years. There is, unfortunately, a segment of the liberal left who see the abyss perfectly well, and WANT us to plunge into it. There are others though….I believe the majority…who view what’s going on today as just a few additional incremental steps. These are people who at some level still do subscribe to founding principals, but bought into the idea that “we can make improvements around the margins”. They don’t realize that we’re about to cross the line…a step that may be irreversible. These are the people we have to bring to their senses, before it’s too late.
Joey Plugs has read a book-”101 Combovers”.
One does not think Frum and his ilk are of such consequence. They mainly talk to themselves, and one need not listen. The status quo, and the elitists who benefit from it, are threatened. Despite what they might call themselves, they are one in the same when it comes to power constructs.
“Credentialist” is a new usage that seems to fit them. It is an efficient screening method that ensures only the “right” people get in. Practitioners belong to a self-defined cultural elite that rarely demands talent, skill or ability as qualifications for membership, merely the right schools, the right degree (or number of them) or right honorifics.
Bumpkin Shakespeare would be sneered at.
But that wouldn’t (and didn’t) stop him. He paid his dues, worked hard, and made his place for himself despite University Wits, Puritans and the black plague.
Compared to that, David Frum, Ed Shultz, et al, are autumn leaves.
Everything you say is true but…
As tedious as it seems, it is important to talk to those who do not yet understand and deal with their perceptions. Once the first stage of the revolution is accomplished with the mid-terms, it will be necessary to start crafting responses that an overwhelming majority of Americans support and that means those on the fence and on the near left. A bloodless revolution requires consensus and that requires debate, discussion, argument, reasoning, candour and facts.
Concerned citizens in districts that have Democrat representatives must take their own polls of critical issues. Those represented by RINOS must do the same. The elected must be politely but forcibly made aware what positions their constituents want them to take.
Does anybody in the United States actually listen to David Frum? If so, and if his views are so popular, then I guess he could sell over 1,000,000 books, right? Hmmmm, he didn’t do that, not by a long shot. Now there’s Sarah Palin. Hated by Canadians and Europeans alike (as if there’s much of a difference), you’d think that with all these people hating her, along with all the powerful elites in this country not to mention just about everyone in the mainstream media, Sarah Palin would not be able to sell a single book. Wrong. She’s sold well over one million books and is still going strong. Newsflash to the main stream media: People actually LIKE Sarah Palin, just like they liked Ronald Reagan (who was hated by the main stream media just as much). She can make or break Republican candidates in some states and she’s one of the most sought after speakers in the country. Not bad for someone who’s considered to be an “idiot” by the press, Canadians, Europeans, and Saturday Night Live.
The elites like Frum just don’t get why Palin is so popular with the regular folks in this country. Her honesty and plain speaking is valued much more than the drivel dished out by RINOS like Frum. So deal with it, elites. The Tea Parties are here to stay and, on November 2nd, you’ll see just how powerful these “idiots” can be. I hope the elites and the mainstream media choke on it.
I’m just a country bumpkin who never heard of Frum. Possibly because I have trouble listening to liberals. Their overall idiocy baffles and frustrates me. Their inability to see the advantages of freedom and liberty and their apparent desire to tell others what they must do and think disgusts me and infuriates me to the point if I listen or read for to long it would be bad for my blood pressure. I enjoy listening to Glenn Beck although I am an atheist, I enjoy listening to Rush Limbaugh although he is bombastic, I enjoy listening to Fred Thompson for his down home conversational manner. I enjoy reading Thomas Sowell, Debra Saunders, Michelle Malkin, David Limbaugh et al, for all of their respect for others as human beings. I get so tired of those on the left with their strident ranting about us as though we (the regular citizens of the U.S.) were less than children, not smart enough to know our own good.
Not all Canadians despise Sarah Palin, far from it. We have the same “elitist” structure in government and media, so you hear the same catcalls, but many of the common people (I include myself) think that Sarah may quite possibly, and deservedly so, be the next president. Fortunately there seem to be quite a few other good prospects (Christie from N.J. among them).
Frum has gone from questionable to “ignore” in my books.
As long as the Tea Party mentality continues to drive the political scene, I think the USA in on the rebound.
libertyship66, I’m not sure where you get the idea that Canadians hate Sarah Palin but I think it is a bit of a hasty (over-)generalization. Yes, the mainstream media here is scornful of her, much like the US mainstream media, but the Canadian MSN doesn’t speak for all Canadians any more than the US MSM speaks for all Americans. While there are plenty of people here who parrot back what the MSM says – just as in the US – some of us like to think for ourselves and not just assume the MSM knows best.
I’m sure there are even Europeans that think for themselves.
Please don’t tar us all with the same brush of being unthinking morons.
Hey, this is one Canuck who definitely does not hate Sarah Palin. In fact I would vote for her in a second. In the end, it is all about character and integrity. Ivy league degrees and affirmative action are no guarantee of leadership.
DD
I too am mystified by Frum. He’s not conservative and wrong about almost everything (only surpassed by James Fallows). Who other than leftist media types consider him a spokeman for the right?
Like David Solway, this Canadian has a very high regard for Sarah Palin. I bought and read her book.
David Frum is the scion of one of the big-wig journalists of the government-paid-for, as-far-left-as-it-can-be, Palin-hating CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). His mother was Barbara Frum, as well known in Canada as Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite in the States.
I used to like David Frum. He’s now crossed over the political divide and I don’t trust his judgement at all. In fact, I now consider him a traitor to the cause. “‘Afraid of missing out on the elite cocktail parties, David?”
Whoops, I forgot to identify myself. That’s me, above.
Certain selfish people are just upset with and vocal about seeing their comfy little paradigm smashed by a healthy resurgence of Classical Liberalism.
They carved out a little niche of their own in the cesspool of big government corruption and they see themselves exposed and threatened. Peel back their ‘conservative’ (Ha!) facade and we find surrender monkeys forfeiting America’s future.
Well, Boo Hoo and Goodbye! to the Frums and Brooks’ of the world. The enablers of statism are not my friend.
David, you don’t know the half of it.
Small businessmen throughout our country are hanging on by a thumbnail and Big government could care less. Every thing they do is to mollify or add to their base. None of the legislation is designed to actually help our country.
Businesses and families throughout the US have gone through their cash, at times through their 401K’s and are seeing their businesses do half or less since 2006. Many of us have nowhere to go if we continue on this slide or are looking at a no growth future.
The leftists in our government have pushed us so far that we now have no real resources to back up any hard times. this is why the Tea Party resonates with so many Americans of all political stripes…because we are suffering a common scourge. That of Big Government, endless entitlements that can no longer be paid for.
Frum doesn’t know us, nor does he care. Come to Ohio, to Tennessee, to Arizona and see what we are dealing with. Every family has a son, nephew or niece who has suffered through a foreclosure. We can’t get a loan, nor do we want one. We can’t sell our property because it has devalued. The banks want us to pay our business loans down by 20% or more to get refinanced during a time when our sales are in the tank.
We don’t want anyone to feel sorry for us. On Nov. 2 we will begin to eradicate from our country some of the leaders who have attempted to control our lives and eliminate God from our nation. This is only the beginning. Watch us closely because this movement is going to last a long time. After all, it is for our children, our lives, and our sacred honor.
“There are six things that YHWH hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:16-20)
So, . . . is there some way to tie this verse into the topic—I’ll check back.
This article, I would grade as B+ — the only failing being that, like a wall with too much mortar, there were too few mechanical examples; Joe Biden examples, of course, were only two clicks away, so, . . . but otherwise, yeah, I learned some things; I intend to read Solway’s piece, again—”drain the sweetness from the cup.”; maybe, study it a little, . . .
And, David Frum? He places himself in the public eye, supposing worthy criticism against Ms. Palin—I think, he’s fair game. I believe that, Mr. Frum is “a plant”.
On a certain occasion, W. A. Criswell spoke up at Multnomah School of the Bible, and this he said: “I can listen to a man for five minutes, and tell you every significant thing about him.”. And to apply it, now: if in but a single definition of a left-winger, Frum splays an odor a mile away: beside, earning less money in a life-time, living with less happiness, living not so long and, many other such, a left-winger doesn’t do all that well with a woman, and certainly not, as easily able engage a decent woman in response—partly, because they don’t understand them, but more largely because, the left-winger thinks in terms which—of the controlling algorithm are designed as a paradigm in opposition to women in general, and to what any given woman stands for—and though not now to bridge into all that—I once knew a beautiful woman who, on a particular occasion said: “I’ve never dumped a man—I give ‘em enough rope, and eventually, they hang their self.”. But, just spinning and spinning, Frum simply will not give up—and no doubt, simply because, he cannot. For all of his fulminations—it’s so comical—Sarah Palin is the one who is walking away with the cash, . . . great lots of it, . . . at every turn. Frum just doesn’t apprehend the picture as a whole—and so, by definition he is, . . . a real Nimrod; not often I see one so loud, unpleasant, and wrong, but clever, and dyed in the wool with a lower interpretation of life. And yet, if as I suppose would be of Frum’s mind, all the while, the largest share of The American People are so unutterably stupid because they just can not be make to entertain the opinions of, . . . some one who is unable to see and apprehend what a woman is all about, . . .
But, “Go, Baby, Go!”. Drag the money home in a big sack!; and as says in the Proverbs: “She will not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. Her husband sits in the gates. She buys and sells. She provides herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.” — what! a woman, . . .
And, while Ms. Palin has actually been elected to a position—as sort of nobody from the chattering class—Mr. Frum would have us all to understand how, of his own mind, he knows just ALL about being elected, and just how and in what ways, Ms. Palin is so unworthy and so unelectable—what a guy! What a guy!
Also—as though events were to be generations in mere suggestions—it is characteristic of left-wingers to hope to continue in wishful reliance upon their own predictions.
This is too funny.
What we’re witnessing here is a “Duh” moment for leftist psuedo intellectual wannabees.
Frum, Rich and insufferably shallow aspiring psuedo intellectual of their ilk don’t get it.
In their stunning ignorance, and in their confusion that ensues whenever developing situations don’t conform to their short-sighted expectations and their predictions which are actually just wishful thinking, their view of the forest is blocked by the trees. Nothing new here with those clueless retards.
I’m not even a member of a Tea Party, and even I have come to recognize that the objective of Tea Partiers is NOT to form a third party.
(Pssst, I don’t want to say what their objective is, because one of their dufus critics might read it and take credit, proclaiming that he has just had an epiphany. So we’ll keep it a secret just between you and me, okay?
)
BTW, a related issue is that, in my opinion, the sleaziness of Frum, Rich and their ilk pales in comparison to the sliminess of CNN’s Paul Bagala. Now THAT is one [very] sick freak.
The reality is that the American populace is disgusted by both of the parties and how they care only about their own import and nothing about the people. Yes the Tea Party is a uniquely American reaction to the machinations of our government and that is why no one who hasn’t been raised in the US, no matter how long they have lived here, has any understanding of what is happening. As far as the liberal elites, well they have so deluded themselves that they are the next coming that they can’t handle the fact that the people are basically telling them to go jump off the proverbial bridge. It is not surprising that the leaders of the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party are handling the advent of the Tea Party well. No one gives up their own position of power without a fight and since physical fighting is not accepted here (except if you are a member of the SEIU)the only avenues any of them have in order to hit back is name calling, misogyny and bullying. Interestingly with the nastiness of the political campaign brokered by the democratic elites, bullying in society especially among the young who are targeted by the democrats, has risen exponentially. I wonder if that is the real lesson of this political era, that if you have the “right” politics, meaning lefty, then you can be classless and behave disgustingly …hopefully the American people will teach the bullies a real lesson in November and not back down on their Constitutional rights to defend themselves and throw the bums out…all of the bums.
The line that states Palin would not fit with the Nework cocktail crowd or the Princeton intellectuals is exactly why I like her. I hope she never gives in by remains steadfast with her views and eventually becomes the next Ronald Reagan.
She is far from dumb by any stretch of the imagination.
The short version of all this is twofoldL
“GOP don’t compromise yourself into the dust bin of history”.
and
“Conservatives, stay true to what brought you to the party.”
2010 was the Awakening. 2012 will be the Flexing. 2014 will be the Corrections. 2016 will be the End of The Left.
I’m very glad that Solway is on our side.
Let me put it this way – IF we had a Sarah Palin and a Tea Party in Israel, we would not be witnessing the insane spectacle of another ! deadly peace process.
Those who live in reality understand that common sense ALWAYS trumps elitist mantras.It is this common sense which makes the left engage in fits of spasms, incapable of separating fact from fiction.
To wit,plain speaking truths beats delusional policies any day of the week. Moreover, such sanity-among a sea of the insane and inane-would save MANY lives!
After all, how many ‘sacrifices for peace’ can one nation tolerate? Only leftists and their delusional followers believe/indulge in fantasies.
Hence, the world is witnessing the trashing and smashing of Conservative women,(and men too) and their ‘frightful’ messages, as the left dives for cover.
You want Palin? I’ll tell you what. We’ll trade you Palin for Refaeli AND Gadet.
Brian, sold.
We are awash in bevies of beauties-the sabra, mostly Sephardi ladies are exotic and often gorgeous-that’s hardly our problem.We are seeking solid, common sense, reality based Thinkers, of that we are in desperate need!
The closest we have to a Palin here is Caroline Glick.However, this dynamo is not a politician, but many are working on recruiting/drafting her!She is sadly NOT a dime a dozen.
I doubt Caroline G will ever give up punditry for politics, and I am not at all sure she’d do well in Israeli politics. This is a compliment to her.
I would vote for Caroline Glick for any office she chose. Or I would vote for any POTUS candidate who promised to make Glick Sec. of State.
IF we had a Sarah Palin and a Tea Party in Israel, we would not be witnessing the insane spectacle of another ! deadly peace process.
well ADINA I would say IF SARAH WAS pres of USA we would not be witnessing the insane spectacle of (forcing ) another ! deadly peace process.(on Israel)
…that the Tea Party is “ultra-right, anti-immigrant, anti-government.” This sort of misconstruction has become standard fare by now, the Canadian legacy press aping the current memes and tropes of the American liberal-left media.
That’s a shame. So ignorant, so wrong.
(Frum) does not appear to understand the gravity of the current electoral situation or to realize, as does Lee Harris in his new book The Next American Civil War, that a kind of civil war is indeed brewing, that Thomas Paine is once again the go-to political thinker and Henry David Thoreau the literary source for principled resistance, and that a war is not a debate in which one can serenely abide by Robert’s Rules of Order.
Frum’s loss. (His predictions, as outlined by you, don’t exactly amount to perspicacity)
But if one studies the plethora of sites, interviews, and outlets on the right and the left, one quickly discovers there is no parity of execration. In the tournament of competing expletives, the left wins hands down.
Wow, great phrase.
No, there is no parity of execration. America’s Left is meaner, nastier, more duplicitous. And stupider.
The media contagion goes deep.
It’s really awful in America these days.
If one compares (Palin)— on such criteria as personal integrity, logical consistency, moral authority, strategic insight, and political rectitude — to the other two most conspicuous women in the political theater, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, well, it’s just no contest.
Well, yes. And a lot of other less prominent women in the political theater as well.
Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s sycophant-in-chief, is about as bright and perspicacious as a doorknob. Barbara Boxer, Senator Ma’am, is about 10 neurons short of a functioning brain. Maxine Waters (currently steaming in her own hot water) threatened an oil executive that her all-inclusive Congress would nationalize those money grubbing oil companies, only Maxine was so befuddled she couldn’t exactly remember the word “nationalize”.
Under the de rigueur élitist meme, women of a certain standing (in their own eyes) are required to bash Sarah Palin. It part of the requirement for good standing in the club. Katie Couric is an example. Her alleged “gotcha” moment during the Palin interview was one of her very few bright spots.
Katie’s ship is still sinking at CBS, ratings and such, with good reason.
Reason may yet prevail in America. Don’t give up on us, November 2 would be just a beginning.
We’ve a long way to go.
Frum is not a conservative.
Not only isn’t he a Conservative, but he seems bent on promoting a young homosexual activist, one who is hardcore into NAMBLA-like activities.
Although Frum claims to be conservative, his mother, the late Barbara Frum, was known as a very liberal woman indeed. She worked for the CBC, the Canadian equivalent to the BBC (in other words, a state-owned broadcaster, subsidized to the tune of a billion dollars a year) and rose to be an anchor for many years. I still remember in interview with Paul McCartney, which basically asserted that he was only in it for the money, and I especially remember her sheer joy when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. One of her producers was apparently a daughter of a top ANC official and managed to get an exclusive interview between Mandela and Barbara Frum. Anyone watching that interview would have thought Jesus Himself had come back to earth, not a man who had spent 20-odd years in prison for organizing and promoting violence against his own country. (Just for the record, I was as repulsed by apartheid as anyone else. But I didn’t support the violent revolution then being organized by the ANC and their very close friends the South African Communist Party.)
Now, children don’t always take after their parents and if David Frum insists on calling himself a conservative, that’s his right. It may even be true. But it’s just possible that he was in a rebellious phase and is now reverting to the leftist positions he presumably learned at his mother’s knee.
Frum was a conservative when it seemed the movement was washed up in the wake of the Juan McCain disaster. He was paid to go on TV and explain why this happened and how conservatism could be revived. Now that the water is sucking off the beach as the tsunami builds, he is paid by the left to attack the right. The man’s bread is buttered on both sides.
All very true, David. It hits most salient points and does so, right between the eyes.
It clears the mind of much of the debris placed there by the leftists, but alas, does not slash the Gordian Knot.
By more than miles and miles, leftists have more than distorted the truth. They have obliterated it. It is now nearly unrecognizable. They have done so on every issue of import in this country for over four decades now. (One of your countrymen, the late Peter Jennings, was among the worst offenders. In a moment of candor, (he must have forgotten to lie), he reportedly blurted out that his mother was a virulent anti-American and that her blood coursed through his veins).
Leftism is now also coursing through the veins of the American bloodstream. Like a sepsis, it’s a disease that reaches into all the reaches of the body politic from head to toe.
You see, David, leftism is no longer an argument or debate about the “better way” to accomplish the self-governance of this land of ours. It is a vile, despicable, marauding invader, a Trojan horse virus that seeks destruction.
This is why I am always so careful with the use of words. I love liberals. They are soft-hearted, compassionate, do-gooders. They sing kumbaya and “If I had a hammer” and make smores. They will debate you in good faith and with good intent.
There are no liberals left in the U.S., David. (except for visitors like Frum, who pretend to be something else for some reason). The leftists ate them.
Now, don’t get me wrong. For the most part, I don’t agree with liberals on many issues. They are all book and no binder. Filled with loose pages of theory and rambling hypotheses, but incapable of putting them into practical use most times. They are nurturers by nature and want to “give” as an instinct. What they believe in is the notion that “giving” is noble and asking others to participate is how we act as “our brother’s keeper”.
Leftists don’t ask others to participate. They lie, they cheat, they steal, they rape, pillage and plunder. Leftists don’t debate on the best way to accomplish a goal. They lie about the facts, distort the truth and then say the science is settled. They smear, they slander, they gang rape the information stream.
The attack on Sarah Palin is the same ploy used against virtually EVERY Republican major political figure who was to the right of Bush 41. She is an attractive woman, which puts some weird dynamic into their crypto-Marxist fantasies, but the whole “they” are “stupid, non-nuanced, homophobic, anti-immigrant…and above all RACIST!!!” meme, is no different today than it was when Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan were in prominence.
The Tea Party is not a “thing”. It’s a process. The voices strangled by leftist journalistic malfeasance and leftist slander has given rise to a mass reaction. It is basically the non-cultists in this country standing up in unison and saying “Enough”!
It is anti-leftist. It is the collection of blood cells in our political immune system surrounding the invading disease and trying to eliminate it from the body politic.
Rampant, unchecked leftism is destroying the world, not one country at a time. It is a cult that uses brainwashing techniques and has given birth to its share of sputtering useless idiots. What makes it dangerous, is that when one who APPEARS to be “outside” the influence of the cult, such as Frum, sputters the useful idiocy, it gives it the patina of credibility. That’s the shame of it. We all know that Rich, Schultz, Olbermann, Lawrence O’Donnell and the like are deranged and unhinged. They are not tethered to any form of rational thought.
But it’s the soft idiocy of Frum, Noonan, Brooks,…terrified that they might be turned out by the frothing, seething, raging cocktail Bohemians, from whom they desperately seek approval and absolution.
The Tea Party is the anti-cult, David. It seeks to stop the lies and the brainwashing. For the first time in forty years.
That was spot on! You said that better than the author of this piece. I just hope we have enough resistance to over come the infection.
(the Tea Party) is anti-leftist. It is the collection of blood cells in our political immune system surrounding the invading disease and trying to eliminate it from the body politic.
The immune system analogy is great.
But it’s the soft idiocy of Frum, Noonan, Brooks,…terrified that they might be turned out by the frothing, seething, raging cocktail Bohemians, from whom they desperately seek approval and absolution.
Soft idiocy (I would add names like Colin Powell) is more destructive than the frothing idiocy of a Keith Olbermann or the rantings of a Joe Klein.
Soft idiocy provides the virus just enough oxygen to stay alive in the body politic.
“The Tea Party is the anti-cult, David. It seeks to stop the lies and the brainwashing. For the first time in forty years.”
Mega dittos!
Could this be feeding, seeping, into Frum’s take on things.
From Newsreel: http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/10/17/the-shameless-hypocrisy-of-character-assassin-david-frum-1/
Frum is a decent writer who has made many valuable observations about conservatism in the U.S. However he is also a professional pundit who has been above-the-fray for so long it is safe to assume he doesn’t know where the fray is any more. I strongly doubt if Frum and similarly placed “conservatives” have ever met a rank-and-file Tea Party member in their lives. He is much more comfortable doing the rounds as the token conservative on talk shows and editorial pages where his Canadian-ness (sorry) and remoteness from the day-to-day lives of actual people is a positive asset. He’s the type of conservative the MSM really likes – He’s a liberal.
Conservatives like Frum view Tea Party movement (and Sarah Palin for that matter) the way that the British Conservative Party viewed Mrs. Thatcher in the 1980′s. Despite her popularity and success many (if not most) establishment Conservatives were appalled by her adamantine convictions concerning communism and the restoration of a free market economy in old blighty. The fire-in-the-belly displayed by Mrs. Thatcher was considered in bad taste despite its resonance with the British people. She was also resolutely middle-class and consequently was sneered at by Conservative (and Labour) toffs as a “just a shopkeepers daughter.” Mrs. Thatcher sustained withering fire from the left (and gave as good as she got) with very little support from the upper reaches of the Conservative Party.
Most guys like Frum might give lip service to conservative values but they are far more socially and emotionally comfortable with big-government Democrats. Like the Dems, the RINO element simply loathe the middle class. They view Tea Partiers as unsophisticated, cloddish and provincial and don’t believe that anyone could be serious about issues such as spiraling debt and the over-proliferation of government. The idea of actually fighting on the side of these bumpkins is too much for the Frum’s of the world. That sort of sincerity doesn’t get you invited back on the talk shows.
David Frum was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Besides an impeccably placed, left-wing, media Mom (Barbara Frum, who died over a decade ago), his father is a multi-millionaire, ex-dentist businessman. I doubt that David’s had a moment’s worry about finances in his life. (That’s OK, except for his Marie Antoinette act.)
I’ve actually met him a couple of times, once when he really seemed to be a conservative. He seems a pleasant enough person–but he’s most certainly no conservative now. To paraphrase Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life [for Beltway invitations]?” At least that’s what it seems like to me.
The only thing Frum, and those like him, are concerned about is being invited to all the talking head shows and going to the leftist parties where their egos are stroked for being so forward thinking for a “conservative.”
Leftist are boneheads. Canadian leftists are even bonier-headed. I can’t even go on the Montreal Gazette’s hockey blog, HabsInsideout, without some idiot “journolista” taking a shot at Palin. When all you have is the anti-Palin meme, you got nothing!
Regarding the original article, it has been quite awhile since I read so many words that conveyed so little thought.
How long does it take to tell us that Frum has become a joke? Maybe a jackass in an elephant suit.
Does anyone question why the average American is angry, as we watch the Regime try to turn this country inside out? Has anyone in the Punditry not noticed that even though angry, the Tea Party crowd is remarkably well behaved and civil? That is so American.
Who cares what the elites, insiders, and good ole’ boy/girl networks think of Sarah Palin? She has a wonderful ability to articulate what the heartland feels. She will decide whether to run in 2012. I bet not. She has a great stage as it is; and she uses it magnificently. When the opposition spends so much of its attention on a little Lady from Wasilla, the good guys win and it is a wonderful sight to behold.
The Tea Party will be around on November 3rd too. If the Republican Party does not recognize the Conservative philosophy behind the Tea Party movement, they will fail at their own peril. The Rino’s, elites, and progressives will be drummed out of the Republican party. If they aren’t, then you’ll see a real battle and the emergence of a 3rd Party that will so marginalize the Republican party that it will become irrelevant.
You must live in another country ….. or on another planet.
FYI, there aren’t any Progressives in the Republican Party, and the Tea Partiers sure as hell aren’t going to ever take over or replace or marginalize the Republican Party either. Get real.
“FYI, there aren’t any Progressives in the Republican Party, and the Tea Partiers sure as hell aren’t going to ever take over or replace or marginalize the Republican Party either. Get real.”
It really is amazing we can look at the same situation and have such a differing view. What do you think has been going on with the Tea Parties the last couple of years? I think Roland is right on the money…. the writing is on the wall.
You and Roland are taking a narrow view, and both of you are seeing only what you want to see, instead of looking at the bigger picture and instead of bothering to obtain information that would enable you to see even just some of the many dynamics of this forthcoming midterm election.
Suffice to say, if Republicans had not embraced the Tea Party Movement, the credibility of the Tea Partiers would have been so thoroughly decimated by Obama’s sycophants in the MSM by now that, in another few months, they would be just a fading memory, and Sarah Palin’s 15 minutes of fame wouldn’t be of any more significance than Ross Perots 15 minutes of fame was. Don’t you think that Sarah Palin realized that? Michelle Bachman and Rand Paul did. They have already said so.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that the Tea Party Movement has been wonderful. I’m just not willing to give them more credit than they deserve. The influence of Tea Partiers has gone to their heads. They need to come back down to earth. Otherwise, they are the ones who will be marginalized.
Incidentally, Layne, I’m pleased to see the optimism and enthusiasm that Sarah Palin has instilled in you. But she is not a new phenomena. Ross Perot had that effect on many people,
The reason why Sarah Palin will remain in the spotlight (to the MSM’s chagrin) and the reason why Ross Perot faded into obscrurity is because whereas Palin retained her ethics and a genuine and sincere concern for what is in the best interests of the people of this country, that little weasel, Ross Perot, was such a poor sport and such a sore loser when he lost in the primary that he spitefully, viciously, deliberately, vindictively and [successfully] sabotaged the campaigns of other Republican candidates still running for office, thereby showing that he was a fraud and a narcissistic, little creep, kind of like Lisa Murkowski and Charlie Crist, but much, much, MUCH worse.
…if Republicans had not embraced the Tea Party Movement, the credibility of the Tea Partiers would have been so thoroughly decimated by Obama’s sycophants in the MSM by now that, in another few months, they would be just a fading memory…
I’d say it’s the other way around, that the tea party tsunami has been so huge that old school republicans have been forced to sit up and take notice.
And that the Tea Party helped out the Republican party by acknowledging that making itself a third party would be destructive to its goals and ideals.
Since Sarah Palin is a topic here, look at the hatchet job the entrenched, legacy, Obamatronic, lamestream (take your pick) media did on her and her family. And she’s going rather strong these days.
Look at all the money that is currently going straight to candidates and is not being filtered through and doled out by the Republican machine.
Mike Castle.
Charlie Crist.
Lisa Murkowski.
Some Republicans understand the motivations of the Tea Partiers and, whether from idealism or self-interest, have signed on. Others are outraged that mere citizens should dare to deny Them lifetime positions in goverment. They won’t get it on 3 November 2010, either. But then the song will have different lyrics:
Mike who?
Charlie who?
Lisa who?
We really do see things differently!
Please enlighten me…. since I have the narrow view, you have the big picture and I am only seeing what I want to see. As far as I can tell, we’re all taking our turns at prognosticating.
What I think you’re saying is that the Tea Parties would be a fading memory if it hadn’t been for the Republican Party embracing them…. Do you mean Republicans like Mike Castle, Lisa Murkowski, Bob Bennett, Charlie Crist? Oh, you mean Republicans like Mike Pence, Michele Bachmann, and Jim Demint! Conservatives! (that look to win their re-election bids)
You claim the Tea Partiers need to come back down to earth, otherwise, they will be marginalized… but you also said that there’s no way they’re going to take over the Republican Party, so which is it? Are they a force to be reckoned with or a minor force that could in no way take over the Republican Party?
Olympia Snowe. Susan Collins.
At best, they’re progressivism’s enablers – and that’s being very generous.
“Joe Biden has read a book (well, maybe not),”
Actually he has. And with profit too.
How else could he have plagurized?
When their beliefs don’t pan out their emotions border on the hysterical and “conversational civility” goes by the way as they attempt to squeeze some schadenfreude out of the situation to assuage the pain.
Frum is upset that reality is not conforming to his opinion. Have you no sympathy?
Let’s look at one example. Re “The Tea Party is not ultra-right as its censurers claim… It is not anti-immigrant…[rather the Tea Party ] argues for a rational immigration policy…” True.
So why are they written of as if they are ultra-right and anti-immigrant? I don’t know. But one thing I do know – it won’t ever end. It can’t. The people who write thus aren’t equipped to change their opinions. If they were, they would, just through due diligence – because they are so often wrong.
One reason for their writing thus, I think is this, – If a candidate runs for office any American is free to vote for them as they see fit. Actually, it isn’t anyone’s business. So what makes someone like Frum take a job judging other people’s ideas and preferences? Does Frum speak for the society? Does Frum really think he knows what is best for people? Did anyone ask him? Does anyone care?
One must always be wary of intellectual’s writing, not because of any anti-intellectual bias, but because intellectuals replace descriptions of things with characterizations. And their bread and butter consists of generating characterizations that encapsulate “spin” – either denigrations or praise.
So why is their spin, in these cases, denigrations and not praise? I think some people are politically conservative, and some people are, also, culturally conservative. And many of the people who are politically conservative are not cultural conservative. And I do not mean the “social” issues such as abortion and gay marriage. I am talking about a set of fundamental cultural beliefs that are born of a life wholly and distinctly different from the chattering classes.
The purpose of the many political (only) conservatives has always been to block the cultural conservatives from access to national political power and political office. William Buckley’s expulsion of the Birches and the Ayn Rand groups are a prime example of this. Continuing in this mode are these self appointed Conservative Gatekeepers. Frum is an example of this and Ronald Radosh is another. To a lesser extent is Charles Krauthammer. The Frums of this world would have no objection to a William Buckley advocating a diminished role for the United States in the UN, but should a Sarah Palin, or a Ran Paul, suggest it they would be pilloried as ultra-rightists.
Just like liberals, the intellectual Conservatives descriptions of people are a key to the plans for them. Frum is trying to keep these people out. We want them in. It’s that simple.
So why are they written of as if they are ultra-right and anti-immigrant?
Because if they really were that, the Left wouldn’t be nearly as frightened as they are.
The Tea Parties have the potential to return actual Americanism to the political mainstream in this country. That possibility scares the Left (and many conservatives) absolutely witless.
Another first-rate essay, Mr. Solway; and a joy to read.
While it may be due to the spumous rants of the likes of the Toronto Red Star’s rancid columnist Thomas Walkom and his equivalent numbers at the Globe & Mail that many Torontonians of my acquaintance view the Tea Party as the equivalent of a militia, I suspect that is giving these twerps far more credit than they deserve. The same holds for Frum.
It is much more likely the relentless portrayals of the Tea Party as a fringe group by the televised media that has created this perception in many Canadian minds.
In the same vein, while it may be due to a “directed narrative” that so many televised news stations push this view, I’m thinking that ignorance plays a major role.
The Tea Party, far from being a marginal movement, is a huge, commonsensical and American response to the financial and legislative outrages committed by its government over the last several decades – and most egregiously – over the last 20 months.
For networks, station managers, and publishers to cynically ignore, or worse, to downplay the Tea Party will be to their own detriment as people get their news from more reliable sources.
And the sooner these so-called organs of public opinion realize the importance and financial value of an enormous percentage of the population – a party, if you will – committed “Towards Endorsing America”, (now THERE’S an acronym!) the better their own and the nation’s economic health will be.
Great article, just one quibble:
“What is one to make of Rich Lott in Ohio who rather stupidly, if innocently, re-enacted Nazi SS maneuvers as part of a military history group?”
First of all it’s Iott, not Lott. Secondly, it may be geeky, but historical reenactment is a hobby many people engage in. I live in the district that Rich is trying to win, and the smears on him over historical reenactment are unbelievable. Reenacters cover all various periods in history. They include the Civil War (and Confederate reenacters do not want to bring back slavery), Roman times (and those reenacters don’t want to feed Christians to the lions), and yes, WWII. So sometimes they will dress up as German soldiers and Nazis – but just to gain a better understanding of the time period.
Check out http://www.fortmeigs.org/photos/2009/home/ and go to Muster on the Maumee for some photos of reenacters.
David Frum’s politics are all about what is good for David Frum. At Yale he remained respectable to the dominant leftists by leading the purge of the paleocon Yale Lit, which, unlike Frum, was socially conservative. In the 90s he ran with the Wall Street Journal and the mainstream conservative movement. Like his Yale purge this was also good for his career. In the Bush years he was a leading neoconservative who came up with “axis of evil” and then led a purge of anti-war conservatives and libertarians in a disgusting National Review cover story. At the same time he made a lot of money as the co-author of An End To Evil, with Richard Perle. When the neocons and conservatives fell somewhat out of favour Frum immediately became the left’s darling with an anti-Rush cover story in Time (or Newsweek. I can’t tell them apart). There is a pattern here: He worms away into conservative movements then leads a purge of those who are supposedly too right wing and in the process of doing so gains respectability and all the air time, paid articles, etc, that come with the left’s idea of being a conservative whistleblower.
Interestingly, the only cause he hasn’t run away from is Israel. (His website is calling for the release of traitor Jonathan Pollard). But given that lately he’s been hanging around Andrew Sullivan a fair bit I wonder if his Israel views will start to change.
Pollard was hung out to dry and left to twist in the wind. Weinberger stated before he passed that Jonathan’s offenses were relatively minor and that he should have been out of prison years ago, or words to that effect. Ames and Hanson, who cost American or American agent lives at the hands of the Soviets served about ten years. The ‘establishment’ needed to send a message to American Jews, so they thought; even worse, the Israeli establishment has also left him dangling in the wind.
Otherwise, your reference to Pollard is brilliant and objective. The truth is that he discovered things (particularly in relation to the US and Iraq) that were verboten. Now he rots. Your ignorance is malicious.
Frum and others like him think that they are the only true conservatives; hence they do not vote because no perfect candidate is running. Instead they pose as exalted commentators who stand above the fray and congratulate themselves on how politically savvy they are.
Tea partiers are just ordinary citizens who recognize that something terribly wrong is happening to the nation and are trying to do something to stop it.
Which of these two groups is really important?
I care what a Canadian/soft socialist says about America, why?
It is nice to read that the U.S. has at least one friend in Canada. The most uncivil act in a conversation is a deliberate lie. Obama has finally admitted that he knew when he said that the health care bill would not increase the deficit he was not being truthful. Rep. Wilson was correct in calling him out. Now he tells us he knew that there were no shovel ready projects, for the Stimulus. Of course, the Main Stream Media made no comment of these admissions, but no apologies.
Dear rbj, thanks for spotting the typo. The capital L and I look so much alike on the screen that I didn’t notice the discrepancy. And Dear TennesseeVolunteer, I think I get it. I spent a little time in Tennessee some years back to see my son, who worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and to give a few lectures at the universities in Knoxville and Sewanee, and recall this as one of my most congenial visits on the “circuit.” But you have much to contend with now, as you say–not counting the mosques and the Goracle.
David
…until the subject of abortion, atheists or homosexuals come up, and then we see exactly the same amount of vitriol from the right.
Prove your point: specific chapter and verse, please.
I’ve experienced it myself on PJM comment threads. Do some googling and you can find it. I’ve also heard it myself expressed on (admittedly extreme) radio shows like the Savage Nation.
Oh yeah, and add drug legalization to that list. I’ve been getting slagged by conservatives on that one for 20 years and very, very rarely with a reasoned argument, but almost always straight out ad-hominem attacks.
I’ve got to say, I’m getting pretty sick of these constant demands for specificity and “moving beyond slogans” from same people who chanted “Yes we can!” like worshipers at a 19th century traveling tent revival not two years prior.
The Frums, Noonans, Parkers, Brooks, and the rest of the elitist Rino gang are so out-of-touch.
Check out this speech by Sarah at Anaheim a few days ago.
http://www.therightscoop.com/sarah-palins-powerful-speech-at-gop-anaheim-rally
I think the hockey mom can handle Chicago Jesus, without the LSM.
The question of why Palin so upsets liberals–females most viscerally–is interesting. One of the overlooked factors, I think, is her healthy and cheerful outdoorsiness. For urbanites this quality translates to rusticity. Lack of sophistication. Backwardness. Fashion, sophistication and with-itness are the qualities urbanites worship and Palin ain’t got none.
Palin’s perky speech lacks the knowing urban drawl. Her smile is open rather than wry or bemused. Her phrasing is declarative rather than arch. Her messages are absent knowing subtext. Her demeanor doesn’t bespeak great erudition. Cocktail party invitationwise, she barely makes the third cut.
Then there’s guns and hunting, even the thought of which makes urbanites break out in hives. And the masculine husband, likewise outdoorsy, who isn’t an intellectual, white collar professional or executive. A snowmobiler fouling the environment urbanites know from visits to the park and scaring the animals urbanites know from visits to the zoo.
In short, the lady is the antithesis of everything urban and good.
Civility and politeness are one thing – continuing to compromise with principals to allow us to keep sliding into the abyss is quite another. Frum is advocating the latter and trying to disguise it with the former – typical behavior of the political class, both left and right. Principals and consistency are for the stupid little people – the political class knows better.
And for the record to those who question Canadians as being incapable of understanding these ideas, I am a Canadian who does understand American exceptionalism as well as David Solway. Ideology, culture and geography are not in lock step. America was built by immigrants who understood and embraced your country’s greatness, and most importantly the ideas behind that greatness. I am not the only Canadian who feels this way. Our MSM is as polluted as yours so I understand Americans who think otherwise. The friends of liberty must stand together.
…. Hillary Clinton has had a book read to her ….
Yep.
A book.
One.
Alynski’s Rules For Unrepentant Recidivist Radicals, Co-Serial-Rapists And Other Wretched Ratbags.
But she didn’t understand a word of it.
Frum is detested by American conservatives. This is the type of man who left the liberal raft because it was rotted by his bad habits, and is nothing more than the link back to them.
I also understand and support American Exceptionalism and have no use for my fellow Canadians who are anti-American (except those who have a well-justified animus against Obama and the clueless left).
I think Mr Solway has posted a thoughtful piece that bookeneds nicely with the prior defense Ron Radash posted several months back when Frum was fresh off being kicked to the curb by I believe National Review.
Even then it smacked of all this profesional inside baseball among writers and editors and such. There was all this handwrining which accompanies any very public spat between ideologues; is Frum actually conservative; should he be defended; is he still relevant; will this generaltional imbroglio ever reach the comedic or intellecutal hights of Gore Vidal VS Tom Wolfe in the ’70′s;has he always been a stealth liberal; was he planted in Bush’s speechmaking realm to promote ‘deciderdly’ malapropisms and thus undermine any notion W had a brain;is Frum sleeping with Sufjan Stevens;Would he if Sufjan would ride him gloriously all the way to Jacksonville;or on a less sexual level – where does Frum come down – Boxers or Briefs;once he decides will his decision be as fashion centric influential as Marky Marks once was.
Now I really do like Ron Radash. And I think Solway has given PJM some excellent posts, this included. The above respose was my own lame attempt at a bit of levity. I didn’t post so when Radash was arguing to rally to Frum. And the main reason, besides having always had this very visceral deep down suspicion of the man every time I saw him on TV, was because Radash basically went off on Sarah Palin in the complete opposite way of Solways posting here.
The vast majority of the postings to Ron were much like mine. ‘splaining to Ron in varying forms of anger and outrage why he had his head up Stalins arse when it came to remotely understanding Sarah or her relevance to modern conservatism. That he was too far off the flyover reservation – namely residing in middle america where making a living today is a very hard thing – to get it. But even so, most of us still appreciated him none the less. He is after all like a cranky old uncle who has seen a lot of the world and thus remains all the more precious to us, even when he pees in the cornflakes.
But to the point:
There are TWO so-called-conservative writers today who drive me absolutely batty. As Marc Malone has said we are in the midst of a cold civil war. Well these two writers, were this a hot one, would be up on every conservatives bulletin board as traitors to be hunted down and shot.
#1 is John Avalon.
#2 is David Frum. Since Frum has basically been publically shunned to the point were he is nothing more than a shill pontificating at his own website, he has in a very real way, been properly dealt with. It matters not one whit that Frum still lives outside of Canada. He has for all import been deported. Nobody in their right mind is ever gonna hire this guy again or for that matter listen to him. He will not be embraced by some future conservative administration like the David Gergen Frum so obviously hoped one day to become. And yes, I believe it’s a just deserts.
Now we need to deliver to the other so-called-conservative, who was also once a speechwriter, the same in spades. Because what Avalon deals in is even worse. He is a traitor to conservatism who goes about oppertunistically assassinating good conservative men and women at the pleasure and pay of Liberals. No single writer is more responsible for driving the false narrative that there is a virulent racism and roiling vililantism just below the surface of conservatism today than Avalon.
In this moment, when conservatism is sorting thorugh the cousins wars via the Tea Party and such, Avalon is riding the Black Pearl as a sidekick to Capt Jack Sparrow, and greatly enriching his coffers doing so. But while the franchise is paying well for the moment, there is a day of reckoning coming and coming soon.
Profiteering as a pirate is a randy occupation nearing the edge of its existance. This country is in serious trouble and the serious problems to be dealt with can only be dealt with by serious people who are serious about their bedrock conservative principles.
I say when we take take back power we send friar Avalon straight to Thadd McCotter for a visable woodshed’ing and a definatve excommunication. The man is a fraud. He is as conservative as Benedict Arnold was once a patriot.
I would also include a Salem Witch burining for that kooky confection of ditzy glam M&M peanut candification MEAGAN MCCAIN as well. Except the fact that anyone who really takes Meagan seriously as the self-appointed spokesperson for the young in the conservative movment is about as capable as Johnny Knoxville running muslim outreach at NASA. A funny reality TV concept but not politically viable to the national discussion. Meagan is really just the ‘ol Mavericks problem as far as sad pathetic public display. After all we presume the Maverick paid for the Columbia education. We can just tune her out.
…anyone who really takes Meagan (McCain) seriously as the self-appointed spokesperson for the young in the conservative movment is about as capable as Johnny Knoxville running muslim outreach at NASA.
She is beyond an embarrassment.
Maybe that’s why you see her around on the airwaves, why some pundits would want to solicit even one syllable from this overly blond mini-moron.
You’d think Daddy would scrunch up in chagrin each time Dear Daughter opens her mouth.
Your ignorance is malicious.
I see where your loyalty lies. The defenders of Pollard are engaging in the worst kind of identity politics.
remember how much fun the lib Press made of GWB for labeling anything EVIL- even though GW was actually correct about AXIS OF EVIL and it’s memberships-
the LEFT/Dhimmcrats could not get past the RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY of using the word EVIL__ YES they poxedthose nasty Christains who dared top call a spade a spade —
and now they hurl it as invective on those who actually do beleive in good and evil while all along they have been yelling at us, telling us there is no such thing AS EVIL _ I mean all things being equal you know- any culture is just the samwe as the others right?? and of course USA is just as bad as any other nation so we must apologize and pay….
pffft HYPO fricking CRITS
I saw first hand the fraud and waste brought on by huge amounts of federal dollars here in post Katrina Louisiana. First it was $2000 debit cards being used at casinos, then multi-million dollar contracts for debris cleanup or FEMA trailer parks. Followed by insider contracts for rebuilding projects or crime cameras in New Orleans. Sure a lot of politicians and their cronies have been caught but we won’t ever get the money back.
These government programs have to be abolished. They promote greed and corruption even in some seemingly honest people. I’m talking about entire governmental agencies like FEMA, Arts and Humanities and Education. The politicians and the government administrators just can’t help themselves with the huge amounts of dollars available.
The Republican’s have one more chance to do it right. I hope they take advantage of it.
I’m a lifelong conservative who is appalled by Palin, Beck, et al. As far as I can see they are destroying conservatism as a viable politcal philosophy.
One can undertsand the appeal of nativism and racism in perilous economic times. But by playing to it – Palin with her defense of Dr. Laura saying the “n-word” and Beck saying the “President has a hostility to white culture” – they are ruining conservatism in America.
If it’s left up to them the right will never hold power again.
And of course they don’t care – they’re only in it for their own personal wealth.
A lot of well-intentioned conservatives, I fear, have been fooled into thinking that these charlatans represent a real political philosophy and reality.
For conservatism to rise again we must shake off these inflammatory gadflies who are wasting our time by appealingto our lowest instincts and dooming our party to irrelevance for the forseeable future.
Conservatives do not engage in baseless attacks, Howard. You are no conservative. Neither Palin nor Beck has said or done anything racist. If you are going to make these kinds of allegations should have the decency to provide evidence in support of your allegations. Your examples hardly suffice to prove your allegations. You are grasping at straws to support unjustified claims. It demonstrates a willingness to condemn based on virtually nothing.
Your use of the word nativism to describe opposition to illegal immigration demonstrates a refusal to deal with the issue in an honest fashion.
Saying the President ofthe United States has a deep-rooted hostility to white culture is hardly “virtually nothing”, my dear Terry. And I’ll thank you to remember that I have likely been a conservative longer than you have been alive.
Furthermore, after Dr. Laura was rightfully and universally shunned after repeatedly using the n-word in an inflammatory fashion, Palin defended her and enouraged her not to retreat but to “reload”.
Both of these statements were made in calculated fashion to appeal to racists – there can be no other explanation for them. Beck made his completely unsupported statement in an attempt to stir up hostility to Obama based on the colour of the man’s skin.
God knows why since there is enough in Obama’s policies for us to criticize. To bring up the race issue is irrelevant and destructive – for us.
Neither of these self-promoting non-entities are speaking in the name of true conservative values. And neither has the Tea Party explained, if fiscal conservatism is its prime issue, why it did not also repudiate George W. Bush, who betrayed conservatism – and every conservative who voted for him – by amassing the largest deficit in the history of humankind.
Until the Tea Party can honestly answer these questions, Terry, it will be an unelectable fringe party that sounds the death knell for true conservatism.
Your attempts to taboo those truths are not honored here, Howard. True conservatives value Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, et alii because they prioritize truth over the excessively tender feelings of those who can’t bear to hear a strident criticism even of those who deserve it.
The time for “gentlemanly palaver” ended when Shana Alexander made vitriolic slander a routine tactic against Jack Kilpatrick on “Point / Counterpoint.” If conservatives have taken a while to internalize the lesson, nevertheless, we have done so. So either cowboy up or get out of the way; we’re on the march.
Howard, when I read your post, the phrase “concern troll” keeps coming to mind.
“I’m a true blue Conservative, but all these A, B, Cs or X, Y, Zs are wrong for the conservative movement.”
I believe you’ll find a more receptive audience for such thoughts at DKos.
“…As for the Tea Party, according to many reports, it is now the largest popular movement in the U.S..”
It is the largest popular movement in the U.S. since Abolition, and look what political movement that spawned.
GOP members of The Ruling Class, be afraid, be very afraid!
Power of controlling the message is no more for the media or politically connected.
The Tea Party’s influence is in it’s early stages.
The Smart Swarm moves in the wind.
I agree with Howard. And Conservatives do make baseless attacks. There are good and not-good people in every political group and the conservatives are no exception. When I hear some of the wild statements made by Ms. Angle, I shudder to think of what she may say/do if she gets to the senate.ISeveryone confident of what that gal from Delaware might say. I’m certainly glad I don’t have to vote in either of those states. I only have to contend with whether to vote for Dan Quayle’s son Ben who won in the primary despite the best efforts of many extremely well-qualified competitors any of whom would be better representatives.
Interesting comment.
Your details suggest you consider WJ and Hillary Clinton, All the Kennedys, and this Obama, exemplary orator? always making sense, as well as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, LB Johnson and their ilk as models for competence and ability. People who can and do buy elections with money or threat, or both.
There remains the question: competence/ abilities for what and to do what Having no qualms about law-breaking, and continual lies to ignorant constituents might be considered a plus for a politician. And acceptable “qualifications” In some circles. Yes it’s a hard cruel world and we need hard ball players on the field.
But it’s hardly cause for respect and honour by reflective persons when the evidence points to destruction one assumes the deliberate aim of their decisions.
Otherwise they must be, to use your reference, idiots with out insight or little greem men without concern about effects of their decisions. Which bespeaks infantile joy at destroying siblings possessions. And what reasonable persons would want such creatures deciding actions that affect their lives.
The left must be very afraid of Sarah, they are spending as much time and effort to destroy her as they did in their failed attempt to Destroy President Reagan before he was nominated and then elected. It has to be fear, nothing else can explain the amount of venom that is being spewed.
Frum’s article. Hit piece in drag as critical exposition.
You have to read it so see what’s in it, does it for me.
Relentless insults to Palin are reminiscent of a flight where one upchuck’s cranky odor from one passenger tee’d off several others.
Yes, we had to be there for the ride, no FuBlue over the Atlantic blue, to get the whole experience but was it worth it?
Empty calories, served up by this pretender – what’s his name?
Perhaps a few words about David Frum’s past will shed light on his thoughts. His father Murry Frum was a medical man who became extremely wealthy in Toronto, Canada investing in real estate. His mother Barbara Frum was the star news anchor during the 1970′s and 1980′s for Canada’s state owned CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp), very much a Liberal, bordering on the socialist but revered — nay sainted when she passed in her 50′s– by all and sundry because she carried the common touch of a Theresa Heinz Kerry or Barbara Boxer. His sister married the heir of another Toronto area developer, thus solidifying two family fortunes which continue to support the statist left Ontario provincial government, a government renown for micromanagement through regulation of every facet of life, and oligolopical relations with large businesses. Frum started his commentating career at a time when Canadian conservatism was ineffectual in much of the country, and Tea Party like populists from Western Canada were scorned and embroiled with their so called Red Tory compatriots in an intercine war that lasted most of three decades. During this time the socialist NDP and the socialist leaning statist Liberals integrated the European model welfare state to Canada.
Its all part of the sickness of the Ruling Class. For the most part the people with political power, whether Democrat or Republican, have much more in common with one another than they do with the people they supposedly represent. They not only thing that they should rule, they think they are entitled to rule.
Sarah Palin and the tea party crowd are despised because they are outsiders who don’t recognize the Godhood of those who are in the club. How dare they aspire to positions which are reserved for their betters? Vile, revolting peasants.
As someone once said about Communists, they were merely “liberals who were in a hurry.” As for the country club Conservatives, most of them are just liberals with a tendency to procrastinate.
We are a nations that has a military that will fight for their own people but not against them. As the Soviets found out in the battle in front of the Soviet Congress in 1991 and the Chinese found out in the 1989 crushing of the Tianimen Square demonstators, most people in military units have a profound understanding of the difference between right and wrong. If the left wing totalitarian wantabees think they will use our military against us, they are wrong. With out that force to stop us their is no contest. We will pervail. The only question remaining is how much more we will allow before we act and whether or not the fools on the left are detached enough from reality to test us.
“if I may rephrase Matthew 7:3: Why do we behold the mote in our brother’s eye when we should be considering the beam in our adversary’s? This is not the time for quasi-ethical niceties and epicene pangs of conscience.”
For the record, the author has rephrased Matthew 7:3 to mean exactly the opposite of what Jesus meant. When he says, “This is not the time for quasi-ethical niceties and epicene pangs of conscience,” he’s saying that this is not the time to follow Jesus’s teachings because the ends justify the means.
David Frum is an angry impotent little, and I hate to use the word, man. He is a wannabe ‘elite’ with some mojo, but instead he steps on his dork every time he pens. He gets it wrong because he uses the same rules of thumb and past performance of things, like the economy, he got that wrong just like Obozo’s people got it wrong because they weren’t looking at the root causes only at how past recessions recovered. They expected a recovery before the effect of their policies took place, but that didn’t happen. None of these genius’ saw the meltdown coming, so how could anyone believe that they had a clue as to how to resolve it.
Back to Frum, he is as narcissistic as ‘Teh One’. He believes himself to be the oracle of the republicans, when he is just another talking head with an opinion. Everyone knows that opinions are like —holes, everyone has one and his isn’t any more unique or elegant than the next one.
I’m a Sarah Palin supporter, even though I am a Canadian. And, for what it’s worth, here’s my analysis of the American sickness, and its cure:
The good people, the people who work and support America, and who love the 4th of July, and volunteer for all the local organizations, the people who have contributed to the above thread: you have allowed the lefties to take over the political machinery while you have gone on with your lives. Worse, you have bought the canard that only graduates of elite universities are qualified to run the USA. And indeed, the latter have taken over school boards, local, state and national governments. They are leftists, so they believe that the Government (and they) can solve all problems; they have enacted a mountain of regulations, which form the core of the kudzu of bureaucracy that we all know and love.
The cure? The good people, who we call “Tea Partiers”, must go to those precinct meetings, be willing to stay until the end of every meeting, and take the government machinery AT ALL LEVELS from the leftists. This is definitely not a one-shot deal. And carry your constitution with you at all times.
As to Frum? He is a Toronto Liberal. I have a whole bunch of relatives like that. They are parochial snobs, but they are good at staying until the end of the meeting. Right now, Canada has a conservative government, led by Stephen Harper, who was one of those western upstarts back in the day. He and his government are running a good government, thank gracious! among the Frumious types, though, Harper just has no ‘style.’
Actions as well as inactions imply intent. To, for whatever reason, permit dependency as a Right without clear involuntary need, on strangers who have no say in the behaviours encourages – rewards irresponsibility. Encouraging dependency in specific groups implies suspect intent. AND disrespect for the capabilities and intelligence of the selected group/s. In “bribing/ buying” with other peoples’ money, a client base, a voting bloc for permanent “dictatorship”.
The encouraged, unearned ,dependency of the selected groups, disenabling them from developing their own gifts, gaining self-esteem and personal dignity could be construed a a “crime against their human rights”. Their being in effect vassal. Which propagates throughout generations, always to be paid for by other peoples’ money. Without recompense for those COMPELLED to pay this dependent bloc. Another form of vassalage.
Only a fool would not undertand this. And whatever else the “Lefties” are they are not fools. So it is incumbent on those who pay attention to their teachings be prepared to examine them minutely for subtlety. What is their real message?
WHERE ARE the child and developmental psychology experts publicly aligned on the Left to provide us learned comment and tome ?. EXPERTS in sociology, political science, and as the present incumbents in Congress, Judiciary and Executive the Constitution of the USA? And of course the entertainment media willing propagandists for the sinister / Left-”liberal” philosophies in US / Western World .
One assumes an ethical base, founded on the law of the land, i.e. the Constitution, in decisions that affect the lives of countless others. This is sadly too often not the case in recent history where people who are clear law-breakers, e.g. ALL the Kennedys, WJ and Hillary Clinton and of course Obama,and their ilk are lauded and treated as if they are in fact ethical, honourable,and trustworthy. Along the lines that “all great men are bad men”?
Try that one for the Founding Fathers of this Constitutional Republic of the USA and Ronald Reagan.
It is, has become, thanks to the educational, legal, political and moral arbiters since the 1960s advent of “revolution” against established mores and agreements an Alice Through the Looking Glass world. Humpty Dumpty the hero, the icon the “role model”.
And we all know the fate of Humpty Dumpty.
The problem does not only stem from the political arena, but frankly it stems from what was called the culture wars.
As long as institutes of post secondary education, and influential older media, and elsewhere, are gulags where Gramsci, Corrida, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, et al., reign without challenge, people like Mortimer Adler have to continue to fight that hegemony, and all the while try to gain allies.
Take a look at this piece in Time Magazine which ran in 1952: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816146,00.html
I’d rather have a “hyper-emotional hussy” with her hands controlling the people’s purse than a crack whore with a credit card like Pelosi.
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