And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as “losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush’s every rancorous word – we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.
Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.
But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? Rush is to the Republicanism of the 2000s what Jesse Jackson was to the Democratic party in the 1980s. He plays an important role in our coalition, and of course he and his supporters have to be treated with respect. But he cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise – and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important.
Ever since Palin popped onto the scene there has been a battle of what the conservative movement means and the character of the GOP. If you read the comments under the article, so many people don't get it. "How dare Frum insults the heroic Rush."
We're going to be seeing the Democrats in power for a long time.
Also: Some fawning on this side of the border for Rush at SDA.
I agree with Frum`s comments on this one. I also think Frum`s creditability went down the drain, with his support of Bush. The ten trillion dollar debt, the wars, take your pick the Bush years were bad. Yet David Frum continues to spin out how great Bush was.
ReplyDeleteNo, he has taken that back. He left the administration in 2002. He has since said it was a that the sdministration was a failure. During a recent NPR interview, Frum was asked if he regretted some of the things he said about the Bush administration. He dead panned: Only about 50 times a day.
ReplyDeleteI never heard him take back anything. I agree that you don`t bad mouth your former team after you leave. But Frum`s defense of the Bush administration was way over the top. All of Bush`s policies were the exact opposite of a conservative agenda. Frum has quite a way to go before he wins me back.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. I just think it's wise to learn from your mistakes. The guy gets a dream job in the White House, who would turn that down? Now he realizes the fiasco.
ReplyDelete