David Frum: Conservative, Republican or Closet Liberal?

According to his latest post in the National Post titled “David Frum: What's good for Rush Limbaugh is bad for Republicans”, we find Mr. Frum drawing correlations and conclusions that are not indicated by the data as he states it. He is picking his data to support a position that he as already reached and simply wants to convince you of. His title would be better stated as “What’s good for Conservatism is not relevant to today’s Republicans”. Let us go through his post and look at his data and unpack his assumptions.

Frum: “Gallup’s latest polling reveals the continuing collapse of the Republican Party's base vote. The news is so very bad that there will be only one possible response from GOP party leadership and our radio talkers: Ignore it.” And “Overall: 36% of Americans now identify as Democrats and only 28% as Republicans.” He also states that “State by state, the numbers look even worse. In only 7 states do more Americans identify as Republicans than as Democrats”.

In fact Conservatives Still Outnumber Liberals and the threat that conservatives would “sit out” or otherwise punish Republicans in power for being to far left is what came true. According to the American Thinker, 59% or more of Americans polled (by The Battleground Poll, the most respected and thorough of all public opinion polls) self identify as conservative. You are more likely to find Conservatives identifying as Conservatives and specifically not as Republican and they will correct you if you call them Republican. Conservatives are conservative first and Republican second or not at all. Mr. Frum it is you identifying Conservatives as Republicans. The Republican Party represented by people who, like you, equivocate their core beliefs and are the problem with the base showing up at the polls. You may rest assured that they don’t pull a liberal lever.

Frum: “Republicans in Congress are even less popular than Bush”.

One might expect that. The highly polarized left will never support or even sit quietly while anyone with an “R” behind his or her name has any power. The low marks come from the base not seeing much difference between “borrow and spend” Republicans and “tax and spend” liberals. In fact, Conservatives were too slow to stop the “Liberal” Republicans. According to John Hawkins writing in Pajamasmedia “All that was necessary for the Democrats to triumph was for conservatives to do nothing.” Tell me, Mr. Frum, do you believe that by moving to the left that you will really grow the Party? How far left do you suggest that the Party go? If you have lost almost 60% of the voting (conservative public) do you think that you will get them back by moving farther left? Mr. Frum, if you think that the Republican Party needs to slide further left, you might rethink that.

Frum: When Republicans line up behind Rush Limbaugh in this way, they are dividing the country 80-20 against themselves. The GOP's supreme priority now has to be to reinvent itself as a pragmatic, inclusive, modern party”

As we have seen above, the self identified Conservatives of this country are 59% or better. The last election had 59 million voters on the Republican side and 69 million on the socialist side. His 80-20 split is simply untrue. So the Party has to be pragmatic and inclusive; Mr. Frum fails to tell you just how pragmatic he would like the Party to be. Perhaps he would advocate that we compromise away our belief that individual freedom and responsibility are the primary movers of American Greatness and not Government? Perhaps he would enjoin us to embrace the (minority opinion) belief that marriage is between any two beings, not one man and one woman? Perhaps we could compromise away our fundamental belief that the life of a child is sacred and should always be protected? And maybe we could all just forget about that pesky second amendment and turn in all our guns. I am sure that the Conservatives will line up to be voting for Republicans that trod down the path to Socialism by either acting like today’s Democrats or compromising with them. We frankly find that we are too far separated in our belief systems with the Democrats to compromise with them and they NEVER compromise anything.

Frum: “Rush and Hannity and O’Reilly and Ann Coulter and the others have their place and their role.” And “The relationship between these radio talkers and the larger Republican and conservative world has become parasitic and antagonistic. They flourish and profit to the extent they can polarize and radicalize.”

No Mr. Frum, they do not polarize and radicalize, they answer the naked hatred and vitriol that is spewed by the left of this country; the left that you would like the Party to compromise with and be more like. No, Mr. Frum the above mentioned people more surly represent the overwhelmingly large percentage of the American population that is Conservative and is being stabbed in the back by people like you who are unsure of their own beliefs and are unable to truly read the tea leaves. Stabbed by the politicians that they refused to support with money and their attendance at the polls. Stabbed by a Party that has left its base. You sir are the problem, your beliefs sir, are at the heart of the matter and the way that you will bend over at the slightest wind and trade your core beliefs for the chimera of leftist thought and partnership. It is your ilk that will be holding the lamp, as all of us are lead to dull eyed servitude under the darkness of socialism while you sing out that we have not yet compromised enough. Sir, put a cork in it.