FRUM ON THE FUTURE OF CONSERVATISM (AND THE GOP)

David Frum was one of Fredo's speechwriters and The Moderate Voice has republished an interview Frum had with Scaife's Tribune-Review. Frum seems to want to put the Humpty-Dumpty of the Rove Coalition back together again yet his arguments betray the fundamental instability of that movement. The statements in italics are Frum's.

The Republican Party, which was so dominant in American politics from about 1970 to about 1995, has been running out of gas for the past decade. It’s not just Iraq, and it’s not just George Bush. We’ve got deeper problems of exhaustion of our message and we must renew that message.

I think we've all gotten the message and have found it wanting. The Fundies in particular are upset because Roe v. Wade is still in effect and there is no constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.

I’m somebody who believes in markets, who believes in rule of law, who believes in less government and I’m certainly a strong believer in America’s mission in the world.

The Free Market Fairy has failed us once again and that means Frum is in denial. IF Frum really believed in the "rule of law," he would be strongly against illegal wiretapping and torture. Any talk about "mission" from a conservative must now be viewed with enormous scepticism.

The people who turned 20 between 2000 and 2005 are the most anti-Republican group in the entire electorate ... One reason they are so anti-Republican is that we neglect the environmental issue, which is very important to them. ...The second thing is that it is precisely because we are not Al Gore fanatics that this issue is powerful for us. That is to say that we can offer Americans a message that says, “Look, we take this issue seriously, too. But we’re not going to go overboard. We’re going to do what’s necessary, not more.”

Frum has completely lost it here. Most of the radio gasbags routinely deny that man-made global warming exists and Sen. Inhofe is one of the leading deniers in the Senate. It's too late to claim that Republicans take the issue seriously.