The banishment of David Frum from the American Enterprise Institute may be one of the best things that's happened to him. He's become a cause celebre. As a newly hot commodity, he'll get gobs of publicity -- a New Yorker profile must now be in the offing -- and website hits for his fledgling FrumForum. But it's not good for the conservative movement, which has regarded his efforts to drag it into modernity with increasing consternation.
Frum has long had the right stuff for the right, working at the Wall Street Journal and for the Bush administration. In recent months he's been staking out somewhat heterodox stands, at least in the context of the conservative movement. Even mild dissent, however, is apparently too much for it to swallow. It has reached the point where, in Bolshevik fashion, it's devouring its own children.
Is Frum really an apostate, a ranks-breaker? No, he isn't. I haven't seen any evidence that Frum, a vigorous polemicist, has fundamentally deviated from traditional conservative positions when it comes to Israel or tax rates. What he has argued for is a more modern Republican party that doesn't stage a gadarene rush to the far right, but tries to come to terms with environmental issues, health care, and so on. Writing in the Washington Post on Thursday, Anne Applebaum observed that much of what Frum represents is a no-brainer for conservatives, who, like the British Tories, may well find themselves in the wilderness for many years if they refuse to acknowledge new realities.
Frum's saga resembles in reverse the odyssey of the neoconservatives who used to argue that they hadn't left the Democratic party. It had left them. Now, it seems fair to say, Frum isn't leaving conservatism; rather, the conservative movement is rapidly leaving Frum behind.
Frum's fate sends a loud and clear message: even mild dissent is taboo, subject to ostracism, vilification. This is weird stuff, and it could get a lot weirder as the right continues its quest for ideological purity. For now, Frum is the most prominent victim and beneficiary of the latest purge on the right.
It is almost like they know their opinions can't stand up to discussion...
And viewers should be reminded at all times.
(and I'm not a fan of Frum, by any means...)
Ah yes. When mob rule takes over any revolution even the leaders are not safe - go talk to Robespierre about that one.
Push that "purity of thought" concept too far and you find yourself down to a party of one. But, then, that is one of the very basic differences between liberals and conservatives - the former is by definition inclusive, and the latter is exclusive. Founded in 1854, perhaps it just took this long for the reactionary conservatives to gain the upper hand and self-immolate themselves and all associated with them.
Novo
Gada·rene (gad′ə rēn′)
adjective
moving rapidly and without control; headlong
Etymology: after the Gadarene swine (Luke 8:26-39) that ran into the sea after demons possessed them
Beauty, eh?
Change is the nature of all growth among all living organisms. This is why "conservatism" is doomed.
Conservatism is rooted in a longing to return to prior times or, in the alternative, adhering to the status quo. It is not reasonable, however, as the Universe is in a constant state of flux. Change is the only constant and fighting change is futile. Liberals/Progressives understand this principle and welcome the opportunities for change and growth as being a part of the human condition.
"For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould."
"And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun" ("The Prophet" -K. Gibran)
FWIW
and if you prefer your freedoms you might want to look at the massive power grab by the federal government.
where are all of you who railed at bush the facist?
theres a communist in the white house. are you a hypocrite?
In any case, I would pose different questions: Are your knickers in a knot? Are you hearing voices and/or seeing things that other people can't hear/see? In cruising around your "farm," did a rabid squirrel run up your pants leg and bite you?
Instead of the "massive power grab by the federal government," a product of your delusions, I'm much more concerned about the very real impact on our freedoms of the insidious-though-massive power accumulation by corporations and the wealthy.
And, FYI, I self-identify as a Democratic Socialist! Boo!
(especially the Boo!)
FWIW
Firing a moderate like David Frum is just the latest example, not of wanting purity but wanting to go back to a time when no dare criticize the white man decisions.
No - there's been no ideological purging and devouring of one's own at all!
Welcome toRepublicanism 2010.
I'm guessing right after their massive defeat later this year. Believing their own press-releases and hearing nothing but their own echo chamber reinforcing their misjudgment of the bulk of Americans, added to by the savaging of their moderate republican brothers by the extremist tea-whiners, their nihilism will consume them.
On November 3rd, they will awake and look around and ask themselves, "What happened here?"
But they won't have a clue.
FWIW