Conservative David Frum tells 'Why Rush Is Wrong'

Muriel Kane Published: Sunday March 8, 2009
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At a time when most conservative Republicans appear prepared to turn into lemmings and follow Rush Limbaugh over a cliff, any article from the right that proposes to explain "Why Rush Is Wrong" is worthy of attention for its novelty alone.

However, the lengthy cover story of that title by David Frum in the current issue of Newsweek is important for more than simply going against the crowd. If the Republican Party is going to survive the next four years, it may need to stop hoping for an epic fail on Barack Obama's part and start paying attention to voices like Frum's.

Frum is a well-known conservative, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush who coined the phrase "axis of evil," and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Born in Canada, he attended Yale University and Harvard Law School and proudly became an American citizen in 2007. No one could ask for more convincing conservative bona fides. And yet Frum is frankly horrified at Limbaugh's success.

"Rush knows what he is doing," Frum writes. "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?"

Worrying that some could use Limbaugh's words "to misrepresent conservatives as clueless, indifferent or gleeful in the face of the most painful economic crisis in a generation," Frum points out that "Rush Limbaugh is a seriously unpopular figure among the voters that conservatives and Republicans need to reach. Forty-one percent of independents have an unfavorable opinion of him, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll."

Frum is not merely concerned that Limbaugh's personality will drive away potential GOP voters. He is, if anything, more bothered by Limbaugh's insistence that "conservatism is what it is, and it is forever" and his unwillingness to move beyond the single-issue rhetoric that worked for Republicans in the 1970's and 1980's, when it was possible to blame economic stagnation on a bloated and intrusive government.

"At the peak of the Bush boom in 2007, the typical American worker was earning barely more after inflation than the typical American worker had earned in 2000," Frum points out. "Political parties that do not deliver economic improvement for the typical person do not get reelected. We Republicans and conservatives were not delivering."

Quoting with approval Newt Gingrich's suggestion that "we are at the end of the Reagan era," Frum suggests, "It's inescapably obvious that the Republican Party needs to evolve. We need to put free-market health-care reform, not tax cuts, at the core of our economic message. ... We need to modulate our social conservatism ... especially on gay-rights issues. ... We need an environmental message."

"Every day, Rush Limbaugh reassures millions of core Republican voters that no change is needed," Frum concludes. "He claims 20 million listeners per week, and that suffices to make him a very wealthy man. And if another 100 million people cannot stand him, what does he care? ... It's not as if they can vote against him. But they can vote against Republican candidates for Congress. They can vote against Republican nominees for president. And if we allow ourselves to be overidentified with somebody who earns his fortune by giving offense, they will vote against us."

Frum's article quickly sparked cheers from liberals and infuriated responses from Limbaugh supporters.

Conservative columnist Noel Sheppard grumbled, "We've entered the predictable phase of the media attack on Limbaugh: mainstream news outlets paying well-known conservatives to bash the talk show host."

Posters at FreeRepublic.com made such suggestions as, "Don’t read Frum anymore. He’s an Eastern Elite and looks down on me." And "Frum is a pathetic idiot." And "'If' David Frum was set alight and put into a wheel barrow headed down towards the edge of the Grand Canyon, I must admit to being more concerned about the wheel barrow’s final allotment then Mr. Frum."

At the liberal DemocraticUnderground.com, some opinions of Frum were even less complimentary than those at FreeRepublic. "D. Frum is a slimy, nasty scheming greasy bastard who'll turn on his own without even blinking," one poster wrote. However, another suggested, "He's correct but there isn't a damn thing they can do about it. GOP = Slow Motion Train Wreck. Enjoy!"

Meanwhile, a thread at Luciane.com generally drew more tempered criticism from the right, such as "Frum is muddle-headed, yet convinced he has the answers" and "Why have 2 parties if they are both leftists?" A few posters even agreed with Frum that "Demo[g]raphically, the current GOP is a loser," or pointed out that "I never saw Ronald Reagan come unhinged the way Limbaugh and Levin do," or even agreed that Frum is dealing in "Facts. As opposed to wishful thinking and make-believe."

However, perhaps the most eloquent response to Frum was at The Reagan Conservatives Blog:

"Please stop telling us what is wrong with... well, US. Seriously, I just cannot take it any more. ... We all recognize the problems we face as a nation, and as a Party. You want a frigging medal because you, too, can read polls and recognize that we need to sort out the Hispanic-gap, the suburban-soccer-mom-gap, the generational gap, the new-young-christian-gap or any other gap the numbers indicate? ... I love being a conservative and am proud to call myself one -- so please do us a favor... quit calling yourself conservative, moving the goalposts on us, and then complaining we are on a different field."