A Canadian conservative commentator's thoughts on David Frum

[JBoy]

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/28/barbara-kay-come-home-david-frum-they-dont-deserve-you/#ixzz10tTPd8sc

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I have been following the Frum saga from the beginning and with increasing dismay. Although his opinions often run counter to those of the ever hardening conservative mainstream, he hasn’t said or written a single thing that isn’t fair comment or plain common sense, nor anything that should be considered beyond the pale of rational conservative thought. Coercive political correctness is something I always associated with the Left. So I have been shocked and chagrined to see him become the favoured whipping boy of the right-wing punditocracy, “the media’s go-to basher of fellow Republicans” as even the authoritative Wall Street Journal described him.

What is Frum’s crime, according to his detractors? It isn’t that he’s no longer conservative. It’s that he doesn’t like the manner – hostile, inflexible, Palinesque (you’re with us or you’re against us) in which conservatism is increasingly expressing itself. He’d prefer the Republicans to engage in “grown-up politics” rather than indulging in ranty, mud-slinging adversarialism that does nothing to advance worthy policy alternatives to the Democratic agenda. He says, “I’m not advocating being nice to Democrats for the sake of being nice. What I’m saying is the American system depends to a high degree of consensus, I know it’s a dirty word these days, but a high degree of consensus among elites.”

What’s so controversial about that? David Frum’s real problem isn’t that he’s a traitor to the right. He’s simply a Canadian reverting to type, whether he knows it or not. Prolonged, intense conflict is mother’s milk to Americans. Conflict and the freedom to express extreme views is the leitmotif of their history and they have a higher tolerance for conflict in the public forum than Canadians do. Most Canadians hate sustained partisan conflict when it is expressed with ferocity and contempt. We Canadian conservatives yearn for at least partial consensus, even the more ideological amongst us. We’re okay with debate, but we hate it when it gets ugly. We prize civility and have no problem with a bit of compromise. Which explains our high tolerance for minority governments.

Frum isn’t disgusted by Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin because of their politics so much as he is put off by their coarse and childish incivility, their dumbing down of their intelligence to please a simplistic base. They have no gravitas. They take pride in their refusal to compromise. So does the whole Tea Party movement. They’ve reduced conservatism to the lowest common intellectual denominator.

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I've always had a fair bit of respect for David Frum. I disagree with his views 99% of the time, but at least he tries to play the game honestly. "Here's what I think is right, and I'm going to tell you why it's right." He's what a conservative should be.