I've always found David Frum super-cool. In my late 20s I made a concerted effort to model myself on him, but I didn't have the money, job or self-belief. His National Review diary was required reading every morning over a coffee and a croissant. I also fancied his wife. (Mrs. Frum is tremendous.) He had the best job in the world, hanging out in his office at the American Enterprise Institute hacking out books and columns, in between trips to Fox News studios and dashing off speeches for his boss, the President. At one time, possibly of all time, writing Bush speeches was the best job in the world. He would say almost anything you could throw at him. AXIS OF EVIL! Fantastic. Jaw-dropping speech. I committed the whole thing to memory almost immediately. He also wrote a seminal text with Richard Perle called An End To Evil that I read cover-to-cover twice, and still peruse and refer to for inspiration and out of nostalgia. I think if I could be anyone in the world, I would like to be David Frum. He has the whole package.
No Future for the GOP?
- Thread starter vimothy
- Start date
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Who was it before Frum? My money's on James Bond, Indiana Jones or Hulk Hogan.
Leo
Well-known member
i wonder if frum and others like him will reemerge and be accepted back into the GOP at large at some point. will the current situation run its course? i can't believe the power brokers of the party will let this populous-led death spiral continue, it's really not in their (capitalists) interests because nothing is getting done in washington dc, unemployment is rising or stuck and household income is stagnant or down...which means consumers can't buy what the capitalists are selling. also, the tea partiers aren't exactly supportive of the traditional GOP leadership, they distrust ALL government!
Leo
Well-known member
even at the height of his influence when i disagreed with him most, i always found him a really interesting and engaging guest on talk shows. he'd come into enemy territory on "the daily show" and his eight minutes of discussion with jon stewart was the smartest dialogue on television. bill kristol can sort of get away with that to a degree, but frum was better.
makes me think...are there liberal politicians or thinkers who conservatives actually appreciate and listen to? watching US cable news shows, it seems like liberals are slightly more open to dialogue with a smart conservative, whereas i don't see it happening the other way around (if a liberal occasionally goes on fox news, they generally get hammered or dismissed). is there a liberal leader who the conservatives respect?
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
Derb self-destructed with a bit of pitiful black-bashing in the racist, anti-semitic Taki Magazine, got sacked by National Review for it, and dug in and made it even worse. There are some hair-raising types in the comments threads -- States Rights racists, Jew-baiters and libertarian cranks unite (doesn't that always happen?).
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
Sectionfive
bandwagon house
crackerjack
Well-known member
Glad to see he's outgrown his "yay, Ron Paul's gonna let us all smoke weed" phase.
Tea Party Republicanism is not the future, not the majority, not even the conservative past. It’s the gangrene of imperial decline.
Mike Davis on The Last White Election from NLR. Thanks!
Mike Davis on The Last White Election from NLR. Thanks!
Bangpuss
Well-known member
Interesting to see that Rand Paul's filibuster of Brennan for head of CIA is said to have placed him in contention for the 2016 Republican nomination. I'd have to say that while I find Rand Paul to be a less principled, more cynical bandwagon jumper than Ron Paul, this kind of makes sense. The Democrats under Obama have out-manned the Republicans by being even more tough-ass on most foreign policy issues, which has left the Republicans with nowhere to maneuver on one of their policy strongholds. So the only candidates who can realistically compete aren't the Dick Cheney/Newt Gingrich colonise-the-moon super hawks, it's the anti-government zealots who occasionally hit the spot of mainstream approval by voicing their opposition with the government this way.
Rand Paul is no doubt an wolf in sheep's clothing, just like the rest of the Tea Party. But by grandstanding on the drones issue -- he wasn't trying to actually block the nomination, as his weak-ass 13-hour filibuster proves -- he was using it as a soap box to put himself forward as the real opposition for to the 'big government' Obama, on an issue that no doubt has crossover appeal. Hell, I agree with him on this issue.
Add in the fact that he's relatively young, articulate, charismatic, etc., and I'd say he's probably the future of the GOP. This may be really premature, but I think if he plays his cards right for the next two years, he'll be in the hot seat.
Rand Paul is no doubt an wolf in sheep's clothing, just like the rest of the Tea Party. But by grandstanding on the drones issue -- he wasn't trying to actually block the nomination, as his weak-ass 13-hour filibuster proves -- he was using it as a soap box to put himself forward as the real opposition for to the 'big government' Obama, on an issue that no doubt has crossover appeal. Hell, I agree with him on this issue.
Add in the fact that he's relatively young, articulate, charismatic, etc., and I'd say he's probably the future of the GOP. This may be really premature, but I think if he plays his cards right for the next two years, he'll be in the hot seat.
Bangpuss
Well-known member
Also, I think Rand Paul's filibuster and the reaction to it shows just how lacking today's politicians are compared with the principled, potty-mouthed titans of yesteryear. In the history of filibusters, 13 hours is so weak. The whole point of a filibuster is that you clog up the Senate for days and days and days by talking nonsense. You hold the floor and time it out by reading the phone directory or a list of your mama's recipes. Strom Thurmond, then a pro-segregation Democrat, really showed how a filibuster should be done by getting up and attempting to talk out the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. Thurmond, who later fathered a mixed-race child with his black maid, held the floor in opposition to the Civil Rights Act for over 24 hours.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I'm currently in SoCal on a work trip for a couple of weeks...turns out I'm sharing a hotel with a convention of the San Diego County branch of the GOP. 
Really wishing I had the balls to try and sneak in as a journo representing of some fictitious British publication and ask questions about the inalienable right of unborn foetuses to open-carry and why Richard Dawkins hasn't yet been taken out with a drone strike.
Really wishing I had the balls to try and sneak in as a journo representing of some fictitious British publication and ask questions about the inalienable right of unborn foetuses to open-carry and why Richard Dawkins hasn't yet been taken out with a drone strike.