When Fromm says that by slithering into bed with Obama and the Democrats we could have negotiated a less odious healthcare reform, he is saying that cutting and trimming-or triangulating if you prefer-should be your guiding principle. Read the polls and cut a deal.
Ronald Reagan was not ignorant of the polls and he was quite capable of cutting a deal but he had the vision thing. He had three fundamental values in mind to him constituted good sound conservative governance: low taxes, robust defense, small government. These were not preferred options from a Chinese menu of political plays to be selected on reading Gallup. These are compelling goals to be striven after by determined people decade after decade as ardently as the Democrats have sought health care for a century.
The country knew where Reagan was taking the country. The Bushes were left with offering up a "prudent" approach to government, a middle way, a sanitized occupation in the Oval Office, a little of bigger government and a little of smaller government. George W. Bush had a shining vision which was to keep the country safe from terrorism and prevail in the war in Iraq. He told the country that the Republicans offered more prudent governance otherwise but he offered up a hodgepodge of conflicting programatic nostrums.
Then along came the bungle in Iraq which lasted years and along came Katrina which was a metaphor for Iraq and the ineptitude of the administration. No one cares passionately about prudence. People care about a conservative model of government. Betray that model and people who are patriotic conservatives cease to care.
The solution, Mr. Frum, is to cease triangulating off every burp and belch like a Pac-Man figure and start leading America Back into the Morning. It's the "vision thing," stupid.
