Posted on 03/24/2010 3:13:22 PM PDT by Nachum
My fellow disappointed conservatives, former conservatives, and disgusted conservatives, it is time for all good Republicans to come to the defense of David Frum and to endorse his critique of radical right-wing talk-show rhetoric. If you've left the party in disgust, call up your friends who are still members and get them to do it for you.
I am not writing this because David Frum is my friend, although he is. I am writing this because I have just come back from London, where I got a close-up look at the state of the British Conservative Party, once the intellectual motor of free-market economics in Europe and the rest of the world. After almost two decades in power, the British Conservatives lost in 1997 to Tony Blair's slicker, smoother, Labor Partya party that had accepted the basic premises of Thatcherism and moved on.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Riiiiiight.
It worked for the Democrats.
Who knew?
If that were true, the Democrats would never win anything.
Whaddaya expect from Slate. Just another liberal media mouthpiece (which Frum has turned into). Frum needs to drag his ass back to Canada and stay there.
Shut up, Ann. Geez. The Democrats are as nasty as they come and they won. Ditz.
Explain the Dem wins in '06 and '08 then.
The bitch is a child rapist defender...
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/the_outrageous_arrest_of_roman.html
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen! -- Sound a little nasty to you RINO turncoats?
As long as you are passing out free money, you can be as nasty as you want. Parties that call for personal responsibility have to be ultra nice, since only about 25% of the electorate already believes in that concept. :)
Pound sand, rino.
Sorry, but the Country Club Conservatives have had a couple decades to get it right. Time’s up.
(Only 7-1/2 months to Take-Back-The-Country Day!)
Once youve given way to socialist governance, once youve bought into it, a conservative party has no purpose. All you can do is promise to administer the welfare state better than the other guys, maybe you can promise to nanny your fellow subjects on a tighter budget.
Thats not really much of a winning program there. Thats the fatal problem of Britains conservatives. It is possible to compromise on the application of your principles, we do that every day and with good reason. But once you compromise your principles away, youve got nothing left to stand on except pose and fashion. Once youre just debating on your opponents ground, you can win arguments all day long and change nothing, because the underlying argument has been ceded. Are the Brit conservatives going to repeal the nanny state? No? Then theyre finished as an intellectual movement. All theyve got left is posturing.
Annie thinks its great that the post-principle conservatism is winning elections again. But its not just about winning elections, its about persuading people and selling ideas. If you’ve given up your core principles in order to be electable, what is the point of electing you? If you can’t explain your philosophy to the average voter, thats a big problem, but a bigger problem yet is if you stop trying to explain them.
Ann, What does a nice girl like you know about nasty?
Pride goeth before the fall.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.