David Frum on the GOP

[Jacob]

Interesting reading: http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/

What do you think? Bitter whining of a traitor or cogent analysis?

[Razgovory]

He's Canadian and a Jew.  Not proper GOP material.

[Eddie Teach]

He sounds pretty close to being a RINO, but his complaints are mostly valid.

[Berkut]

Interesting reading: http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/

What do you think? Bitter whining of a traitor or cogent analysis?

This paragraph pretty much sums up my views rather nicely:

America desperately needs a responsible and compassionate alternative to the Obama administration's path of bigger government at higher cost. And yet: This past summer, the GOP nearly forced America to the verge of default just to score a point in a budget debate. In the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, Republican politicians demand massive budget cuts and shrug off the concerns of the unemployed. In the face of evidence of dwindling upward mobility and long-stagnating middle-class wages, my party's economic ideas sometimes seem to have shrunk to just one: more tax cuts for the very highest earners. When I entered Republican politics, during an earlier period of malaise, in the late seventies and early eighties, the movement got most of the big questions—crime, inflation, the Cold War—right. This time, the party is getting the big questions disastrously wrong.

Going to read the rest now...

[CountDeMoney]

Interesting reading: http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/

What do you think? Bitter whining of a traitor or cogent analysis?

GOP think tank writers aren't supposed to think.  That's Frum's problem, and why he was fired.

[CountDeMoney]

Rather than workable solutions, my party is offering low taxes for the currently rich and high spending for the currently old, to be followed by who-knows-what and who-the-hell-cares. This isn't conservatism; it's a going-out-of-business sale for the baby-boom generation.

[Berkut]

For the past three years, the media have praised the enthusiasm and energy the tea party has brought to the GOP. Yet it's telling that that movement has failed time and again to produce even a remotely credible candidate for president. Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich: The list of tea-party candidates reads like the early history of the U.S. space program, a series of humiliating fizzles and explosions that never achieved liftoff. A political movement that never took governing seriously was exploited by a succession of political entrepreneurs uninterested in governing—but all too interested in merchandising. Much as viewers tune in to American Idol to laugh at the inept, borderline dysfunctional early auditions, these tea-party champions provide a ghoulish type of news entertainment each time they reveal that they know nothing about public affairs and have never attempted to learn. But Cain's gaffe on Libya or Perry's brain freeze on the Department of Energy are not only indicators of bad leadership. They are indicators of a crisis of followership. The tea party never demanded knowledge or concern for governance, and so of course it never got them.

[Berkut]

Damn, this guy writes exactly what I would write, if I could write for a damn.

But it's one thing to point out (accurately) that President Obama's stimulus plan was mostly a compilation of antique Democratic wish lists, and quite another to argue that the correct response to the worst collapse since the thirties is to wait for the economy to get better on its own. It's one thing to worry (wisely) about the long-term trend in government spending, and another to demand big, immediate cuts when 25 million are out of full-time work and the government can borrow for ten years at 2 percent.

[Ancient Demon]

I agree with pretty much all of this.

[Admiral Yi]

I agree with about a third to one half.

[Sheilbh]

I agree with about a third to one half.

Which bits do you agree with and which do you disagree with?

Then fight with Berk

[Admiral Yi]

Which bits do you agree with and which do you disagree with?

Then fight with Berk

I agree about the Tea Party and governance.  I agree about lowering taxes for the wealthy.  I don't know what he's talking about when he says they want to raise benefits for the old.  I don't think the debt limit fight was for debating points.  I think he's too cavalier in general about further deficit spending.

[Viking]

Interesting reading: http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/

What do you think? Bitter whining of a traitor or cogent analysis?

Applying reason and appreciating the values of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke makes you a RINO.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Today's parties want tough talk, not sensible debate.  That's why no one who matters will even bother to read this beyond dismissing him as a Socialist in sheep's clothing.

[Razgovory]

Which bits do you agree with and which do you disagree with?

Then fight with Berk

I agree about the Tea Party and governance.  I agree about lowering taxes for the wealthy.  I don't know what he's talking about when he says they want to raise benefits for the old.  I don't think the debt limit fight was for debating points.  I think he's too cavalier in general about further deficit spending.

Poor Yi.  What did you think when Bush cut taxes and destroyed the hard fought and carefully built surpluses with a stroke of a pen?