Slowly but surely, former Bush speechwriter David Frum has been working to restore his credibility. After his White House stint — he is often credited for coining the “axis of evil” phrase — Frum remained a loyal Bushie in the conservative media for quite a while, until a few months ago, when ht started to voice restrained concerns about today’s Republican Party.
In August, for example, Frum wrote a piece on Karl Rove’s tenure, which argued that Rove crafted a White House political strategy that was predicated on helping Republicans, instead of helping the country.
Over the weekend, Frum went even further, publishing a piece accusing conservative Republicans in general of embracing an unhealthy, anti-intellectual worldview.
Look, for example, at the state of the Republican presidential race…. Huckabee and Paul have not the faintest idea of what they are talking about. The problem is not that their answers are wrong — that can happen to anyone. The problem is that they don’t understand the questions, and are too lazy or too arrogant to learn. But say that aloud and their partisans will shout back: Elitism!
On its face, this retort is ridiculous. How exactly is it elitist to expect a candidate for president to be immune to obvious flim-flam? Or to submit his ideas to criticism — and change them if they cannot stand up?
And yet it also has to be admitted: Many of us on the conservative side have fed this monster. (Rightly) aghast at the abuse of expertise by liberal judges, liberal bureaucrats and liberal academics, we have sometimes over-reacted by denying the importance of expertise altogether.
Such as a president who makes fun of people with post-graduate degrees, for example?
I’m delighted to see Frum come to this realization, but the irony is, Frum helped feed the right-wing, anti-intellectual monster, and it’s safe to assume that monster is now going to bite Frum for coming to his senses.
” ‘Heart’ is crucial,” one of George W. Bush’s early evangelical supporters argued in a 2005 newspaper column. This same writer accused those conservatives who questioned Bush’s “faith-based initiative” of having “holes in their souls.”
So now instead of holes in our souls, we conservatives are getting candidates with holes in their heads.
Here’s the lesson to learn: It’s always important to respect the values and principles of the voters. But politicians who want to deliver effective government and positive results have to care about more than values — and have to do more than check their guts. They need to study the problem, master the evidence, and face criticism.
They must, in other words, do the exact opposite of what Frum’s former boss has done in the Oval Office for nearly seven years.
Kevin pointed to this classic quote from John DiIulio, Bush’s former director of the White House faith-based office: “In eight months, I heard many, many staff discussions, but not three meaningful, substantive policy discussions…. The lack of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing more, was somewhat breathtaking.”
Now, at least a couple of those Bushies are beginning to wonder if perhaps the country would have been better off with a White House that took issues seriously. It’s a little late now, don’t you think?