RSS Feed MenuBelow, I’ve addressed why the liberty v. tyranny trope self-betrays conservative history and why it corrodes America’s constitutional norms. But that’s not the bottom of it. Today’s conservative despair also sabotages our effectiveness in practical politics.
Here we are in the summer of 2009, facing an administration that wants to insert government directly into health care provision. Bad idea, all conservatives would agree.
Unfortunately, nonconservatives do not agree. About three-quarters of all Americans are prepared to agree that it is “extremely” or “quite” important to offer a government-run alternative to private health plans. (See question 34 in this link.)
How to change their minds? Well here’s one way not to do it: holler that a public plan is the first (or final) step on the road to tyranny. After all, many of these people have parents or grandparents enrolled in Medicare, also a public plan. Is Medicare tyranny? Costly, irrational and unsustainable yes. But tyrannical?
Politics is not an exercise in self-expression. It’s an exercise in persuasion. The targets of that persuasion are not the already persuaded but the as yet unpersuaded. It is their concerns that need to be understand, their questions answered, their values appealed to. Harry and Louise did not denounce Clintoncare as fascism. They explained how it would harm the people it purported to help, and they made their case in calm commonsense terms and tone.
In today’s debate, conservatives could show that a public option will invite private employers to end their coverage and dump their employees into the government plan. Americans are practical people, and they’ll respond to practical sense. Because Americans start with a bias in favor of free enterprise, they’ll respond especially well to sensible conservative arguments. But if we elevate everything to an immediate 11 on the Spinal Tap sound amplifier, we’ll lose, and not just elections, but the deepest values we are trying to defend via elections.
In this year 2009, it often seems that liberals offer policies and conservatives offer emotions. True, the liberals offer bad policies and conservatives offer understandable or anyway pardonable emotions. Rick Santelli expressed something real and true in his famous CNBC outburst.
But emotional outbursts need to be the rarity, not the routine, in politics. This problem-solving country does not trust people who cannot master their feelings in the service of their goals. Ask yourself this: who was angrier in 2008? Obama or McCain? Who was angrier in 2004, Bush or Kerry? Bush or Gore? Dole or Clinton? It’s almost a rule of American politics: in any important race, the angrier candidate nearly always loses.
This is part three in a series. Read the other articles here.
ConservativeJoe // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:59 pm
David, you quit whining. If you want to fight craziness, like birtherism, fair enough. Otherwise, conservatives will win by acting like Reagan.
Unoriginal huh? It is common sense and classic.
The conservative core principals are individual liberties, fiscal conservatism, smaller government, patriotism, states rights, and strong national defense. Many are pro life and pro guns. Those themes all work for conservatives and still work.
Being civil to Democrats, fine, that is very Reaganesque. That does not mean giving into them on their issues at the expense of ours.
ConservativeJoe // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:02 pm
And I also get Republicans/Conservatives in New England, Middle Atlantic, Pacific NW, and California have to run differently than other parts of the country. But that does not mean they have to be Arlen Spectors or Lincoln Chaffees either.
ottovbvs // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:04 pm
………..Unfortunately Mr Frum you’re being awfully inconsistent…….In “Whining 1 and 2″ you amongst other things bemoan conservative’s hyperbole and ignoring of history and yet Medicare is in your words “costly and irrational.” Medicare, the system that provides American seniors with access to healthcare, that has an overhead of around 3.5% of disbursements versus one of at least 18% for private insurers. Let’s assume Medicare wasn’t there. A typical plan for a 60-65 year old is around $1,200 a month, I’m sure it gets progressively higher as you get oldder so you could have a typical married couple of around 70 spending probably $25-30,000 a year to purchase health insurance in your perfect world of completely free markets and no govt plans………Do you know what the median family income of the 65+ age group?
ConservativeJoe // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:05 pm
And I am all for finding a conservative cheerful warrior for 2012, but it is conservative + cheerful + warrior.
ConservativeJoe // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Dialing to 11 is sometimes necessary to get people’s attention. Harriet Miers comes to mind. Do it in a civil manner, but stopping this health care disaster (it truly is a disaster) has to be job one right now for conservatives.
ottovbvs // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:09 pm
conservativejoe // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:02 pm
” But that does not mean they have to be Arlen Spectors or Lincoln Chaffees either.”
……….Well then they won’t get elected as Mr Toomey and Mr Santorum have already found out……..you don’t yet understand that Republican policies just aren’t very popular in the NE, mid Atlantic and on the west coast………as of now the GOP is on it’s way to being a Southern regional party.
Spartacus // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:10 pm
“In today’s debate, conservatives could show that a public option will invite private employers to end their coverage and dump their employees into the government plan.”
It’s kind of hard to show the public something that simply is not true.
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/07/28/cbo-public-option-wont-kill-private-insurers/
“Politics is not an exercise in self-expression. It’s an exercise in persuasion. ” That’s very true and the most persuasive arguments are the ones that are based on facts – not ideology.
ottovbvs // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:12 pm
conservativejoe // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:07 pm
” but stopping this health care disaster (it truly is a disaster)”
………And how precisely is it a disaster……..Do you have parents……..are they on Medicare or likely to be on it in the next ten years?……..Any relatives working for the govt?…….any relatives participating in the most pure form of socialized medicine in the US……the VA.
ottovbvs // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Spartacus // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:10 pm
” and dump their employees into the government plan”
……….Note the use of the pejorative “dump”………most people without insurance or struggling to pay for it would be quite happy to be “dumped” in Medicare
midcon // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:41 pm
On the Medicare note – since that is optional and run by the government, would that not be considered a “public option” that has been in existence for a number of years? Just wondering.
ottovbvs // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:49 pm
midcon // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:41 pm
“On the Medicare note – since that is optional and run by the government, would that not be considered a “public option” that has been in existence for a number of years?”
…………That’s exactly what it is……..you don’t have to participate in Medicare if you don’t want to……I’m sure Warren Buffett isn’t on medicare (eeerrrr you never know……..ok say Henry Kissinger)…….For the non Kissingers there’s also the option of an advantage plan where you make over your medicare payments to a private insurer………these plans are a great buy because the govt is actually paying insurance companies about 13% more than it costs to cover a medicare participant (a Bush boondoggle) and a very small supplement gets you a heck of a deal (I’m in one) but technically you’re opting out of Medicare…….they’re not going to last but I knew that going in.
PaulFrank // Jul 28, 2009 at 6:38 pm
The gauntlet Frum’s throwing down is cultural: No matter how desperate certain conservatives are to deny it, America is no longer Andy Griffith’s Mayberry RFD.
America stopped being Mayberry RFD when Goober’s gas pumping job was eliminated by swipe-and-go technology, and his gas station got swallowed by a multinational based in Amsterdam. It stopped being Mayberry RFD when seventeen languages started being spoken at Mayberry High School. It stopped being Mayberry RFD when Aunt Bea came out of the closet, and her new neighbors invited her over for homemade chimichangas. (And they don’t even know who Ronald Reagan is–they confuse him with the soccer player Ronaldo.) Meanwhile, over at the Mayberry Baptist school, the local Buddhists have rented a classroom for meditation on Thursday nights.
In my humble opinion, conservatives are at a historic crossroads. And they can react to this vast and inescapable change in America in one of two ways:
They can either charge into the swirling arena, and reach out to the more complicated and diverse country that we live in by becoming more supple and inclusive (ie, more open to experiments, new ideas) ; or they can recoil in fear from it–or maybe even hold it in scorn–and simply hope that they can re-package and sell nostalgia for the fading Mayberry RFD of old. (White, Christianity-steeped, gun-toting, anti-immigrant, and above all ideologically ‘pure’. That is, Palin’s fabled ‘real America.’)
America will be a minority-majority country in 2042, according to the US Census Bureau.
Politics is Darwinian. These are going to be interesting years.
dragonlady // Jul 28, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I’m tired of Frum making caricatures out of conservative figures he disagrees with, yet turns around and accuses them of making caricatures out of moderates by calling them RINOs, etc. Pointing out a public option may incrementally lead to socialized medicine is not hyperbole. And pointing out socialized medicine changes the relationship between government and the individual, in the most intrusive and private manner is factually correct. You give up some form of liberty in pursuit of egalitarinism. There’s a huge difference between providing health care to the vulnerable (Medicare/Medicaid) and instituting socialized medicine for the entire country. Obama said in his presser specifically he prefers a single payer system. Who are we kidding on what the public option will lead to? It will result in socialized medicine where the results will be the govt owns over 50% of the economy. If that is not democratic socialism, then what is? Screaming tyranny and fascism is not an argument in and of itself but the problem with Frum’s article is he is not refuting specific points in anyone’s argument. If this is about tone (and yes, at times, I find Hannity, Beck, and Levin shrill), then I think he may have a point. But these pundits are not turning off voters. To the contrary, polls show the majority oppose the Dem/Obamacare plan. People are standing up in townhalls screaming at the HHS Secretary that you will not socialize this country. The Dems are even thinking about dropping the “public option” verbiage to “public cooperatives” or whatever that means. So I think conservatives actually have momentum on this fight. This is not the time to back down. Where we are foundering is in offering cogent alternatives for health care reform and persuading the public on them (as Frum says). Since individualism is at the core of conservative philosophy, we should put the patient at the heart of any health care reform, not the drs, insurance companies, drug companies, etc. But as usual, Frum misfires by trying to pick a fight with the base. I think NM did much better when discussed the merits and drawbacks to different health care alternatives.
barker13 // Jul 28, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Re: Paulfrank // Jul 28, 2009 at 6:38 pm –
I liked Mayberry.
(BTW, the Valaro gas stations I frequent usually have anywhere from four to six “pump jockeys” handling the action. True… they don’t much resemble “Goober”… but what the heck, right? (*GRIN*)
Re: Dragonlady // Jul 28, 2009 at 6:48 pm –
DL. Frum’s pushing Frum. Don’t take it personally. It’s not about ideology. It’s about money. NM is a loss leader for Frum – just a way of keeping his name out there. It’s how the game is played.
(*SHRUG*) (*SIGH*)
BILL
JohnMcC // Jul 28, 2009 at 7:52 pm
“…and yes, at times, I find Hannity, Beck and Levin shrill…” Absolutely the quote of the day!
Balmung // Jul 28, 2009 at 8:20 pm
David, you’re whining. Quit it.
VA Shepherd // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Otto says: (ottovbvs // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:09 pm) you don’t yet understand that Republican policies just aren’t very popular in the NE, mid Atlantic and on the west coast………as of now the GOP is on it’s way to being a Southern regional party.
I thought so too, up until about 3 months ago; I see the field opening up quite nicely for conservative candidates.
Chekote // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:24 pm
The only question I have is why didn’t we hear any talk about tyranny when GWB expanded Medicare, implemented No Child Left Behind and Faith Based Initiatives? Just curious.
rohall // Jul 29, 2009 at 7:41 am
If you are a conservative and you didn’t hear any negative talk (on talk radio) about GWB the last four years of his presidency, you weren’t paying attention.
Frum, you seem to be smart by half.
Quit Whining 4 // Jul 29, 2009 at 7:49 am
[...] – as some critics of this series have argued – I am too complacent in the face of an unprecedented attack on American liberties. [...]
sinz54 // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:03 am
The anger and despair you’re seeing from the Right mirrors Kubler-Ross’s famous stages of grief:
Denial (“Obama didn’t really win a mandate”)
Anger (endless examples from talk radio and the blogosphere)
Bargaining (“We can try to postpone the inevitable day of a Soviet socialist America”)
Depression (“America is doomed, America is going to be a Soviet socialist state no matter what we do”)
Acceptance (“OK, America has problems–now let’s accept that and see what we can do about it”)
Conservatives haven’t quite gotten over the shock of having Americans repudiate them. This is no different than what happened to Democrats in 1980 or 1992.
Any good psychologist would tell Frum that demanding that hurt, grieving conservatives just “quit whining” will do more harm than good. Frum wouldn’t say that to a friend who had just lost a loved one and was still grieving over that loss.
The best thing Frum can do in this arena is: NOTHING. Don’t scold anybody. Just be patient. Working through their hurt is something conservatives have to do for themselves. And they will.
I predict that as the 2010 campaign begins in earnest, the anger will be replaced by a calm determination to win the 2010 election. It always works that way.
So I regard Frum’s series as useless, because it’s a non-issue.
ottovbvs // Jul 29, 2009 at 10:42 am
sinz54 // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:03 am
” So I regard Frum’s series as useless, because it’s a non-issue.”
…………There are no schisms in the Republican party……….Republican party id in polls is not at historic lows…….the GOP has a host of positive policy platforms to put forward……..the Republican party is enjoying unprecedented levels of support among the young, women and minorities……and all is well with the world
ottovbvs // Jul 29, 2009 at 10:44 am
sinz54 // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:03 am
“The anger and despair you’re seeing from the Right mirrors Kubler-Ross’s famous stages of grief:
Anger (endless examples from talk radio and the blogosphere)”
………..Anger is where things are right now and will be for a while because the Limbaughs and Levins of this world are keeping the fires well stoked
barker13 // Jul 29, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Re: Chekote // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:24 pm –
“The only question I have is why didn’t we hear any talk about tyranny when GWB expanded Medicare, implemented No Child Left Behind and Faith Based Initiatives? Just curious.”
Where were you… living in one of Saddam’s bunkers? (*GRIN*) (*FRIENDLY BACKSLAP*)
Seriously, Chekote, how many times do you have to be reminded that many conservatives – including elected conservative Republicans in the House, Senate, and serving Governors – opposed Bush’s expansion of Medicare, particularly the Medicare drug benefit. (*SHRUG*) As for NCLB, conservatives saw the promised focus on renewed QUALITY of education to be worth the extra costs and increased proliferation of federal mandates. Finally, as to Faith Based Initiatives… what’s anti-conservative about pushing for an expansion of PRIVATE charities replacing actual government bureaucracy…??? (Heck… it was simply an extension of Pappy Bush’s “1,000 Points of Light” concept.
NOW… (since for whatever reason YOU ignored it)… allow me to make your argument for you…
(*WINK*) (*GUFFAW*)
Here’s where *I* pounded Bush: “Citizen Enemy Combatants.”
Yep. The whole concept of a president – ANY president – being able to simply “declare” an American citizen to be a suspected “citizen enemy combatant” and thus strip that citizen of ANY portion of his or her civil rights… THAT was the area to go after Bush on.
But, hey… just as I take pride in being intellectually consistent, allow me to point out… very few on the Right OR the Left echoed my position then or now.
Here… you want an assignment…??? Do a bit of research. See if OBAMA has OFFICIALLY renounced this supposed “presidential power.” (*SHRUG*)
I’m a constitutionalist. I’m intellectually consistent. Unfortunately… there aren’t many like me out there; there certainly aren’t many serving in the House, Senate, or in the White House. (*SHRUG*)
Re: Sinz54 // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:03 am –
“Conservatives haven’t quite gotten over the shock of having Americans repudiate them.”
(*SIGH*)
You don’t get it, Sinz. Apparently you’ll never get it.
“Conservatives” were BETRAYED by “pragmatists.”
“Conservatives” were tarred by being tied to RINOs.
And, yes, Sinz… to agree where agreement is called for… “fiscal conservatives” and “constitutionalist conservatives,” in other words, “small government conservatives” and “libertarian leaning conservatives” were out-muscled by the “Christian Right” – the more unified Christian Right who were focused on social issues such as Right-To-Life but to such an absolutist extent (think Terry Schiavo) and to such an “overplaying their hand” extent that it caused blowback against the entire GOP.
“I predict that as the 2010 campaign begins in earnest, the anger will be replaced by a calm determination to win the 2010 election.”
Well… I hope you’re right… but let’s not kid ourselves…
I detest Charlie Crist more than John McCain! (You probably like Crist…) (If not… YEAH!) (*WINK*)
Certainly you’re not going to rally to Huckabee. (And neither am I!) (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
Christy in NJ… I fear he’ll be another Whitman. (*SHRUG*)
Nope. We’ve got a long way to go to unify this Party. At least folks like you and I both seem focused on doing what we can towards that goal.
WHICH BRINGS US TO DAVID FRUM…
(*BAD TASTE IN MY MOUTH*)
BILL