March
11th 2009
Posted under Conservatism & NeoCons
Frum is a slimy little character assasin. First he was a neocon smearing paleocons. Now he’s a moderate out to save the GOP from conservatives that he and his urban, elitist circle think are icky. None of this should shock his former colleagues at NRO.
I don’t have much use for Limbaugh, but my criticism is of course from the right, not the squishy center.
HT: Tom Piatak
Weaver on 11 Mar 2009 at 2:30 am #
Limbaugh did breach the neocon line with that Obama the Magic Negro song.
He should have known better than to criticise the Messiah, who only happens to be half black and was chosen entirely on the merit of his extensive political career.
Smart A** on 11 Mar 2009 at 2:38 am #
“Frum is a slimy little character assasin.”
I totally disagree with this. David Frum is definitely not little.
Big Fella' on 11 Mar 2009 at 2:50 am #
For an ethnocentric tribalist like David Frum to call Rush a racist is really rich.
Sean Scallon on 11 Mar 2009 at 3:12 pm #
Frum attacks Limbaugh. Gingrich attacks Limbaugh. Limbaugh attacks them both. Let them cut each other up. We don’t have a dog in this fight and to watch it is simply entertainment.
As Dan Larison said, this is not a fight between “elites” and the “grassroots.” People who have private jets and live Citzen Kane style in a Palm Beach mansion are not “grassroots.” Limabugh has always wanted to be a part of the elite and now he is and is probably wealthier than Frum or Gingrich combined. The elite media in turn defers to him and makes him into a “leader.” No, this is a fight amongst Cosmos and so much the better.
That being said, Limbaugh and his talk show brethern (notice that we’re talking about him and none of the other would-be “leaders” like Hannity or Savage or O’Reilly which shows you the pecking order still remains) have a right to be upset that those politicians and former administration officials turned pundits and media talking heads, who would be nothing without all those Dittoheads voting for them, are turning on them and blaming them for their problems after spending a nearly two decades calling Rush “Leader of the Opposition” and “Honorary Member of the Class of 1994?. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle. After legitimizing Rush by the cover of your magazines and using his supporters as your political shock troop army, to turn around and try to kick him out of the cocktail party for being an uncouth is not only the height of hypocrisy, but also basically sums up what the phrase “being used” is all about.
And once again Frum maddens with his lack of prespective and or history. Apparently being ostratcized and being read out of the “movement” by his former collegues has not made him reflective or and wiser about his attempts to do just that to paleos in the pages of NR itself. Frum goes from being a Gramm Conservative of 1994 to being a Tom Dewey Republican of 2009 and doesn’t inform you as to why, you just have to accept evolutionary theory I guess. It only makes him look as shallow as the talk show hosts, always riding different popular waves. The same is true of politicians like Gingirich. No one amongst these Cosmos has any fealty to principle. No one.
As the old African proverb goes, when the elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. Getting trampled of course are the very grassroots who are now forced to pick sides among people they once considered allies or whose books fill their bookshelves at home. Red talks about the people hurt in “friendly fire” and I think it good point to be made. I have been critical of Rush and all the aforementioned, but to go after the Dittoheads too is counterproductive in the long run. I think there are a lot of us as young paleos who grew up as Rush and talk show listeners who ultimately stopped listening because we didn’t like what he was saying anymore. But we came to that decision on our own or were influenced by publications like Chronicles.
The talkshow audience is going to have to make up their own minds in the same way. Right now they blame the politicians for their problems and it may take more election defeats to get them to realize that the critiques of Larison and Derbyshire and others of whole genre are true in that what you are trying to sell, most U.S. citizens aren’t interested in anymore. But assulting them and scapegoating them only makes them cling to Limbaugh and other talk show hosts all the tighter as a defensive reaction.
The important thing is that when they realize that all their gods have failed, we are around with an alternative, a natural alternative that’s no longer poisioned by ideology or litmus tests or loyalty oaths. But they can only come on their own accord and only they can lead themselves to water when they thirst.
Captainchaos on 11 Mar 2009 at 7:11 pm #
Oy vey!