In Defense Of David Frum (Sort Of, At Least A Little)

Today is David Frum’s birthday. No, I didn’t get him a card, an offense for which no doubt there will be reciprocation come the twenty-third of next month, when yours truly marks the anniversary of his arrival on this mortal coil. But I digress. (And the rest of you have no excuse for not sending me one.)

Anyway, the occasion of commemorating Mr. Frum’s parents having enjoyed a particularly fruitful moment some nine months earlier has provided inspiration for assorted snarks and swipes by assorted members of the conservative online community, among whom Frum is slightly less popular than psoriasis. Which is their right and privilege.

That duly noted…

It’s oft said by the more hardened among us, who believe the name of Christ isn’t a swear word, that only Christians kill their wounded. I propose an amendment: conservatives do a pretty good job of this as well. Or, at the least, shooting ourselves in the foot when attempting to take potshots at each other.

It’s not that I am the world’s biggest Frum fan. I’m fairly certain that would be Mr. Frum himself. For the record, should the opportunity ever present itself to engage him in conversation — not holding my breath, but stranger things have happened — the two agenda items I’ll be certain to bring up are: 1) Jesus is the promised Messiah; 2) a come-to-Jesus, shall we say, “informational session” about the error of his ways concerning Sarah Palin. He’s a bright guy; I’m sure he’ll appreciate acquiring knowledge with which to correct misinformation. Or installation of the fear of God. His choice.

Anyway, despite the aforementioned regrettable shortcomings, there is more often than not precise truth and wisdom in Mr. Frum’s commentary. So why is he so reviled among so many in the conservative online community? Yes, in addition to the aforementioned flubs Mr. Frum can be rather condescending. We all have our pet sins. Do we demand we be ostracized for these? No. So why demand it of others? Other than the mote in your eye, plank in mine scenario.

“But… but he criticizes other conservatives!” comes the cry. Right. And no one else ever does that sort of thing.

“But… but he’s the one who keeps getting asked by liberal television shows and magazines and newspapers to do stuff for them because they like him because he’ll talk trash about other conservatives and conservative issues!” comes the second chorus.

And you’ve never gone down that road?

How many conservative pundits ripped on President Bush for one reason or another? How many said “attagirl” when a few months ago Michelle Malkin bitched about all the reasons she doesn’t miss Bush? How many of the same people either sat silent or joined in when Palin was being blasted from all sides before she started systematically crushing the opposition underneath her heel, then suddenly were Sarah Fan Number One? Frum is 99 44/100% wrong about her, but at least he’s been consistent in his errors rather than change his tune when she started winning.

Yes, Frum whines and plays the contrarian, the smug intellectual. In short, he thinks he’s always right and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong. Just like…

… oh, most everyone who blogs about politics.

Back to the kvetch about how Frum is a go-to guy for the liberal media when it comes time to have a token conservative in the house. (Hey, at least they’re not still calling Andrew Sullivan… or are they?) Is the basis for the gripe Frum’s freeform bashing? Or is it that he’s the one with the name recognition and the paycheck? Sounds more like jealousy than anything else.

Let’s try some honesty. CNN was the irrelevant evil empire until the moment it hired Erick Erickson. Then it was dancing in the streets time because “we” had credibility. Like “we” need mainstream media’s validation via inclusion to be legitimate.

It’s time for some more honesty, as in self-reflection. We do a great job of talking to each other. We do an even greater job of replicating high school, with our cliques and criteria as to who’s in and who’s out. But are we effectively reaching people with our message? No. The people don’t know we exist. They’re not turning to us for news and analysis. They’re just not.

So what do we do about it?

Bash David Frum.

Yeah, that’ll solve everything.

Instead of beating up on the David Frums of this world, perhaps we should aim a few of those blows in our direction with the hope of knocking some sense into ourselves. We need to stop kidding ourselves about our place in society and power in politics. We are peashooters going up against heavy artillery. No, we are not an army of Davids. We’re too busy using up our minuscule supply of stones on each other. Which leaves us where when the giant lumbers past?

Forget Frum. Clean your own house.

And lest I forget, happy birthday, Mr. Frum.