Judging Frum's Conservative Bona Fides
Poking around a used book store in Maryland last weekend, I stumbled onto a National Review pamphlet about immigration from earlier in the decade that gathered the opinions of several conservative writers. Prominently listed on the cover as a staunch conservative proponent of enforcing the law: David Frum.
As immigration again rears its head as a hot-button issue, the pamphlet is a timely reminder of how Frum hasn't changed one whit on the fundamentals. His article in defense of the decidedly hard-right new law in Arizona should remind everyone whose side he's on. So why do so many people think otherwise? I think I can answer this question.
Two shelves over from the pamphlet, I come across an old advance copy of Dead Right. Flipping through the pages, one sees that the Frum of the 90's sounds a lot like the Frum of 2010: then as now he is skeptical about whether the Religious Right is to blame for our ills, then as now he is on guard against isolationist tendencies in the party. But most importantly: he is still conscious of the power of ideas and the importance of the vital center in holding together a governing coalition. Not because there's something magical and inherently virtuous about "the center," but because it's the pulse-taker of where the culture is comfortable with moving.
Frum's mission has always been to connect with the broader electorate on the basis of good governance. It's not and has never been about positioning the party in "the middle" or on "the right," but rather about governing pragmatically in a non-ideological manner. These classically conservative tendencies confuse both the Tea Party crowd and the media, and for the same reason: they don't know what traditional conservatism is. The conservative political theorist Russell Kirk once recounted becoming aghast when a young Republican told him that he believed in the "conservative ideology." Fundamentally, to Frum like to Kirk, conservatism is not an ideology -- which Kirk described cogently as a drug -- but a sober way of looking at the world. Frum still believes in the power of incentives rather than in human dispositions, he still believes in the importance of a vibrant and coherent culture, he still believes that dogma is the enemy of prudence. As today's conservatism becomes more and more dogmatic, it's no surprise that Frum would feel like a bit of an outsider.
Anyone who thinks that Frum "left conservatism" knows nothing about Frum or conservatism. If people would hit the books rather than the streets, perhaps they'd realize that.