The Four Phases Of Political Recovery

That's Sir Humphrey Appleby in the art up there - the comic civil servant from the classic British political series, Yes Minister. In Sir Humphrey's world, policy always went through four phases, as in this legendary exchange...

Sir Richard: Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis. In Stage One we say that nothing is going to happen.

Sir Humphrey: Stage Two, we say something may be going to happen but we should do nothing about it.

Sir Richard: Stage Three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.

Sir Humphrey: Stage Four, we say maybe there is something we could have done, but it's too late now.

I've been thinking about Sir Humphrey a lot recently as I listen to Republicans and conservatives debate the way forward. I am beginning to see our own four-phase path to recovery.

Stage One: we didn't really lose - it was all a communications problem!

Stage Two: OK, we lost - but that's because the voters are idiots.

Stage Three: OK, maybe the voters aren't total idiots - but there's nothing we can do to woo them, we have our unchanging principles.

Stage Four: Hey - maybe there IS something we can do.

As I see our mission here at FrumForum.com, it is to help Republicans and conservatives arrive at Stage Four as rapidly as possible.