{"id":9494,"date":"2010-03-21T23:59:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T03:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=9494"},"modified":"2010-03-21T23:59:22","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T03:59:22","slug":"david-frum-health-care-waterloo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/03\/21\/david-frum-health-care-waterloo\/","title":{"rendered":"David Frum: “Health Care Waterloo” [Updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"frum0701\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Update: <\/strong>Frum yesterday declared in an interview<\/a> with ABC, “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we’re discovering that we work for Fox.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ex-pat Canadian conservative pundit David Frum<\/a>, (son of the late great CBC journalist Barbara Frum<\/a>) has declared the GOP defeat on health care reform <\/a>their Waterloo:<\/p>\n

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.<\/p>\n

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or \u2013 more exactly \u2013 with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters \u2013 but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say \u2013 but what is equally true \u2013 is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed \u2013 if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office \u2013 Rush\u2019s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Frum’s punchline: “<\/em>So today\u2019s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry<\/em>.” [My italics]<\/p>\n

That says it all.\u00a0 “The conservative entertainment industry” includes all of Fox News: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year, and prominently features the clownish figures who are its most public face: Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity.\u00a0 How can you tell when Fox News pundits are lying?\u00a0 Their lips move<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Don’t, therefore, believe the reflexively flung ‘conventional wisdom” that the “political fallout” will cost the Democrats congressional seats during the November midterm elections.\u00a0 If the GOP believed that, they would not be offering a speaking-in-tongues serving of lies and hysteria, including the ludicrously resurrected “death panels”, not to mention this week’s increasingly incoherent scare tactics over “fiscal responsibility”.\u00a0 Bush and the GOP controlled congress, you’ll recall, threw away trillions in savings by giving tax breaks to the rich while starting two ongoing wars, one of which was supposed to pay for itself with oil revenue.\u00a0 Since when did the Republicans care about the bottom line?<\/p>\n

This vote on health care reform may well be a watershed generational win; a slow but gradual move back toward liberal government whose first interest is in the basic rights and well being of citizens rather than of corporate interests at the cost of everything else.\u00a0 There’s still a long way to go.\u00a0 But, irony of ironies, this may indeed, as Frum suggests, prove to be the GOP’s Waterloo — which is exactly what was smugly predicted (and dutifully repeated in the MSM) for Obama himself just two months ago.\u00a0 Remember Republicans crowing, “Health reform is dead<\/a> and it’s not coming back”?<\/p>\n

Why do Republicans underestimate Obama?\u00a0 It can only be that they still think they’re dealing with someone no brighter, no more capable, no more courageous, and no more principled than Bush.<\/p>\n

That’s some big boo boo.\u00a0 Perhaps fatal.<\/p>\n

This victory for liberalism redefines both the centre and the assumption that government serves the people<\/em>, and not, as the Republicans would have Americans believe, the other way round<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So it’s a good day for progressives.\u00a0 It doesn’t mean the job is anywhere near done.\u00a0 And it certainly doesn’t mean the other side stops being crazy: like the Teabaggers<\/a> who spat at Rep. John Lewis on Saturday and called him “Nigger” and called Rep. Barney Frank “Faggot.”\u00a0 But it does mean the crazy can be contained and made increasingly irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Let’s be clear: health care is a right of citizenship — and it is both socially and economically productive besides, like education.\u00a0 Only the American right wing is blind to this, and for entirely self-serving reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: Frum yesterday declared in an interview with ABC, “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we’re discovering that we work for Fox.”\u00a0 Ex-pat Canadian conservative pundit David Frum, (son of the late great CBC journalist Barbara Frum) has declared the GOP defeat on health care reform their Waterloo: We followed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nDavid Frum: "Health Care Waterloo" [Updated] - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/03\/21\/david-frum-health-care-waterloo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Frum: "Health Care Waterloo" [Updated] - 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