Unconventional Wisdom: David Frum on GOP Revival

Conservative columnist David Frum lists four requirements for a Republican comeback in the current issue of Newsweek. They are:

1) Economic policies relevant to the middle class
2) A more moderate social/cultural message
3) An environmental ethic of their own
4) More competent governing

We Republicans cannot recover the votes of the college-educated until we understand why we lost them. So long as we think Barack Obama won because of a fluke—because he waltzed into an economic crisis, or because his supporters somehow mastered better election technology, or because he somehow bamboozled the American public with vague, endearing promises of change—so long as we think those things, so long will our troubles continue. Barack Obama won because a majority of Americans believed he was an intelligent, levelheaded and responsible person who could solve problems they cared about. If we're to beat him—or succeed him—we're going to have to convince them that we can do the same or better.

Frum is one of the more sensible writers on the GOP side. They are currently paying the price for allying themselves with the Religious Right and with George W. Bush. He clearly recognizes the party's need to rid itself of its current identity of rigidity and incompetence.

--Ballard Burgher