Frum: Listen Up, Conservatives

David Frum on the lesson conservatives need to learn from the British Tory party:

The leader you want is someone who appeals to the voters you need to gain, not the voters you already have.

American conservatism is in trouble for many reasons, but the most direct and immediate is the swing away from conservatism by edu­cated and professional voters, once the backbone of the Republican party, and especially by educated and pro­fessional women. American conservatives have become very skilled at speaking to the swing voters of a genera­tion ago: northern white ethnic Catholics and southern white Protestants, the famous “Reagan Democrats.” Conservative Democrats today make up only about 6 percent of the American electorate. By contrast, college-educated white women make up more than 15 percent of the electorate. It is foolhardy to choose leaders who woo the first group if they repel the latter.

Yet, this is exactly what elements of the GOP seem to be doing as suggested in a recent New York Times Sunday Magazine profile of Dick Armey. Armey is touring the country on behalf of Freedom Works, a conservative advocacy group making statements clearly intended to rile the Republican base such as:

Nearly every important office in Washington, D.C., today is occupied by someone with an aggressive dislike for our heritage, our freedom, our history and our Constitution.

By his own admission he doesn't mind stretching the truth in opposing the Obama administration.

Armey prides himself on his intellect and rationality, but his years in Washington have taught him the political uses of irrationality and even outright fantasy. He told me he does not believe some of the most extreme charges that emerged in the debate over health care reform — for example, that “death panels” will tell elderly people when it’s time to die — but he welcomes the energy and passion that such beliefs bring to his side. “You know that expression: The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” he asked. “Are their fears exaggerated? Yeah, probably. But are Obama’s promises exaggerated? I may think it’s silly, but if people want to believe that,” he said, referring to death panels, “it’s O.K. with me.”

If Frum is correct about the GOP's need to expand its tent, particularly in attracting educated professionals, it may be that Armey's over-heated rhetoric and fact-challenged tactics are self-defeating. These educated voters are probably well-informed enough to know when they are being sand-bagged.

--Ballard Burgher