Frum on Mt. Vernon Letter

Conservative commentator David Frum notes that the Mt. Vernon letter signed by prominent leaders of the conservative and tea party movements offers nothing in terms of solutions to pressing problems such as dropping incomes, unemployment, health care, the terrorist threat, or the environment.

We hear that 80 conservative leaders will gather today near George Washington’s Mt. Vernon to release a statement of principle. The statement, an advance copy of which can be read here, does a nice job of harmonizing the divergent points of view of the existing conservative establishment. But it exists in airless isolation from the actual concerns, troubles, and challenges facing the people of the country conservatives seek to lead.

The document answers one question and one question only. If you agree that Barack Obama is engaged in a deliberate and relentless attack on the American constitutional order, well be assured: the conservative establishment is on your side. But if you think those worries are a hysterical distraction from the country’s actual problems? To you, the conservative world says: go away. We have nothing to offer you.

--Ballard Burgher