Collapse of Conservative Elite

Conservative pundit David Frum relates an anecdote from a friend describing the disappearance of the conservative intellectual elite on Frum Forum.

"You’re not even mad at Fox News. You want to win elections, you know that the troops have to be mobilized, somebody has to get them fired up, and you don’t fire them up with Milton Friedman and James Q. Wilson. You are mad at the conservative intellectual elites. They’re the ones who are supposed to uphold intellectual standards, to sift actual facts from what you call ‘pretend information’. Rush Limbaugh isn’t any worse than he was 20 years ago. But 20 years ago, conservatism offered something more than Rush Limbaugh. Since then, the conservative elite has collapsed. Blame them, not talk radio."

Conservatism has always had both elite and popular wings, and in the past they worked together productively. Fred Schwarz drew tens of thousands to his Christian Anti-Communist Crusade in the early 1960s, at the same time as Milton Friedman was publishing "Capitalism and Freedom"; F.A. Hayek, "The Constitution of Liberty"; and Edward Banfield, "The Moral Basis of a Backward Society." Nobody however demanded that Milton Friedman hail Schwarz’s pamphlets as serious contributions to conservative thought (as conservative intellectuals now must bow to talk radio). It’s different now, to conservatism’s present shame and future detriment.

A similar point could be made about liberal Democrats. Barack Obama's charisma and inspirational speaking style were important elements of his winning '08 campaign in "firing up the troops." His intellectual heft convinced the more serious and policy oriented segments of the Democratic camp. Frum's observation that the balance between the two has been lost on the conservative side (with the wingnuts in charge) is dead on.

--Ballard Burgher