The Other Path

David Frum may not be welcome at NRO anymore, after writing this article. He makes several accurate statements regarding the current Republicans: Have Republicans absorbed how much trouble their party is in? To the (limited) extent that we do, we tend to to attribute everything to Iraq — as if Katrina, the Schiavo affair, corruption in Congress, and the intensifying irrelevance of our domestic-policy agenda did not exist. And so we demand from our candidates ever more fervent declarations of fealty to an ideology that interests an ever dwindling proportion of the public. Barring some calamitous mistake by the Democrats (and true, that can never be ruled out from the "war is lost" party), the GOP enters the 2008 election cycle at a serious disadvantage. If we want to win, we have to offer the American voter something fresh and compelling. I think most of us understand that. And yet at the same time we are demanding that our candidates repeat formulas and phrases from two and three decades ago. Yes, the GOP needs candidates to display higher-quality leadership than they have exhibited till now. But if we want higher-quality leadership, maybe we also need higher-quality followership. Big emphasis on that last part (my italics and color). If Republicans want to become Conservatives again, the quality of the followership must improve. We know that the leaders will just tell us what they think we want to hear anyway, so we should make sure that they think we want to hear a better message. The highly-decorated, yet boring-as-hell candidates that the Republicans have put up for the 2008 election show that they have not yet heard this message. Make sure they hear it soon.