I am grateful to David Frum for telling it like it is about the current state of the Republican Party and their attitudes about race, but I wonder about a couple of things. First, I hope Frum realizes that the flirtation with Birtherism is just one part of a greater whole. Virtually everything the Republicans have been doing over the last two years has been arranged around the idea that the president is not legitimate and that, therefore, compromise is impossible. Ezra Klein wrote about this yesterday when he detailed how the Republicans have rejected as radical socialism the same policies they offered (in recent times) on taxes, climate, and health care. What does Frum think about this phenomenon?
Second, since Frum seems clear-sighted about the naked racism that is being peddled and tolerated and encouraged by the leaders of his party, could he define for us what these Republicans would have to do to get him to abandon the party? I mean, for me this isn’t all that complicated. Despite the fact that I am a big fan of the New Deal and I prefer Democrats to Republicans on every issue, I could never have been a self-described Democrat during Jim Crow. I might have voted for liberal and progressive Democrats over country-club Republicans, but I wouldn’t belong to a party that was dominated by vicious segregationists like George Wallace, Ross Barnett, Orval Faubus, and Jimmie Davis. Is Frum so enamored with tax cuts for millionaires that he’s willing to overlook the most repugnant behavior? I mean, he’s not overlooking it entirely. He just wrote a piece about how appalling he finds it. But, if it’s so appalling, then why doesn’t he renounce the party and support Democrats from time to time?
And, yes, that should include John Boehner”s opponent.
Now the more haunting question: How did this poisonous and not very subtly racist allegation get such a grip on our conservative movement and our Republican party?
I know there will be Republican writers and conservative publicists who will now deny that birtherism ever did get a grip. Sorry, that’s just wrong. Not only did Trump surge ahead in Republican polls by flaming racial fires – not only did conservative media outlets from Fox to Drudge to the Breitbart sites indulge the birthers – but so also did every Republican candidate who said, “I take the president at his word.” [Ed. note: link] Birthers did not doubt the president’s “word.” They were doubting the official records of the state of Hawaii. It’s like answering a 9/11 conspiracist by saying, “I take the 9/11 families at their word that they lost their loved ones.”
Those are commendable words, but some further action would seem logical.