The New Unpatriotic Conservatives

The die against conservatives opposed to the Iraq war was cast by David Frum in a now-infamous essay for National Review back in 2003. Not only were the right’s antiwar sorts unpatriotic, Frum charged, they were defeatist and conspiratorialist appeasers. “They have made common cause with the left-wing and Islamist antiwar movements in this country and in Europe,” he wrote.

As one can imagine, this made it quite difficult for this small but active faction of the conservative movement (which included the American Conservative magazine and libertarians like Texas Congressman Ron Paul) to penetrate the mainstream, or build trust with their compatriots across the aisle. Division, marginalization, demonization — this was, and still is, standard operating procedure for the Washington establishment. And what it desired most in 2003 was to ensure that a majority of Americans were lockstep behind war with Saddam Hussein.

What does that same establishment want today? A uniform position against Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Even if it means a direct military confrontation.

Frum’s “Axis of Evil” speech, which he wrote for President George W. Bush, helped his fellow neoconservatives to touch off a global war on terror that cost the country upwards of $8 trillion and killed more than 900,000 people, according to the most recent estimates. The country having now turned on this neocon foreign policy, Frum has since reinvented himself as a “Never Trumper.” After two books explaining why the “Trumpocalypse” is responsible for the “corruption of the American republic,” he’s returned to his old tricks, vilifying conservatives who don’t toe the line on Russia.

Read the full article in The Spectator World.