I spent a bit of time reading on Frum. He's coming from a place of disillusionment with the populist pivot the party has made, and I actually share alot of his sentiments about that. I'm far more moderate than the snippets of opinion I post here would make me seem... I'm a natural contrarian and the leftist perspective is quite over-represented here.
Perhaps he's right. No republican I know of supports these platform ideals to the extremes presented nor for the bad intent ascribed by his article, but, perhaps, some of the politicians in Washington do; and they hide that part to get votes from your every-day republicans.
Which of Frum's 13 planks do you disagree with and why?
from my observations these all seem to be very much the positions of today's GOP. They are echoed by party leadership (e.g. House Freedom Caucus), are championed by conservative talk show hosts like Tucker Carlson and the late Limbaugh, and - based on polling - are broadly shared by self-identified GOP voters.
Running down the list, among the GOP the following are popular opinions:
1) The 2017 tax cut (TCJA) remains popular, as is support for further reducing tax rates
2) The coronavirus is not a big problem, but our responses to it (e.g. mask wearing) are, and trust in the CDC among the GOP is abysmally low
3) Climate change is not a big problem, and the GOP is opposed to large spending deals to address climate change (e.g. "Green New Deal" or Biden's plan to support renewable energy)
4) China is a eminent threat which must be addressed via military spending
5) trade and alliance structures built after World War II are outdated. The days of NATO and the World Trade Organization are over. The EU should be treated like a rival
6) Health care is a purchase like any other. Individuals should make their own best deals in the insurance market with minimal government supervision. Those who pay more should get more. Those who cannot pay must rely on Medicaid, accept charity, or go without.
7) Voting is a privilege. States should have wide latitude to regulate that privilege
8) Anti-Black racism has ceased to be an important problem in American life.
9) The courts should move gradually and carefully toward eliminating the mistake made in 1965, when women’s sexual privacy was elevated into a constitutional righ
10) The post-Watergate ethics reforms overreached. ... the Trump administration has met all reasonable ethical standards.
11) Trump’s border wall is the right policy to slow illegal immigration; the task of enforcing immigration rules should not fall on business operators.
12) The country is gripped by a surge of crime and lawlessness as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and its criticism of police. PThe priority now should be to stop crime by empowering police.
13) In the face of the overwhelming and unfair onslaught against President Donald Trump by the media and the “deep state,” his occasional excesses on Twitter and at his rallies should be understood as pardonable reactions to much more severe misconduct by others.
which of these do you disagree with?