When The Extremism Rises...

...Watch Out For The (So-Called) 'Reasonable' Ones.

Do not be fooled by his modulated voice and/or his cool-as-a-cucumber, world-weary demeanor on the Sunday shows...

Because, despite his carefully cultivated appearance and mannerisms, Mr. David Frum is an extremist.

And not just because he was once the ghost writer for the prince of darkness himself, Richard Perle, or because he helped spike spin a PNACkified, George Bush the Younger-led United States into two unsustainable regional honeypot wars that produced a diaspora of religious extremists that is driving the world into a madness spiral.

In fact, if you want to see Mr. Frum's reasonable extremism in action you need look no further than what he has had to say about the state of his home and native land.

I did that a while back:

David Frum, why do you hate Canada so much?

"....Many Americans see Canada as a kind of utopian alternative to the United States: a North American democracy with socialized medicine, same-sex marriage, empty prisons, strict gun laws and no troops in Iraq.

What they don't see is how precarious political support for this alternative utopia has become among Canadian voters in recent years. From World War II until the 1980's, Liberal power rested on two political facts: its dominance in French-speaking Quebec and its popularity in the immigrant communities of urban Ontario...."
 
Nice try Davey boy.

Hey!

I wonder.... when you type this type of drivel are the words in your head all soft-boiled and low-pitched like when you pretend to be a moderate on your Mom's old (socialized) public broadcasting network?

The facts of the matter are these Mr Frum, and despite your extreme weasel words you darn well know them:

1) Every time that Canadians have been asked in the last 40 years, with very rare exception, Universal (spell it Mr. Frum "U-N-I-V-E-R-S-A-L", which means... You or I, or our Rich Uncle, our Poor Neighbour, can walk in to any clinic or any hospital from sea to shining sea in this country and get treated....try doing that down in that 'free' market privateHMO Rationland where you currently hang your two-holed hat) Health Care has been the number one priority of all the people regardless whether they are Anglophone, Francophone, Allophone or Bananaphone.

2) Same-sex marriage....if it is really a Quebequois-Assisted Liberals-Holding-Us-All-Hostage issue, why have seven, count 'em seven, Provinces, many of whom are not under the thumb of Liberal governments, already ratified it, with more on the way (for those down south out of the loop we only have 10 provinces).

3) If Immigrant Communities are responsible for our gun laws, our low murder rates, our low crime rates, and our low incarceration rates, at least in comparison with those parts of your Paymasters' Country that are not yet behind Gates, Locks, Keys, MinuteMaidMen, and Private Security Armies, well thank the Goddess for 'em, although I have a sneaking suspicion it might actually have more to do with our universal (there's that word again Dave), very longterm appreciation of peace, order and good government that is definitely not exclusively Liberal-o-centric.

4) And as for No Troops in Iraq (and no intergalactic Space-Weaponizing Empire Missiles in our Starry Eyes either - you missed that one Dave, you're slippin'), do you not think it might have had something to do with the fact that our leaders actually listened, both to us when we took to the streets in the hundreds of thousands, and to their colleagues when they made a big fuss in the House of Commons, both in Committee Rooms and in Question Period?

You remember that last messy concept Dave, right? It's called Democracy. Or have you forgotten all about it since you threw your lot in with the PNACkian Destabilization King, the Prince of Darkness himself, Richard Perle?

****

So.

What has Mr. Frum been up to lately?

Well, since he re-positioned himself as the reasonable Republican down south he's been writing modulated, cool-as-a-cucumber think pieces for that nice, reasonable, never extreme, Sunday show-in-linear-type, the Atlantic.

And here is what he wrote recently about what Mr. Bannon's orange haired puppet has been signing off on most recently:

...Trump’s executive order has unleashed chaos, harmed lawful U.S. residents, and alienated potential friends in the Islamic world. Yet without the dreamy liberal refusal to recognize the reality of nationhood, the meaning of citizenship, and the differences between cultures, Trump would never have gained the power to issue that order.

Liberalism and nationhood grew up together in the 19th century, mutually dependent. In the 21st century, they have grown apart—or more exactly, liberalism has recoiled from nationhood. The result has not been to abolish nationality, but to discredit liberalism.

When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won’t do...


Of course they will.

Because....

According to the this spin-doctor to the right wings fallen stars, all this fascism that is cresting the tops of Mr. Frum's former bosses' waves of extremism is all the fault of liberals.

In the small 'l' sense, of course.

Which is to say, I suppose, that if we only had more reasonable strongmen everything would be alright.

Luckily we, in Canada, ultimately rejected one of those when we saw him.

And just in the nick of time.

Otherwise I'm pretty darn sure Mr. Harper would have re-patriated the good Mr. Frum, and made him the head of the CBC.

Or some such thing.


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Tip O' The Toque to hard-core Gilliardite Driftglass for identifying Canada's worst export since 'Sometimes When We Touch'.....Ha!


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