What's Right : The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America [Paperback]

David Frum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0465041981 | ISBN-13: 978-0465041985

David Frum celebrates a conservatism that defends both liberty and morality. Frum dissects such current political figures as Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Colin Powell, and Jack Kemp, offering insight into the mechanics of Republican party politics as well. Whether the issue is health care, social programs, supply-side tax cutting, crime, or censorship, Frum cuts to the essential matters of principle with passion and wit. He makes a powerful case for Republicans to reject populism, protectionism, and nationalism and return to their core doctrines: smaller government and American world leadership.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest tough-minded gathering of essays and reviews, conservative pundit Frum (Dead Right) advocates individual medical-savings accounts to reinforce thrift and self-reliance, elimination of federal subsidies to businesses, forced labor for inmates of the federal prison system and caps on Medicaid benefits at their present level, with monies converted to block grants to the states. Frum contends that Patrick Buchanan, a populist given to resentful rhetoric, has forsaken the basic tenets of postwar American conservatism?small government and U.S. global leadership?and he advises that if the Republicans chose "uninspiring" Bob Dole as their presidential nominee, Newt Gingrich will further consolidate his dominance over the party. Frum, based in Toronto, argues that Canada should acquire nuclear weapons. He attacks political analyst Kevin Phillips as a flawed soothsayer who purveys middle-class resentments; lambastes Harry Truman's economic policies; excoriates Keynes ("his influence has been almost entirely bad"); and champions Southern novelist Peter Taylor as "the outstanding master of late twentieth century American fiction."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Commentary can best be described as a reflective critique of current events. Which is precisely what Frum (Dead Right, 1994) offers in this impressive medley of previously published essays on various aspects of political conservatism. Taken from the pages of such periodicals as The American Spectator, Forbes, The National Review, and The Wall Street Journal, the 30-odd pieces collected here are divided into three main groups: politics and politicians; public policy; and the thinkers whose convictions in one way or another helped shape contemporary conservatism. Although candidly partisan in his perspective, the Canadian-born author casts a clear, cold eye on fellow tories and their office-seeking antics. Cases in point range from unsparing profiles of the latter-day right's saints and sinners--Pat Buchanan (a.k.a. ``the Conservative Bully Boy''), Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm, Jack Kemp, Colin Powell--through harsh takes on the Christian Coalition (which, for all the fear and loathing it inspires on the left, has a largely unrealized agenda). He also takes on the ideationally addled Republican lawmakers who support subsidies for Big Business or compound the problem of spiraling health-care costs with other than market solutions. Included as well are perceptive disquisitions on John Maynard Keynes (``the Nietzsche of economics''), Russell Kirk (who ``taught that conservatism was above all a moral cause''), and Harry S. Truman (an unfortunate neocon icon in Frum's view). Throughout, the author is insistent that conservatives and their candidates must value principle over popularity with the electorate, stressing minimal government intervention, individual freedom, self-reliance, personal probity, fiscal responsibility, and actual (as opposed to rhetorical) cuts in federal spending. Right-minded observations from an intellectual and ideological heir of William Buckley. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (July 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465041981
• ISBN-13: 978-0465041985
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,648,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, May 25, 2009

By 

Don Incognito - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's Right : The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America (Paperback)

This book is very dated and therefore of limited relevance, but is extremely interesting and insightful on various political issues circa 1995. Written after the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress but before the 1996 presidential election, it discusses, among other issues:
-Why Newt Gingrich came to power and what his goals are (were).
-Problems with the campaign finance laws of the time.
-Pat Buchanan (hint: Frum obviously had a personal quarrel with him)
-Who Phil Gramm is (was) and why he is (was) important in conservative politics.
-How Canada needs to invest more resources in its own national defense and stop relying on the U.S.
-Colin Powell, and what his political strengths and weaknesses (mainly weaknesses) are (were).

I suggest you read Derek Leaberry's review, because it has some informaion about Frum that I didn't know and that will lead me to treat Frum's opinions more skeptically in the future,.

14 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pick me as the Conservative Pope, February 14, 1998

By 

Derek Leaberry (Bennett Point, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's Right: The New Conservative Majority And The Remaking Of America (Hardcover)

Analytically, David Frum is the most powerful thinker in conservative ranks today. He realizes that many "conservative" politicians in office today are not really conservative. Newt Gingrich is complicit in NASA spending, a horrendous waste of money. The centrist Eisenhower was right when he responded- "a man to the moon-WHY?!" Bud Shuster, lifetime American Conservative Union Rating of 95%, is truly only a pork barreling log roller. If he had his way, all of American would be just one big highway. Do you want to see Shuster's ideal town of the future? Visit America's ugliest small town, Breezewood, PA. Shuster is hardly a conservative. As for Jack Kemp, once a conservative darling, is there any social program he would cut? Is there any social program he doesn't want to see funded at the same level as Ted Kennedy would have it funded? No and no. Kemp is hardly a conservative. Yes Frum knows all the frauds for what they are. Frum's declaration that Pat Buchanan is a socialist borders on the insane. Yet Frum's personal hatred of Buchanan borders on the insane. Why? Possibly because Buchanan is more brilliant than David Frum. Possibly because Frum knows that conservatives tune in to Crossfire and The McLaughlin Group because of Buchanan. No other conservative, not even David Frum, has that sort of following. Not even close. Possibly because Buchanan isn't obedient to the Israelis lobby and Frum is Jewish. Frum's vindictiveness towards Buchanan is famous in conservatism's ranks; his attack of Buchanan in The American Spectator in 1991 not only widened the chasm between paleo-conservatives and neo-conservatives to the point where the two sides (briefly united during the Reagan Administration and the Cold War) are at open, blood curdling warfare but also cost The American Spectator hundreds of subscriptions, including mine. One last note on this would-be conservative Pope. David Frum is married to Danielle Crittenden. She is intelligent but a "conservative" feminist(an oxymoron, right) to boot. Obviously, she has chosen to not take her husband's last name. Both forget that one of the things conservatism is all about are traditions. Conservative traditions include the wife taking the husband's surname and the male head-of-household. David Frum, so quick to condemn other conservatives for deviating from the true creed, ought to consider some of his own deviations from the conservative creed.

9 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More Like What's Wrong?, April 30, 2000

By 

Paul Eberly (Bennington, Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's Right : The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America (Paperback)

I'm SO disappointed with David Frum's new book, What's Right. After ten years of faithfully reading his columns and articles and listening to him on the radio every chance I get, I was expecting him to continue targeting Socialist welfare mothers, immigrant parasites and Black opium addicts with his usual brilliance and precision. But what did I get? All this vague nonsense about "Fiscal Responsibility" and "Tomorrow's Children" and "Coalition Building" - it's as if he's writing political science fiction! Look, I'm not saying that David's not still clever in his own special little way, but I think he'd better start shaping up and responding to what his readers want before they wake up and realize that he'd rather hear himself blather on about nothing than really fix what's wrong with America today. Because I can GUARANTEE you that there are at least twenty other conservative writers currently competing for the public's money and attention who aren't afraid to take on the communist media, who aren't hesitant to deliver hard-hitting right commentary, and who don't spend whole books ruminating about these esoteric topics just because they happen to be trendy. Remember, David: it's a free market. You'd better get your act together before YOU'RE the one begging for change. And that's a fact.