Can conservative reformers succeed?

When former Bush speechwriter (and former columnist for TheWeek.com) David Frum announced he was ending his popular blog on The Daily Beast, he left a checklist for conservative reformers to ponder and follow. Frum, who has been critical of conservative icons such as Rush Limbaugh and "the conservative entertainment complex," has fueled a debate over the tone, content, and direction of conservatism — a debate particularly important given a recent report by the College Republican National Committee detailing the Republican Party's big trouble with younger voters.

The College Republicans report said young voters surveyed found the GOP "closed-minded, racist, rigid, [and] old-fashioned," dismissive of Latinos and other groups, and that it's losing young voters due to "outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices."

Here's Frum's advice and critique: "1) There remain too many taboos and shibboleths even among the conservative reformers.... 2) Conservative reformers are understandably allergic to arguments about income inequality.... 3) Conservative reformers must not absent themselves from the environmental debate... 4) Conservative reformers should make their peace with universal health coverage. It's the law, and it won't be repealed." And here's number five:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But is there any realistic chance that there can be a conservative course correction like the one college Republicans and Frum seek? It may take some doing.

Republicans continue to go to extremes. Rep. Darrell Issa's over-reach comments calling White House spokesman Jay Carney a "paid liar" undermined the Republicans' political gains so much that GOPers have asked him to cool it. Former Rep. Allen West declared in a fundraising email that Attorney General Eric Holder is a "bigger threat to our Republic" than al Qaeda.

Here's The Washington Monthly's Ed Kilgore: "If you read [Frum's] five prescriptions, I'm sure you'd agree that today's Republicans are very, very far from accepting any of them. " The Washington Post's Greg Sergant wondered, "How many Republican elected officials are even beginning to address them, in any way, shape or form?"

Indeed, plenty of conservatives like things the way they are. Red State's influential Erick Erickson argued that calls for conservative reform come from academics and technocrats in Washington and New York, not the party's grassroots — and proceeded to personally attack, Business Insider's pro-reform Josh Barro:

Barro's reply post, titled "Erick Erickson Shows Everything That's Wrong with the GOP," noted that that "the bulk of [Erickson's] piece isn't even really about me; it's about Erickson's resentment of New York- and Washington-based 'elites'.. as though New York and Washington were not real places populated by real people." Barro argued that the bigger problem is that the Republican Party has become a party that relies on fanning resentments.

That means conservatives need specific, affirmative ideas to respectfully present to young voters and rising demographic groups. Which is what Frum advocates — and many of today's conservatives reject.