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At a moment of crisis and pessimism for American conservatives, David Frum offers fresh ideas—and fresh hope.

Not in a generation has conservatism been in as much trouble as it is at the end of the Bush years. A majority of Americans say the country is “on the wrong track.” Voters prefer Democrats over Republicans on almost every issue, including taxes. The married, the middle-class, the native-born are dwindling as a share of the population, while Democratic blocs are rising. A generation of young people has turned its back on the Republican party.

Too many conservatives and Republicans have shut their eyes to negative trends. David Frum offers answers.

Frum says that the ideas that won elections for conservatives in the 1980s have done their job. Republicans can no longer win elections on taxes, guns, and promises to restore traditional values. It’s time now for a new approach, including:

A conservative commitment to make private-sector health insurance available to every American
Lower taxes on savings and investment financed by higher taxes on energy and pollution
Federal policies to encourage larger families
Major reductions in unskilled immigration
A genuinely compassionate conservatism, including a conservative campaign for prison reform and government action against the public health disaster of obesity
A new conservative environmentalism that promotes nuclear power in place of coal and oil
Higher ethical standards inside the conservative movement and the Republican party
A renewed commitment to expand and rebuild the armed forces of the United States—to crush terrorism—and get ready for the coming challenge from China

Frum’s previous bestselling books have earned accolades for their courage and creativity from liberals and conservatives alike. Today, with the conservative movement and the Republican Party facing their greatest danger since Watergate, Frum has again stepped forward with new ideas to take conservatism—and America—into a new century of greatness.

Average Customer Rating:

The Next Republican President

Customer Rating:

"The Next Republican President" was apparently Davud Frum's working title for this project. It is a more descriptive and accurate title. This book is less about revitalizing Conservatism than about reinventing the GOP. If you're interested in the future of the Republican party, this is an important and thoughtful book. If you're concerned with the future of the Conservative Cause, it will help you put our challenge in context.

A Very Poor Start -

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Frum believes American cannot revert to Reaganism because our problems are different now, and then proceeds to do exactly that. While he also realizes that Republicans must offer the middle-class a better deal, he proceeds to support policies that have failed or repeatedly been rejected. Frum correctly points out that Democrats' have consistently pushed more spending for education - a policy that has failed. However, Frum's recommendation - charter schools, have not proven effective either. American spending on both public education and health care (covered next) approximately double that of other nations - reaching wasteful levels that undermine our economy. What is needed is an approach that both encourages greater parental and pupil involvement, and less spending as well. Frum also prescribes increased competition within health care. However, current competition within health care creates major INCREASES in administrative costs via higher marketing, rate-setting, contract negotiation, new enrollee evaluation (pre-existing conditions), etc. Moreover, enrollee turnover largely erases value from prevention efforts such as smoking cessation and obesity prevention. Frum then claims higher U.S. drug prices create incentives for drug development in the U.S. - forgetting that most drug development monies come from government, and that both drug research and production are now moving to lower-cost Asia. He also asserts that competition between (confusing) Medicare drug-plans have reduced costs, and somehow forgets the enormous savings foregone via prohibition of government negotiating drug prices. Frum correctly points out that Americans should assume greater responsibility for their health (and education), but offers no mechanism for encouraging this. More importantly, he ignores the wide regional variations in medical care with no corresponding impact on health - a MAJOR opportunity to both improve outcomes and reduce costs. Moving to pensions, Frum predictably supports privatizing Social Security - hardly an attractive option when the market has just fallen nearly 50%, and the risks associated with often expensive investment options are only partially understood by investment bankers themselves. Frum hits his nadir on economic issues - beginning by attacking the political viability of a regressive flat tax, and then proposing a minor variation of such. He complains about Sarbanes-Oxley making American stock markets less attractive than foreign ones (laughable in comparison to the current subprime mortgage debacle, and our only too recent plethora of 2001-era accounting fraud), proposes lower tariffs (and even greater outsourcing of American jobs), and reducing illegal immigration (absolutely). Finally, he infers that improving pupil achievement (desirable in itself) will have a substantial impact on the trade deficit (vs. Chinese workers earning $100/month laboring 13 hours/day for six or more days/week (plus all the noodles they can eat and free 12/room quarters). Bottom Line: Republicans will not improve their attractiveness unless they improve the effectiveness of their recommendations, and that will not happen until they become much better informed and less loaded with philosophical baggage.

Conservatives who care about quality of life issues	Customer Rating:
When I read this book, I was glad to see that there are conservatives who care about quality of life issues. I really appreciate the advice that Mr. Frum gives in this book to conservatives who want to be successful in this day and age.

Thought provoking discourse for genuine conservatives

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Both the Republican and Democrat national parties are built on the "big tent" theory: that they are to incorporate all the divergent views of their respective constituencies into a single party, rather than have dozens of splinter parties as in Europe and elsewhere. The result has been a remarkably stable system of government. The serious student of politics knwos that within the larger party, there is always a dominant faction and that this dominant faction changes from time to time. For about thirty years, genuine conservatives dominated the Republican Party. With them came the West's victory over the Soviet Union, the freeing of Eastern Europe without bloodshed, forcing welfare and budget reform on the nation and other victories, large and small, including the historic 1994 election victory. Perhaps because of its very success, the Republican Party lost its way and genuine conservatives were shouldered aside. Now comes David Frum, a Canadian, with his thoughts on how Conservatism can win again. It is indeed a thought provoking book, but not one that will be adopted as a Conservative bible. Frum's basic thesis is that conservatives have lost their way, that too many of them have lost touch with the changing public and its views. He is right in his perceptions, but his prescriptions may not be acceptable to real conservatives. For example, Frum goes on at length about how his proposal for a new way of viewing the abortion issue. I have a better idea, I think: ignore. Just say that the government has no business getting involved with the question at all and take the Republican Party out of a can't win situation. Frum's suggestions on trying to get people to understand that terrorism is a real problem, on the other hand, are sound as are his suggestions for true reform of public education. To his credit, Frum doesn't declare that his ideas are the only ideas. They are suggestions to get the debate rolling - and his book is laudable for that. It is, in fact, excellent and thought provoking reading. One thing Frum can't do in this book, however, is to reconnect conservatives to the leadership of the Republican Party, which truly seems to have lost its way. Jerry

Some Desperately Needed Realism

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At times, this book offends my own ideological sensibilities, and I cannot but cringe at what Frum is saying. Even after I get past my emotional reactions, only sometimes do I think that he's right. And Frum's certainly no ideological purist. So if my main criterion in reviewing this political book were whether Frum's suggestions mesh well with my personal political preferences, I'd have to give it only one star, or at most two. And you can see the results of that kind of thinking in many of the reviews below: people who'd read Neocons, or Libertarians, or Christian conservatives out of the Republican Party, shouting good riddance, and who only wish Amazon allowed zero star ratings for Frum's heresies. When such purists control (or are seen as controlling) the Republican party, whatever their ideological stripe, they produce Democrat landslides. Remember 1964. Frum's virtue is that he's put his finger on most of the main Republican electoral liabilities, and at least attempted to find workable solutions. Unfortunately, too few Republicans are willing even to try to address the party's electoral deficiencies--it seems that all too many are deep in denial. As one of the few Republican "pundits" willing to face reality, Frum deserves considerable credit. I just hope we don't have to face 8 years of Clinton or Obama before the wisdom of his approach finally sinks in.