I tune in when Mr. Frum is your guest ❤
Thanks for the broadcast. Very intense and extremely packed with ideas. A substantive comment would require an essay. Again thanks 👍
I always enjoy Mr. Frum's insights.
Good conversations! Just subscribed
I haven't seen David Frum for some time, and he appears quite gaunt and to have aged lots since the death of his daughter...I think it must have devastated him. As a parent, I feel for him.
Thank you.
Frum is one of the few analysts who can talk about politics, especially American politics, generally without descending into both-sides-ism. We're currently in a period of realignment, with major currents affecting both sides of the political spectrum.
Insightful. Thank you.
Frum says protectionism makes us poorer. Poorer than being unemployed? Free trade gives people jobs wherever they will be cheapest to produce.
The one problem that Poilievre will face is barely mentioned here. That is the rebuilding of the Canadian Forces. It will cost 10s of billions and take a decade.
It never ceases to amaze me how we in the working class are so poorly informed, so as to vote against our own best interests. A vote for the CPC, is a vote in favour of libertarian corporatism. We should know better.
13:15. “Protectionism makes you poorer”. Correction: *protectionism makes the rich poorer*. This is key. Politics isn’t about “what” it’s about “who”.
Freer trade with Mexico didn't get any second bedrooms for the guys who got laid off when production was moved to Mexico.
The best hope for China is that they don’t militarize around malignant nationalism as their economy begins fold due to demographic collapse. Their only hope is to cut a deal with the US agreeing to major concessions and works as a partner rather than a belligerent. I suspect their collective ego won’t allow them to do the one thing that will save them. But, make no mistake, they are decedent.
So allow the flow of natural gas out of the Canada to eliminate the use of coal. I think that is a very helpful tool for helping the world. I don’t believe increased C02 is an existential threat to the planet. Greening of the world is a good thing. People thinking they can control the climate are mis guided.
Free trade for whom? I'm wary of cute expression using the concept of 'freedom'...Trading amongst giants might work; trading amongst countries not playing by the same rule can be counterproductive.
We have to jump out off the duality thinking framework of the Cold War Era to be able to stay centre for our Foreign Policy.
David is Jewish. A fine man. Jews have a long tradition of helping the less fortunate. It comes out of their religion and history. Long ago, I read "Working" by Studs Terkel, a Jewish writer, who wrote about the working class problems during the John Kennedy era. Studs was a typical compassionate Democrat of the Camelot era. Similar to David...but out of a poor background. Big difference. At the time of JFK, Jews in America were still discriminated against, Alan Dershowitz has a video on this. At that same time they were economically rising, getting an education. I remember that era. Fine people. Mostly Democrats. David's parent's and grandparents generation. Often they were the first generation to go to college. So back then Democrats were on the side of the working class. Then what happened? Then Democrats got rich. Then their elites pushed globalism, said Mark Blythe, left-wing Economics Professor, Brown University....globalism ruined the American working class, who can't compete any more. Republicans were also in on the crime. What changed politics? Why is the working class now Republican? Wealth is inter-generational. Now, children of the elites, often Jewish, come to compete with everyone, they come with privilege and education, as spoiled children of the rich. The Sam Harris type. Sam grew up in an elite Hollywood bubble of privilege. When Jordan Peterson taught at Harvard, he said almost all his students had parents in the economic top 1%. David's mom was very successful, a very fine lady. Her son grew up with great privilege. That left an impact on his thinking. He does not like Mr. Trump. Will Mr. Frum continue the Jewish instinct for helping the less fortunate? ...so far, David hasn't understood the reason for Trump's rise. Why not? David's a fine person, in the tradition of his family and religion: compassionate and very literate, so why does he not get Trump? Sam Harris has the same blindness. In Sam's case, much worse. Where is this coming out of? It comes out of class privilege. Upper class privilege, in life. I think David's class and education and life experience blind him to the reality of most people. Sad, David's a fine man. His grandparents were the opposite: they struggled, knew the challenges of life on the bottom. I'm sure they could see the sense of it. You see a very similar thing in Canada. Justin Trudeau grew up with privilege, 3rd generation wealth, his dad was also Prime Minister, Justin visited Nixon in the Oval Office, as an infant. Justin is extremely awkward with working class truckers. He would never sit down and talk to one. He would not trust them, doesn't like them. Why not? That's because of his class privilege. His worldview was formed in a bubble of class privilege. Justin grew up in the world of the super rich, described in a book written by his Deputy Prime Minister. Justin doesn't see truckers as humans. Just desktop icons, in his Woke world view on his computer screen. Not real people. So basically economic success ruined Democrats & liberals, slowly over time....leaving the political field vacant, for the working class vote, to be captured by Republicans. And they did. That's why Trump won. And will win again. He saw the betrayal, acted on it, for votes. So for elite people worried about Trump I'd say: You caused him. Victor Davis Hanson has stats on this. Last appearance on Megyn Kelly. The data says Democrats abandoned the working class, college educated people are now mostly voting Democrat, out of self interest. The working class will vote Republican, because they know the elites don't care for them. Intergenerational motivation for politics: Of course most people who go to college have college educated parents now....unlike the 1960s. So: It's a self-reinforcing Democrat cycle/bubble of privilege. Over 90% of students at Harvard identify as Democrats. Blind as a bat. Globalism had winners and losers....said economist Mark Blythe. True. The losers were in red states, mostly Republican, mostly working class. The winners were the very well off in America, among the privileged elite. See: The Elephant Graph, Mark Blythe. What Democrats and liberals don't get: they are the oppressor class now. Not the good guys. Democrats like New York Governor Kathy Hochul call the losers under globalism, "Trump's clowns". Hillary called them "Deplorables". Watch comedian Ryan Long recent videos on the Trump rally in Brooklyn. Look at the crowd: Trump won the working class. It's a shame what Democrats have become. Callous, unable to see beyond their class based privilege. Privilege and nepotism ruined them. See y tube: "Glenn Greenwald 2nd Gentleman to WEF".....11 minutes in, for the data.
Good one
@nannycrackers