It took a while, but David Frum, the former Bush speechwriter seems to have noticed a problem with the conservative movement’s approach to competence.
It also has to be admitted: Many of us on the conservative side have fed this monster. (Rightly) aghast at the abuse of expertise by liberal judges, liberal bureaucrats and liberal academics, we have sometimes over-reacted by denying the importance of expertise altogether.
“‘Heart’ is crucial,” one of George W. Bush’s early evangelical supporters argued in a 2005 newspaper column. This same writer accused those conservatives who questioned Bush’s “faith-based initiative” of having “holes in their souls.”
So now instead of holes in our souls, we conservatives are getting candidates with holes in their heads.
As Kevin Drum put it, “Welcome back to the reality-based community, Mr. Frum. Good luck reining in the beast you and your colleagues have spent the past three decades unchaining.”