The Atlantic's David Frum leaves GOP after Trump victory

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

11/06/24 6:58 PM ET


Conservative author David Frum announced Wednesday that he has left the Republican Party following President-elect Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. “De-registered as a Republican today,” Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote on the social platform X on Wednesday.

Frum, a former speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush, has held on to his party affiliation even as he has become a vocal critic of the former president and his influence on the Republican Party since the 2016 election.

In 2016, Frum penned an editorial announcing he was reluctantly supporting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and urged his like-minded Republicans to follow suit, writing, “Your hand may hesitate to put a mark beside the name Hillary Clinton. You’re not doing it for her. The vote you cast is for the republic and the Constitution.”

In 2018, he lamented what he described as a party broken in two in an interview on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “The Republican Party is a broken party,” Frum said in the 2018 interview. “And there are people who have served the Republican Party that was, and there are people who are volunteering to serve the Republican Party that will be.” “It is important to understand that something new is taking the place of the Republican Party,” he added.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4977873-the-atlantic-david-frum-leaves-gop-after-trump-victory/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are in control now

This is way new territory. There are few forces of moderation. This will be a Reign of Terror.

[Wuddles440]

2. And far too many of our fellow citizens...

have absolutely no idea what's about to transpire. I suspect many will live to regret supporting this malignancy.

[Lonestarblue]

5. They're eager for the violence. They just assume that the targets will only be black and brown people.

For a party that claims to be pro life, they sure are thirsty to kill people who don’t agree with them. And as soon as Trump takes office, all his J6 domestic terrorists will walk out of jail and be free to do anything they want because they know that a Trump DOJ will never prosecute them.

[TexLaProgressive]

11. That's a broad brush you are painting with

There is a Large enough contingent who are violent prone, but I suspect that many who voted for this guy were life long republicans and couldn’t fathom voting otherwise. Then there are the large contingency that feel aggrieved, believed the lies and voted against their own needs - women, blacks, Latinos, union members and more.

I suspect that the violent prone will get their wish, the rest no so much.

I am really disappointed with any on our side who decided it was too much trouble to vote,

[live love laugh]

6. They will eat shit and like it thanks to the media.

[GB_RN]

13. Yeah...

And they’re the same idiots who voted for Cantaloupe Caligula the Corpulent. They’re so uneducated*, they don’t understand that authoritarians ALWAYS end up going after their own. By nature, authoritarians are paranoid people, and see enemies everywhere, including among high ranked officials who have been/are the most loyal adherents. Prime example: Just a year after taking power as Chancellor of Germany, Hitler had his own friend Ernst Röhm, co-founder of the Nazi stormtroopers - the Sturmabteilung (aka Brownshirts) - killed in a purge that’s known as Night of the Long Knives.

Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot…they all did it. Sooner or later, that snake you’re holding will turn around and bite you. It’s the same as holding onto the tiger’s tail; riding on the lion’s back; holding a live grenade with the pin pulled and safety handle released. Pick your analogy.

*People this dumb, are under the effects of what I call tRump-Kruger. It’s similar to Dunning-Kruger, but worse: Too stupid to know they’re stupid, but even dumber than that.

[PhilosopherKing]

22. Until they vote for the next idiot

There is no fixing stupid.

[DownriverDem]

4. When trumpers

whine and complain about what is to come & how it will hurt them, all I will do is laugh.

[DinahMoeHum]

15. And eat a truckload of popcorn all the while. . .

[NCDem47]

29. They'll use Dems as a scapegoat when things go south. Some Dem boogeyman to cover for their ineptitude.

When they control WH, Senate and (maybe?) House, they'll lay blame at Dem governors, state attorneys, mayors of large cities, left-leaning businesses, etc. As sure as the sun rises in the east. Sadly, a lot of Americans will fall for it. Even when it clearly does not make sense. Lots of room left for national Republicans to demonize the Dems and make it look like they are the problem.

Maddening.

[ancianita]

8. Thanks for the insight. Yes, new territory -- I'll call it Elon's cryptotechbro territory...

with the veneer of elections, probably digital, with heaped slatherings of "religious freedom" for just one religion, and an unregulated every-man-for-himself digital/mammon economy.

... my revised map, anyway...

[LisaM]

9. Yes, the tech companies are a problem.

They have been for a while. I live in Seattle and what I have seen in the time I have been here is eye opening.

When I first moved here, Seattle still had the last vestiges of being a union town. There was a working waterfront and if you went to a bar downtown by the water, you were just as likely to end up talking to a fisherman as a white collar worker.

Those were the early Microsoft years and the end of the Boeing years (before Boeing merged with McDonell-Douglas). One of the things that struck me as we moved into the Microsoft world was with our college alumni club. It has always been for everyone, but the Microsoft people formed their own breakout group. They defined themselves as an "other". That should have been a warning sign.

Seattle has been affected by this way of thinking more than most places. The tech people don't want to live in the visceral world. They stay home. Downtown is a ghost town because the tech people don't shop in stores.

I go to a small, recurring party in the summers with people who are mostly tech workers. Conversational going is heavy. The people are nice enough but seemingly incapable of small talk. Men in their fifties still talk about gaming. It's isolating.

And now, these former whiz kids are being aged out by the companies they championed and the technology they embraced. They are lost and unmoored.

I mention all this because I have seen this shift right in front of my eyes, this depersonalization, loss of community, and the way one set of people is easily discarded in favor of cheaper, younger employees, and now, of course, AI. This is the world the tech bros want. A demoralized work force, uncertainty, fear, and lack of loyalty. That's the person Elon Musk is and there are plenty more just like him waiting in line. We've ceded everything to these assholes and they're laughing at us.

[ancianita]

10. That problem will become Elon's cryptotechbro solution scaled up so that America is Seattle.

Hackers (NSA dudes included) might be the resistance or mammon. We need to pay attention to what they do, whether they do battle with each other. As for their AI use, who knows.

[erronis]

16. Well said. I've watched this happening in Seattle, San Francisco, and around D.C.

The de-personalization of the workplace and the loss of personal identities/character replaced by "roles".

[TexasBushwhacker]

20. I think many tech bros are on the autism spectrum

Empathy isn't their strong point.

[LisaM]

21. Then why do we cede them control?

How do we get a caring world back? Or is it too late?

[The Wandering Harper]

31. please don't generalize autistic people as lacking empathy

I am autistic and maybe too empathic for my own good sometimes

[cilla4progress]

17. That was my exact thought, bucolic -

Reign of Terror.

All they need is one defenestration of a high-profile Dem, and they will hold the rest of us in terror.

[NJCher]

19. when Independents are the largest "party"

that says something.

[SunSeeker]

23. We'll have a South African immigrant and apartheid trust fund baby in charge: Musk

https://fortune.com/2024/11/06/elon-musk-donald-trump-tesla-spacex-xai-boring-neuralink/

[Bluetus]

35. Here's the new power structure

Top tier: Putin - Xi - Musk -- Theil

Next tier: Leonard Leo, Heritage Foundation, Alito, Thomas

Next tier: Assorted lesser billionaires, multi-national corporations and RW think tanks

Bottom tier: Trump and Vance

Trump is welcome to hog the spotlight and continue his grievance tour. He is also welcome to run as many grifts as he can squeeze into 4 years, as long as he stays out of the way while the upper tiers are raiding the treasury.

[bucolic_frolic]

38. Almost screams for a Save-the-World-from-Musk Society

But on the bright side, the exodus from X makes it little more than a grand daddy to Truth Social.

All the people in your list believe they are saving the world at the same time they're ruining it. It's a Silicon Valley Club of Messiah Complexes.

In the long run the world will change and the masses will tune them out, even incels and MAGA. In the short run we have a crisis.

Welcome to DU!

[King_Klonopin]

37. We are "governed" by a handful of super-wealthy entities.

Our country has descended into economic fascism -- corporatism -- like Germany and Italy in WWII, where the wealthy and corporations are in charge. How many Congressional Bills have been written by corporations over the past 40 years?

Money has corrupted our democracy to its core. All that remains is the pretense and illusion of a democracy. Trump's re-election, as well as a few republican senatorial elections, were bought and paid for by a handful of conservative billionaires and Putin (also a mega billionaire). Money is not a vehicle for free speech. Money is power. If you have more money, you have more power.

Trump has also expressed his innermost desire to include the practices of military fascism -- like Mussolini and Hitler.
Corporate-Military, authoritarian totalitarianism is the religion of the neo-republican.

Money is not the root of all evil; it is the love of money that leads to ruin.
Power does not corrupt everyone who attains it; but those who have a lust for power become corrupted by it.

[duncang]

3. We're the big tent group.

We’ll bring in the libertarians and tea baggers what could go wrong? Hop on in q’s plenty room here. And now the L’’s, tb’s, and q’s are saying there’s no room for the old Republican Party. How’s that big tent you wanted? Someone who waited this long to actually say goodbye was and still is the problem. While I appreciated some of them speaking out over the last few years they were the same people who sane washed and wanted those people in. This happened before tfg came down the escalator.

[barbtries]

7. Too late

I appreciate what he's done through the terrible years of TCFSF. I do this with all the former and present republicans, but they were eager and willing parts of the groundwork that made this day possible. It doesn't speak well for them in my opinion that they still cling to the past and call it good. Nixon was a terrible person, Reagan was not good, neither of the Bushes were good, and TCFSF was enabled by every single one of these republicans getting away with lying, cheating, and stealing, warmongering, racist policies, oppressing whole populations of people, fomenting hatred and fear.

At some point, after I'm dead probably, it will have to be recognized that for the sake of the world, that party will need to be dissolved. People will need to face justice for their crimes. Like the 3rd Reich, it will have to be taught and understood that it was a party of hatred, death, and destruction that has no home in a functioning democracy, or any society at all.

[FakeNoose]

18. It's the billionaires, tech bros, and oligarchs party now

They need a new logo and catch phrase.

[mtngirl47]

12. Just can't care about one more republican giving up on their party

None of them were able to move the needle.

[Raven123]

14. Not newsworthy

[TheBadWolf]

24. So fucking what?

The damage has long since been done, and Frum had no small part in it. He doesn't get to wash his hands of it now.

[Evolve Dammit]

26. True dat

[Martin68]

34. Frum has no responsibility for the Trump Effect. He has consistently criticized Trump. Leaving the Republican Party is

significant because it acknowledges that the GOP has been MAGAtized. Give the guy credit for a principled stand.

[Evolve Dammit]

25. Smells like integrity.

[Evolve Dammit]

27. Of course Lindsey even said he was out. A round of "golf" changed that

[magicarpet]

28. ... and a splash of kompromat blackmail.

[calimary]

30. Oh you're leaving NOW. AFTER the damage has been done.

WHERE were you a month ago? Or even a few days ago???? Not doing enough to stop it. THAT'S where you were.

[Martin68]

33. He is leaving because the Republican Party has gone totally MAGA. That's a good thing. He has been consistently

and constantly fighting against Trump for years now. Leaving the Republican Party is a different step than totally disowning Trump. Give the guy some credit.

[Martin68]

32. I believe in redemption. Frum has admitted his role in lying to get Clarance Thomas confirmed. He has consistently

fought against Trump. I am willing to forgive and accept him to the fold.

[Jit423]

36. Anyone who leaves the GOP after the election should also stop posting on X.

What we need is an alternative social media site geared toward Gen-Z that educates, informs, and creates critical thinkers. It would be nice to attract favorite entertainers there but it should be focused on fame and fortune. Offer solutions for getting good jobs with good pay and for helping the disenfranchised. It doesn't have to labeled "woke" either. Just assess what young voters need to know. We won't get it out of this administration but we need a program for young people like Clinton's AmeriCorps or something along those lines that focus Gen-Z attention on the realm of possibilities for them and not just entertainment and political deceit. Maybe something like PoliCore to teach young people about politics and how our government works since our schools seem to be missing the boat on this.

Still feeling alone and scared for my grands.

[calimary]

39. Welcome to DU, Jit423!

I can't speak for anybody else but myself, and, gotta say, I feel like the walking wounded as of this week.

Also just gotta say THANK YOU to DU and everybody in it, for keeping me company AND reassuring me that I'm not alone in feeling this way. Misery really does love company.