David Frum

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David Frum (2007)

David Frum (* 1960 in Toronto , Canada) is a conservative Canadian-American political journalist and author. He was the economic speechwriter for former US President George W. Bush and an employee of the American Enterprise Institute . He resigned from both positions after controversy and has since worked as a journalist and publicist for various newspapers and magazines and his blog FrumForum.

Frum is considered to be the inventor of the phrase " axis of evil ". He was a member of the Canada-Israel Committee , is now a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and sits on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition .

Training and beginnings as a journalist

Frum is the son of the Jewish-Canadian journalist Barbara Frum (1937-1992) and the real estate entrepreneur Murray Frum (1931-2013). He attended the University of Toronto Schools until 1978 and then studied at Yale University , where he graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor and Master of Arts in history. In 1987 he received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School . He first worked in Toronto for Saturday Night magazine , from 1989 to 1992 for the Wall Street Journal , and then until 1994 for Forbes Magazine and then until 2000 for the neoconservative Manhattan Institute .

Speechwriter for George W. Bush

In 2000, Frum, whom Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff described in Die Zeit as the “lightning-smart right-wing”, was employed as one of the speechwriters for the newly elected US President George W. Bush and was one of the few foreigners who worked in the White House .

After Frum indication Bush's famous phrase the "Axis of Evil", comes " axis of evil ", some of him. He had the first draft of the State of the Union speech used in the bus the expression for the first time, terrorist organizations and extremist governments as "Axis of Hatred" (axis of hatred called), which was then changed by others in "Axis of Evil" . His wife, the Canadian journalist Danielle Crittenden, boasted about it in e-mails at the time, which caused a scandal. Shortly thereafter, Frum resigned from his position at the end of February 2002, although according to Frum and the White House, the resignation should have nothing to do with the indiscretion .

Worked at the American Enterprise Institute

In 2003, Frum was hired by the American Enterprise Institute , a conservative think tank , and worked there as a Fellow until March 2010 .

Together with Richard Perle , Frum released An End to Evil in 2004 . In it, the authors recommend, among other things, that all citizens of the USA must have an identity card with biometric data or their DNA with them at all times, an expansion of the term "terrorist sympathizer" and advocate an expansion of the powers of the secret service. In terms of foreign policy, according to the authors, the United States should prepare for an attack on Syria and break off efforts for a peace process in the Middle East .

In 2005, Frum harshly criticized President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers as constitutional judge, calling Miers "a second-rate candidate without a clear conservative profile" and considering her insufficient to strengthen the conservative control over the constitutional court sought by the Republicans. Miers later asked Bush to withdraw her nomination due to pressure from various circles.

Frum had applied for US citizenship and obtained it in September 2007.

Immediately before his resignation from the AEI in March 2010, Frum had supported efforts to introduce statutory health insurance in the USA and criticized the Republicans' proximity to the news magazine Fox News .

Since 2009

Frum quit his work for the National Review , where he ran a popular blog, in 2008 and founded his own blog “NewMajority.com” on the day of President Barack Obama's inauguration , which he later renamed “FrumForum.com”. He also writes columns for the Canadian National Post and other American and Canadian newspapers. In 2011, Frum wrote that he wanted to modernize the Republican Party and the conservative movement with his blog . He wrote self-critically:

“For the past three years I've been thinking about my own conservatism . My basic political principles have remained the same: free markets, American leadership in the world, adherence to traditional moral and cultural traditions. But I cannot close my eyes to the fact that the free market economy has produced some harmful and dangerous results in recent years. Or that the foreign policy that I advocated did not produce the success I wanted. Or that traditions have to evolve if they are to endure. In addition, there are also new principles that must be part of a conservatism capable of receiving a majority: protection of the environment as a central value and a government based on competence and integrity. The road back to a Republican and Conservative majority will be neither obvious nor easy. And I do not claim to know the answers. At the moment, however, it is the questions that count ”.

Frum is (as of 2009) a critic of the right-wing populism of the tea party movement . An article in the American-Jewish magazine Tablet from the end of September 2011 reported a change in his political stance towards progressivism : “Since the Tea Party has dominated the Republican Party , Frum has gone from being a star of the right wing to one in a remarkably short time Apostates changed. "

In May 2012 David Frum published his first novel Patriots .

On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election . Eight days later, Frum predicted on Twitter that in the coming months there would be more talk about the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution , according to which the US President can be removed from office for incapacity (“Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Article 4. We're all going to be talking a lot more about it in the months ahead "). Two weeks after Trump took office, Frum published a highly acclaimed article ( How to Build an Autocracy. The preconditions are present in the US today. Here's the playbook Donald Trump could use to set the country down a path toward illiberalism. ) In the 2016 presidential election he gave Hillary Clinton his voice. In a review of the book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff , he praised Wolff for showing Trump's true nature more clearly than anyone before him.

Private

According to the American journalist Robert Novak , Frum describes himself as a “not particularly observant Jew”. He is married to the conservative Canadian author and journalist Danielle Crittenden, with whom he has three children.

Works

Individual evidence

  1. Georg Mascolo (Interview): Speechwriter David Frum: "The Bush administration got stuck halfway". In: Spiegel online. January 23, 2007, accessed October 3, 2011 .
  2. ^ David Frum, Board of Directors. (No longer available online.) Republican Jewish Coalition, archived from the original on November 27, 2008 ; accessed on September 28, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rjchq.org
  3. ^ A b Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff: Storm in front of the White House. In: The time . October 27, 2005, accessed April 20, 2010 .
  4. a b Deborah Solommon: Right Hand Man (interview). In: The New York Times . January 6, 2008, accessed on September 28, 2011 (English): “I collaborated on the phrase 'axis of evil'. I wrote the first draft of what became that section of the 2002 State of the Union address and referred to terrorist groups and extremist governments as forming an 'axis of hatred'. In the revision process, my colleagues altered that phrase to 'axis of evil'. "
  5. Matthew Engel : Proud wife turns 'axis of evil' speech into a resignation letter. In: The Guardian . February 27, 2002, accessed April 20, 2010 .
  6. ^ Elisabeth Bumiller : White House Letter; A New Washington Whodunit: The Speechwriter Vanishes. In: The New York Times . March 4, 2002, accessed September 28, 2010 .
  7. ^ Gary Kamiya: "An End to Evil" by David Frum and Richard Perle. (No longer available online.) Salon.com , January 30, 2004, archived from the original on October 19, 2008 ; Retrieved April 20, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dir.salon.com
  8. ^ The New York Times : Frum Forced Out at Conservative Institute
  9. ABC News : David Frum on GOP: Now We Work for Fox ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / abcnews.go.com
  10. Tim Arango: At National Review, a Threat to Its Reputation for Erudition. In: The New York Times. November 17, 2008, accessed September 28, 2011 .
  11. David Frum's Diary. (No longer available online.) In: National Review Online. November 18, 2008, archived from the original on January 4, 2009 ; accessed on October 3, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / frum.nationalreview.com
  12. ^ David Frum: David Frum: The city of the future (not). (No longer available online.) In: National Post. September 26, 2011, archived from the original on September 27, 2011 ; accessed on September 28, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fullcomment.nationalpost.com
  13. About. (No longer available online.) FrumForum.com, archived from the original on December 13, 2011 ; accessed on September 28, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.davidfrum.com
  14. David Frum's Diary. (No longer available online.) In: National Review Online. November 18, 2008, archived from the original on January 4, 2009 ; accessed on October 3, 2011 (English): "Over the past three years, I have been engaged in some intense rethinking of my own conservatism. My fundamental political principles remain the same as ever: free markets, American leadership in the world, and intense attachment to inherited moral and cultural traditions. Yet I cannot be blind to the evidence that we have seen free markets produce some damaging and dangerous results in recent years. Or that the foreign policy I supported has not yielded the success I would have wished to see. Or that traditions must evolve if they are to endure. There are new principles too that must be included in a majority conservatism: environmental protection as a core value and an unwavering insistence upon competence and integrity in government. The path back to a Republican and conservative majority will not be an obvious or easy one. I am not claiming to have the answers. For now, however, it is the questions that matter most. “ Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / frum.nationalreview.com
  15. ^ Peter Wallsten: Some fear GOP is being carried to the extreme. In: Los Angeles Times . September 14, 2009, accessed October 3, 2011 .
  16. Michelle Goldberg: Off-Axis. David Frum was once GOP royalty. But as his party has moved rightward, the former Bush speechwriter sounds more and more like a Democrat. In: Tablet Magazine. September 27, 2011, accessed on October 3, 2011 (English): “He's still a conservative, he says, and he still wants the Republican Party to succeed. But as the Tea Party has come to dominate the GOP, Frum has been transformed in a remarkably short period of time from right-wing royalty to apostate. "
  17. ^ New York, Paris and Košice in: Die Welt, November 17, 2012
  18. Lily Rothman: The 25th Amendment at 50 and What Happens if the President Can't Do His Job , In: TIME , online February 9, 2017
  19. spiegel.de: Only the NSA can help us
  20. theatlantic.com: How to Build an Autocracy
  21. Harald Staun: Why is Trump still President ?, in: FAS No. 2, January 14, 2018, p. 47.
  22. Harald Staun: Why is Trump still President ?, in: FAS No. 2, January 14, 2018, p. 47.
  23. Ron Kampeas: Robert Novak: Feared political columnist, harsh critic of Israel. (No longer available online.) JTA, Aug 18, 2009, archived from the original on Aug 6, 2011 ; accessed on September 28, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jta.org
  24. Danielle Crittenden. daniellecrittenden.com, accessed September 28, 2011 .

Web links

Commons : David Frum  - collection of images, videos and audio files