Here's David Frum, interviewed by Terry Moran on ABC News:
Moran: "It sounds like you're saying that the Glenn Becks, the Rush Limbaughs, hijacked the Republican party and drove it to a defeat?"
Frum: "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox. And this balance here has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party."
Asked recently to elaborate by Howie Kurtz, Frum said:
What that means is that Fox, like Limbaugh, has an interest in pushing the Republicans to the margins, making people angry. When people are angry and alienated, they don't vote. They succumb to feelings of helplessness. What people need right now are feelings of power, that they can make a difference by participating in politics.
What doesn't make a lot of sense to me about this is that you can point to Glenn Beck, his 9/12 project and the teabaggers, and say if there is a fired-up-and-ready-to-go end of the spectrum for his crowd, they are on the fired-up end, starting with the NY-23/Doug Hoffman race and involvement in the Scott Brown race. Lately, I've been talking to a number of candidates and folks on the ground in Dem congressional races, and it seems every other one tells me how their Republican opponent has a teabagger primary opponent, or one closely affiliated with them like Marco Rubio. That even goes for some Senators like Bob Bennett. On top of that, multiple candidates are trying to paint themselves as the "teabagger" candidate. This past week, in New York State, businessman and all-around jackass Carl Paladino from my hometown of Buffalo both spoke at a big teabagger rally as well as announced his run for governor by showing the clip of Howard Beale from the film Network and then quoting him in his announcement speech "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" at his rally full of teabaggers. CA-Sen candidate and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has reached out to the teabaggers, getting the Tea Party Express endorsement late last month. Far from staying home, teabaggers are running, fielding candidates and even making themselves appear influential to other candidates not closely tied with them.
Not only that, there is evidence demonstrating how Fox News inspires the teabaggers themselves. Check out this report from Media Matters, which has even documented both (a) how teabaggers have proudly listed FNC contributors as sponsors and speakers at their events (b) cited Fox News contributors like Beck as inspiration (c) how closely affiliated Beck, Sean Hannity and others are with the events, from encouraging people to attend to speaking and broadcasting live at events all over the country, and doing so with success.
Perhaps Frum is referring to a different set of Republicans who watch Fox- some of the rank-and-file who will never be engaged in political action and are driven to stay home, perhaps- but when I look at the crowd Glenn Beck and Fox News has influenced, I see anything but people who don't vote and succumb to feelings of helplessness.
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