David Frum and David Horowitz have been debating the worth of Glenn Beck. Frum is anti-Beck and thinks he should be cast out of the GOP; Horowitz thinks Beck provides a necessary service and deserves a seat at the table. Unsurprisingly the two are talking past each other. Here's Horowitz:
[Al] Franken is now a U.S. Senator in part because conservatives of whom you are typical want to conduct politics by the Marquis of Queensberry rules when the other side is in it as war in which destruction of the enemy is the game. Franken calls us evil. You call him mistaken (and unfunny). And you want other conservatives to do the same. The more conservatives who follow your advice the more we will lose. Personally, I am thrilled with what is happening now in the conservative movement our aggressive media like Fox and talk radio, the emergence of enraged conservative masses the tea baggers as leftist half-wits like to dismiss them. It is this energized, unapologetic, in-your-face (but also civilized and intelligent) conservative base on whom the future not only of the movement but the country depends.
Where does one begin?