Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again By David Frum Doubleday, 2007, $24.95

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Media inquiries: Veronique Rodman
vrodman@aei.org 202.862.4870

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2008

Not in a generation has conservatism been in as much trouble as it is at the end of the Bush years. Almost three-quarters of Americans say the country is on the wrong track. Voters prefer Democrats over Republicans on almost every issue--even taxes. Republican voting blocs are shrinking as a share of the population, while Democratic blocs are growing. Young people in particular have turned radically against the GOP.

It is not just Iraq. Republican positions on economic and social issues are failing to connect with the American electorate, and intellectual exhaustion has overtaken the broader conservative movement. Conservatives seem stuck in the past, reliving the Reagan years. Too often, they offer solutions to problems that ceased to be salient a generation ago--such as crime (even though crime rates have fallen to the lowest level in half a century) and high personal income tax rates (even though 80 percent of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes).

In Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again (Doubleday, December 2007), David Frum examines why so many Americans have turned their backs on the Republican Party. He diagnoses the problems that Americans actually face today and offers fresh policy ideas for a post-Bush era.

Among them:

• Making private-sector health insurance available to every American
• Lower taxes on savings and investment financed by higher taxes on energy and
  pollution
• Federal policies to encourage larger families
• Major reductions in unskilled immigration
• A compassionate conservative campaign for prison reform and government action against the public health disaster of obesity
• A new conservative environmentalism that promotes nuclear power in place of coal and oil
• Higher ethical standards inside the conservative movement and the Republican Party
• A renewed commitment to expand and rebuild the armed forces of the United States--to crush terrorism--and get ready for the coming challenge from China.

Frum's previous bestselling books have earned accolades from liberals and conservatives alike for their courage and creativity. Today, with the conservative movement and the Republican Party facing their greatest threats since Watergate, Frum has again stepped forward with new ways of applying timeless conservative principles to the problems America faces today--thus ensuring the long-term strength of not only the conservative movement, but also the entire nation.

Frum is available for interviews and can be contacted at dfrum@aei.org or through his assistant at kara.flook@aei.org or 202.828.6035.

David Frum is a resident fellow at AEI and a former special assistant to President George W. Bush. He writes "David Frum's Diary" for National Review Online and is a regular commentator on American Public Radio's Marketplace.

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