Churchill and its discontents

I don’t know what happened to David Frum a couple of years ago, although I suspect that gig he had at the White House had something to do with it, but he’s become a consistently surprising commentator. I don’t remember feeling the need to attach that adjective to his prose before about 2006. Here he comes out foursquare against Churchillian prose. “As a former speechwriter myself, I am sometimes asked to review the work of aspiring young writers. In their drafts it is always 1940. Their language is grand, soaring, and – yes – Churchillian. It is always a finest hour, and they never have anything to offer except blood, toil, tears and sweat.” We’re through the looking glass when we have a leading conservative commentator making fun of the Churchillian impulse.