Education is a facility that desperately needs improvement, but the rigt's approach to it is making a bad problem worse. By making higher education even more inaccessible, we are restricting democracy, because we are restricting knowledge. The more wisdom that is in the publics hands, the more wise will their voting decisions will be, and thus will eliminate the need for pundits like Frum to shape our views for us. This is not a bad thing. Rush Limbaugh, jocular master of disinformation, is taken as a real political commentator by the right.
Conservative thought is aimed at the reactionary elements within humans.
Economically, it doesn't hold up to scrutiny beyond the formulas of economists, and it places emphasis on the basest elements in human nature. Unless the people wrest back control of their politics from ideologues such as Frum, we will forever be the victims of government rather than it's master.