David Frum has always been a big government Republican, but his latest suggestion on Twitter is insane.

Frum first says something obvious and right: Elon Musk actually should be getting paid for his support for the Ukraine war effort. He has donated Starlink service to the embattled country for months along with some Starlink receivers (some that Ukraine uses were donated, some were paid for). It has been costing him real money for months.

Ukraine simply could not have been conducting the sophisticated attacks on Russia without his help. The least the Ukrainian allies could do is reimburse Musk–an individual not a government–for the service.

But then Frum takes a turn from the rational to the insane:

Not only is the suggestion that the government seize Starlink insane on its face, it borders on the fascist. Almost worse, Frum uses the example of Woodrow Wilson–one of the worst presidents in American history, as precedent for the action. Wilson, you may recall, used the excuse of World War I to imprison his political opponents, suppress suffragettes, and deride the relevance of the US Constitution. Other presidents were awful, but Wilson was probably the most dangerous in our history.

He was a political science professor and president at an Ivy League school by the way, so read that as a warning to us all. Avoid Political Science professors!

One of the very troubling things about the George W. Bush wing of the Republican Party is how friendly to big government they have turned out to be. As a former supporter of Bush, to my eternal shame, I take some minor responsibility for my support of these menaces.

Despite all the attacks on Musk for his musings on how to end the Ukraine war without the incineration of the world, and his rightly suggesting that Starlink should get some compensation for the services they provide, there is no indication that Musk has either abandoned support for the war effort or would consider shutting down the service to Ukraine. Despite the ridiculous rudeness of Ukraine’s government to him.

But that isn’t really the point. Suggesting the seizure of a private company rather than paying for a service they provide is fascist-adjacent. And excusing the possibility based upon a precedent set by a proto-fascist American president despised by all conservatives is insane.

ED ADDS: Rather than go through all of the cost and legal dramatics of nationalizing Starlink, why not just suggest that the US pay Ukraine’s bill? That would be much cheaper, much more effective, and much less bats**t insane. The Pentagon apparently thinks so too.