While the 20,000 money-making brothers are too large a movement to have any one political agenda, we do consider a contemporary politico our patron saint. That man is Karl Rove. Why MC Rove? It’s because he has the audacity to say “Yeh, I’m a douchebag? AND What?” He dropped out of college and hustled his way to a posh office outside the Oval Office, a move that could only be made by a calculating man with swagger to spare.
We’ve been talking about Fox News a lot lately, and the other day I was flipping channels and caught Karl Rove on the Fox News set. This is a major coup for Fox. To snag THE election strategist of his generation away from the rich coffers of lobbying groups and political action committees is nothing short of a miracle. However, what is a giant gain for FNC is indicative of something much sadder for Rove: The reason he didn’t take any of those lucrative, cushy lobbying jobs is because, quite simply, nobody offered them to him.
There was an article in The Atlantic several months ago detailing one author’s view of why Rove failed so miserably as a political advisor to President Bush. As I think about the (lack of) actions by the Bush administration, Rove’s tenure plays out something like the plot of a gangster film. More specifically, I am referring to the archetypal downfall of the anti-hero the movie follows. Almost without exception, the main character of these films overcomes humble or unlikely beginnings, rises rapidly in the ranks, and establishes a criminal empire. However, the protagonist has some sort of bigger, perhaps even nobler, dream, the pursuit of which is thwarted by some combination of personal flaw and outside forces. At the end, they lose something dear to them as the toll of their failed journey.
In The Godfather series, Michael’s need for revenge and his inability to be accepted by polite society sours his plan of becoming a legitimate businessman, ending with the loss of his family. Tony Montana’s arrogance and overzealous ambition get the best of him in Scarface. Ace’s naiveté force him out of the drug game in Paid In Full. Last but not least, Frank White is incapable of escaping the past, and is rebuffed by New York, the city he so loved. Karl Rove borrowed from all of these characters’ failures, and in return, will ultimately be lost to history.
After the 2002 and 2004 election years, it looked like Karl Rove might indeed have an extended cameo in American history textbooks. Rove openly called them realignment elections. A realignment election is the rarest occurrence in American electoral politics. It happens maybe every 40 years, if that. They are momentous events that shift party allegiance, power, and transform the country. 2004 especially, in which he tapped into a pool of voters who hadn’t cast a ballot in decades (if ever), looked to be a mandate election, where Bush would have more power to accomplish his domestic policy goals. It wasn’t.
While one could argue that Rove was always a little too audacious or greedy, it didn’t show itself until Bush’s second term. With such a big win, Bush fulfilled his promise to Rove to get him more involved with policy, so that Rove could being to cement and take advantage of the electoral power shift he claimed had just happened. The problem was that it didn’t happen. It was beyond naïve to assume that ’04 was such an event. The last realignment happened less than 25 years before. The supposed “trigger” event, September 11, would have ushered in a change in attitudes about foreign policy, not domestic policy. And lastly, the issues Rove wanted to tackle weren’t the ones that got Bush reelected.
Bush was elected largely because people loathed John Kerry and because of a strong anti-gay marriage sentiment in key states. Bush and Rove’s policy goals were rarely given as the reason for voters to cast their ballots. President Bush wished to privatize Social Security, establish private health savings accounts, and conduct liberal immigration reform: all issues that were unpopular with a majority of Americans. Rove managed to pull out a win in spite of voters’ take on Bush’s agenda.
Whereas Rove’s naiveté was at fault in assuming a realignment had ushered the administration back into office with greater political power, his arrogance is what ultimately cost him his job and his place in history.
The one piece of Bush’s domestic agenda that was successfully passed through Congress, The No Child Left Behind program, came to fruition out of bipartisan political compromise, and the careful massaging of egos in the Capitol. After September 11, when Rove and Bush could have formed a strong bipartisan coalition within the legislature, they instead chose to ram bills down their collective throat. Not only did this squander an important opportunity to cultivate a working relationship with Democrats, it also alienated Republican leadership in Congress. In effect, Bush told them if you don’t pass this or that, you’re un-American. Rove didn’t even ask for the advice or opinions of the most senior Republican leadership when writing a proposed policy.
This cavalier attitude towards the way business was done doomed the rest of Rove’s tenure in the White House. Social security and healthcare privatization, which were achievable systems that existed in other countries, became impossible dreams on the Hill. The last, fatal misstep was the immigration reform debacle, where Democrats and Rove’s supposed Republican allies rebelled against Bush’s threats with embarrassing consequence.
Considering the path of Rove’s brief Washington career, I’m reminded of a scene from Paid In Full. We see dollars falling, and what we assume is a scene of Ace’s plush gangster lifestyle. The camera pans out, and we see it’s a stage, with actors acting out what Ace was once a part of. Yes, Ace gets to watch these little glories of his youth over and over again, but he can never live it over again. The same is with Rove. In the safety of the Fox studios he can watch the events play out this campaign season, he can talk about strategy, but because of his flaws, he will never be able to participate in the game.
1 comment:
quality post fam
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