Rove resigns, what next?
August 13th 2007 16:44
After a string of failures for the man called "Bush's brain," what's next? The White House, Rove, Cheney, and Bush failed on Immigration, Social Security, Iraq, Katrina, and more - this White House is a boat adrift. The only thing they have been successful at was to get into office. Notice I didn't say "winning elections." Getting in office by any means and staying there was what Karl Rove did and did well. For that, he was sometimes hailed as a political genius. This group won elections by combining criminal activity with fear and hate mongering. And now that some chickens are close to coming home to roost, there seems to be a desire by many to get the hell out of Dodge.
So my first assertion is that Rove was never quite as good as most thought. Sure, he is a good manipulator and can work an election. He was able to bring a man to the White House that never should have been there. If not for electoral manipulations and firing up the far right base, Bush might well be the Paris Hilton of Texas, spending family money and accomplishing nothing. A far better thing, that would have been for the country! So Rove has to share some of the guilt for what has happened, some of the blood is most assuredly on his hands. He used the politics of hate and fear - gays want to get married, evil Muslims are outside your window, etc...to get people to vote. Those people share some of the guilt too. Those who helped to enable the Bush years owe America and the world a deep and sincere apology.
Karl Rove often said that he wanted to establish a permanent ruling majority for the Republican Party. Notwithstanding that the whole idea of permanent one party rule is wholly and completely undemocratic, the good news is that he failed. He failed for many reasons - the operational incompetency of Bush, the abject failure that the Iraq debacle has been, the horribly irresponsible response to Hurricane Katrina. The election of slight Democratic Party majorities in 2006 were enough to see that the plans fell short. It takes some extremely rose-colored glasses to not see that the Republican Party is looking at even more losses in 2008.
It is my position that historians will look back at 2007 as the year America dodged a bullet. Of course we aren't out of the woods yet, and the last year of the Bush crime family may well prove to be the most dangerous. Still, I think it will be compared to the Cuban Missile Crisis in some ways, a time when the world held its breath, and came through OK. What if it worked, the evil plan? We would probably already be in a wider war in the Middle East and perhaps even beyond that. Our economy would be even closer to the edge of collapse. Much has been said about Iraq, asking if the soldiers died for something worthwhile. Indeed, the best thing that may come from Iraq may be failure. In a way, in the end, they may well have died to preserve American democracy. Because easy success would have enabled Rove to get what he wanted, a permanent one party system.
Regardless of your political affiliation, every person must acknowledge that the Democrats have been able to pull down the curtain on the wizard. They haven't been able to come together enough (or to convince Republicans to join them) to accomplish many of the things we would like to see, but they may well have stopped the machine enough.
What next? Will Rove try to be a king-maker in the 2008 elections? Or will he shrink into the background, slithering away into the dark legacy of the Bush Presidency? Rove will most likely try to be the conduit a candidate must come through to get to the White House. He will also in all probability work to demonize the Democrats to try to minimize Republican losses.
In a slap to the face of anyone who thinks religion and government are two separate entities, Rove invoked the Almighty on his way out. "I will ask for God's continued gifts of strength and wisdom for you and your work, your vital work for our country and the world" Rove told Bush. Like Bush needs anyone to tell him he gets his info straight from Jesus. The unholy marriage of religion and politics is always dangerous.
The next few months will tell us what Karl Rove ends up doing. Here's hoping that whatever it is, he does it from a prison cell.
So my first assertion is that Rove was never quite as good as most thought. Sure, he is a good manipulator and can work an election. He was able to bring a man to the White House that never should have been there. If not for electoral manipulations and firing up the far right base, Bush might well be the Paris Hilton of Texas, spending family money and accomplishing nothing. A far better thing, that would have been for the country! So Rove has to share some of the guilt for what has happened, some of the blood is most assuredly on his hands. He used the politics of hate and fear - gays want to get married, evil Muslims are outside your window, etc...to get people to vote. Those people share some of the guilt too. Those who helped to enable the Bush years owe America and the world a deep and sincere apology.
Karl Rove often said that he wanted to establish a permanent ruling majority for the Republican Party. Notwithstanding that the whole idea of permanent one party rule is wholly and completely undemocratic, the good news is that he failed. He failed for many reasons - the operational incompetency of Bush, the abject failure that the Iraq debacle has been, the horribly irresponsible response to Hurricane Katrina. The election of slight Democratic Party majorities in 2006 were enough to see that the plans fell short. It takes some extremely rose-colored glasses to not see that the Republican Party is looking at even more losses in 2008.
It is my position that historians will look back at 2007 as the year America dodged a bullet. Of course we aren't out of the woods yet, and the last year of the Bush crime family may well prove to be the most dangerous. Still, I think it will be compared to the Cuban Missile Crisis in some ways, a time when the world held its breath, and came through OK. What if it worked, the evil plan? We would probably already be in a wider war in the Middle East and perhaps even beyond that. Our economy would be even closer to the edge of collapse. Much has been said about Iraq, asking if the soldiers died for something worthwhile. Indeed, the best thing that may come from Iraq may be failure. In a way, in the end, they may well have died to preserve American democracy. Because easy success would have enabled Rove to get what he wanted, a permanent one party system.
Regardless of your political affiliation, every person must acknowledge that the Democrats have been able to pull down the curtain on the wizard. They haven't been able to come together enough (or to convince Republicans to join them) to accomplish many of the things we would like to see, but they may well have stopped the machine enough.
What next? Will Rove try to be a king-maker in the 2008 elections? Or will he shrink into the background, slithering away into the dark legacy of the Bush Presidency? Rove will most likely try to be the conduit a candidate must come through to get to the White House. He will also in all probability work to demonize the Democrats to try to minimize Republican losses.
In a slap to the face of anyone who thinks religion and government are two separate entities, Rove invoked the Almighty on his way out. "I will ask for God's continued gifts of strength and wisdom for you and your work, your vital work for our country and the world" Rove told Bush. Like Bush needs anyone to tell him he gets his info straight from Jesus. The unholy marriage of religion and politics is always dangerous.
The next few months will tell us what Karl Rove ends up doing. Here's hoping that whatever it is, he does it from a prison cell.
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