Political Perspective: Resolute Rove plays the blame game

I can say that I’ve met Karl Rove, the man who George W. Bush said orchestrated his campaign for re-election in 2004 and who served as his chief of staff for almost his entire stay in the White House. I did not shake his hand, however, and that may have more to do with my own pride in my liberal principles than any lack of respect I have for the man as a public figure. If anything, I believe I have more respect and a better understanding of the political analyst after hearing the speech he delivered to Rider University on Monday, April 5.
About five seconds into his speech, I realized that Rove is a master orator and his skills as a political strategist were put to good use during his time with Bush. Rove’s ability to pull statistics from the annals of his mental Rolodex are startling — even more so than his unfounded loathing for any legislation put forth by our current president Barack Obama. Obama’s health care reform was a prime topic during Rove’s address, as well as a series of events which needs to take place to overthrow Obama’s incumbency in the general election.
It has been over a week since Karl Rove graced Rider with his presence and already his Nostradamian prophecy is coming true. As predicted, Rick Santorum dropped out of the presidential election with two months of primaries left, even though Mitt Romney is still far short of the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. It was not so surprising that Santorum would cut his campaign short, but the fact that he even got to this stage is a wonder in itself. Santorum represents the hard-line evangelicals and, as a self-described family man, even home schools his four children on everything from creationist theories to medieval-period sexual education. If you study his success, you will find that a man like Santorum actually appealed to a great number of people as the logical choice for our next de facto commander in chief. I’ve never personally sat down to meet one of the elusive Santorum supporters, but I’m sure they have a very good spiritual reason to support his run for office.
Rove was right when he foretold that this election would not be a typical political fight. While Obamacare has indeed called constituents to arms against this piece of “socialist legislation,” it is very similar to health care policies in the state of Massachusetts initiated by none other than Mitt Romney. Europe has had social health care for decades; maybe it’s time that America gets with the times on this issue. Perhaps doctors should worry less about their cut of the depleted Medicare funds and focus more on curing the sick, healing the wounded and fulfilling their Hippocratic oath simply for the love of their glorious profession.
As Americans, we are used to an excessive lifestyle that can’t possibly be continued further into the twenty-first century. It will be hard to break the chains of our illustrious bonds, but maybe men like Rick Santorum are right in endorsing a more family-oriented, grass roots existence. I won’t pretend to be Mr. Rove and assert what I believe to be right as to how all Americans should live their lives. I don’t know where we will stand 20 years from now or even predict what will happen within the next four. We can’t expect America to get back on a successful track overnight, but it is unfair to blame one man or one political party for the state our nation is in today.
-Ben Smith
Junior journalism major