Rove's Folly
The New York Times reported this weekend that Karl Rove's American Crossroads will be mounting a new effort to engage in Republican primaries to weed out potential embarrassing losses like the ones suffered by Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Murdoch in Indiana.
Rove’s Folly
Ari Rabin-Havt
The New York Times reported this weekend that Karl Rove’s American Crossroads will be mounting a new effort to engage in Republican primaries to weed out potential embarrassing losses like the ones suffered by Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Murdoch in Indiana.
Steven Law, Crossroads’ president, told The Times: “There is a broad concern about having blown a significant number of races because the wrong candidates were selected."
That’s an understatement.
Between Missouri and Indiana in 2012, and Delaware, Nevada, and Colorado in 2010, Republicans could control 50 votes in the Senate if not for Tea Party candidates defeating mainstream Republicans in primaries. This does not factor in extra resources spent ensuring the voters in Delaware knew the chosen candidate of the Republican Party was “not a witch” as opposed to being spent in other races.
What’s significant about Crossroads’ decision is not the continued outsourcing of traditional party functions to independent groups, but instead the ignorance of the nature of grassroots on the part of establishment players, both right and left, that undergird these strategies.
Here’s the rub: you can’t put down an insurgency from 20,000 feet in the air – especially one you helped start. Rove, his employer at Fox News, and their colleagues in the conservative media helped to galvanize conservative grassroots anger at the President in early 2009. They encouraged the growth of the Tea Party movement in 2010 as its grassroots anger was seen as critical to the Republican cause of taking back Congress.
Toward the end of that cycle, Rove himself began to recognize the rot the tea party was inflicting on Republicans and speaking out against it, ending up in a public feud with Sarah Palin.
Now attempting to bottle that anger belies a fundamental misunderstanding of how grassroots operate at both ends of the ideological spectrum. Real grassroots passion will trump Washington dollars in most cases. And even if Rove’s choice candidate emerges, they will inevitably be bloodied from a nasty primary battle.
The choice candidates of the Republican establishment are not lacking in millions of dollars for negative ads – instead they lack a passionate following on the ground called to action by their beliefs. This is something Rove and his seven-figure donors cannot purchase.
Eric Erickson, founder of RedState.com and Rove’s newly minted colleague at Fox News, summed up this feeling by sarcastically thanking the Svengali for making “it really easy now to figure out who the terrible candidates will be in 2014.”
As least the admission from Rove that the conservative base is so far out of touch with the mainstream and reality that they make it impossible to win statewide office is quite gratifying.
The GOP will falter if they do not realize the problem with bi-partisanship.. Two parties, addicted to spending and spiraling government growth is not a recipe for a great society...
The "Tea Party" movement represents the only path for redemption for the left-center leaning GOP..— USAFirst1- Rove's philosophy has been a disaster for conservatives in the party. Moderates and RINOs have lost nearly every time it is tried... Dole, McCain, Romney, et al have failed. When most republicans want fiscal sanity brought back to our government we put up a candidate in Romney that had a record that could be considered Obama lite. Rove goes on and on about the "independent" vote being the key. If this were true, Romney wouldbe president now. ROmney lost because 3-4 million republicans stayed home. THey saw 2 candidates taking us over the same cliff, Obama at 50MPH, Romney at 20MPH. Neither has the will to turn this run to the cliff around so why does it matter? They need to put forth clear credible alternatives the liberalsim. WHen will they learn that no matter how many goodies the RINOs agree to, they will never outdo the democrats for the gimme class voters.— chris_r
- The tea party is ruining the republican party— mecp22
- Putting Carl Rove in charge of this seems kind of wacky. I guess the closest analogy I can think of is the Chiefs hiring Andy Reid. All I can say is good luck, I hope it works out better for you next time.— Steve2181
- Personally I think both Parties are ignoring their base and pandering to special interests. You will see more fringe groups on both parties until there is finally a NEW Party that moderate Republicans and Conservative Democrats can identify with.— BigE
- Amen!
— LouDiamondPhillipsheadScrewdriver - The implosion of the Republican Party is a joyous site to behold. Pass the popcorn!— The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine
- perhaps the tea party needs to be moderated but the Republicans under Rove were worse for this country than the tea partyers.— dreinterests
- Isn't Rove the one who took the Koch brothers $400 million to help the Tea Party candidates get elected ? Now he doesn't want Tea Party candidates to run ? He'll do or say anything for $$$$$$. Does this man have any morals????— smash27
- You may not like his politics, but Karl Rove got Bush elected. He's a brilliant politician. That said, this Tea Party thing blew up in his face.— Vote for Dickie
- Rove now bemoans the monster he brought to life. He's just looking for personal relevancy. It will end badly.— Tkat
- egg headed wimp needs 2 be kicked out of the country along with Nancy Pelosi— DaIBelieveU
- Karl Rove is partly to blame for situation in which the Republicans now find themselves. The true Republicans would be fools to allow him any further say in their future direction. He is to blame for those embarrassing candidates, but they were chosen in fair elections. He gave rise to the fundamentalist and now he doesn't like the consequences. Too bad, what are you going to do, Karl? Are you conspiring to deny people the right to choose candidates of their choice? Are you planning to try to control who gets party nominations? Good luck with that because you can't now stunt a movement you helped empower. Get ready to lose more elections...— Getinline
- The greatest enabler of the Tea Party movement was BO.— pj katauskas
- How come I'm hoping the Republican party starts another even more radical party their tea party. This would surely help the Republicans. LOL
How come If this would happen I'd party like it was 1999.
How come Carl Rove is now one of the best friends the Democrats have.— how_come
