Is Karl Rove an evil genius? Or just a partisan idiot?

It's been a late night at The Reaction after some rather prolific days of writing, but I won't be able to rest until I post this. You're all familiar with the Durbin story -- a senator thoroughly misrepresented by the right and essentially forced to apologize (I wrote about it all here). To me, the outrage should be directed at the enablers and perpetrators of torture -- more on that in my next post -- not at those with a dissenting opinion who dare to raise the important questions (and to demand answers) about what's really going on in places like Gitmo. The torture is the outrage, not Durbin's subtle remarks.

But now we have a truly obnoxious example of partisan rhetoric that deserves our outrage. And it comes from Karl Rove, the Dr. Evil of the Republican Party. The Carpetbagger reports here (and includes the full transcript of Rove's comments). Please give it a read. Those of us who oppose the Republicans need to know as clearly as possible just what it is we're up against.

Key passages from Rove's speech to the Conservative Party of New York (along with my brief comments):

• "Four decades ago conservatism was relegated to the political wilderness -- and today conservatism is the guiding philosophy in the White House, the Senate, the House, and in governorships and state legislatures throughout America. More importantly, we have seen the great rise of a great cause. Conservatives have achieved a tremendous amount in the past decades -- but there is more, much more, that remains to be done." [My comments: A scary thought, given the havoc they've already wreaked. But is conservatism really the "guiding philosophy" all over America? Uh, no. And it's certainly not Bush's big-government, fiscally-irresponsible, unilateralist, moralistic brand of conservatism, which isn't really conservatism at all.]
• In the 2004 election, President Bush placed all his chips on the table. There was no trimming on issues, no 'campaign conversion,' no backing away from Social Security and tax code reform. The President persistently made the case for an 'ownership society'; championed a culture of life; defended the institution of marriage; stood with the people of Iraq in their passage to liberty; remained committed to spreading democracy in the Middle East; and continued to aggressively wage and win the war on global terrorism. President Bush showed himself as he is. He wanted a referendum on what he has accomplished -- and most importantly, on what he hopes to achieve." [My comments: A referendum on all that? Really? To me, Bush ran on fear and managed to play to his radical base even as he persuaded enough moderates to buy into his rhetoric in a time of war. Americans didn't re-elect him to institute some radical right-wing agenda (which he conveniently shrouded behind all that "war president" rhetoric). Oh, and have the Iraqis already undergone the "passage to liberty"? Did I miss something?]
• "We are seizing the Mantle of Idealism. As all of you know, President Bush is making a powerful case for spreading human liberty and defending human dignity. This was once largely the preserve of liberalism -- but Ronald Reagan changed all that. It was President Reagan, you'll recall, who said the policy of the United States was not simply to contain Soviet Communism, but to transcend it. And we would, he argued, was because of the power of liberty. President Bush has built on those beliefs -- and he is committed to something no past President has ever attempted: spreading liberty to the broader Middle East. President Bush's eventual goal is the triumph of freedom and the end of tyranny in our world. This vision, which will require the concentrated work of generations, is consistent with the deep idealism of the American people -- and it is an idealism whose importance is being confirmed by history and events." [My comments: Idealism isn't conservatism. Somewhere, Burke and his noble followers are furious. Bush may have a vision of global democracy that smacks of end-of-history Hegelianism, but that's all it is: a vision backed up by rhetoric. Rice said some nice things in Egypt and Saudi Arabia the other day, but isn't it interesting that all this talk of democracy -- none of which was there in 2000 -- has taken over from WMDs as the justification for the Iraq war? How convenient.]
• "[O]ur movement's growth has made us Agents of Reform. Edmund Burke, one of the most important figures in the history of conservatism, was known as an advocate of reform. He understood the essence of conservatism is applying timeless principles to changing circumstances, which is one of the keys to political success." [My comments: Oh, please. Do stop. You just look stupid(er).]
• "Conservatives have long known that political liberty depends on a healthy social and moral order. And so the President is committed to strengthening society's key institutions -- families, schools, communities, and protecting those mediating structures so important to our freedom, like our churches, neighborhood and private groups - the institutions that inculcate virtues, shape character, and provide the young with moral education." [My comments: By vilifying gays and lesbians. Or at least by allowing them to be vilified by his bigoted base. And by working to tear down the separation of church and state. How un-American.]

And here's where it gets truly disgusting:

• "Conservatives believe in lower taxes; liberals believe in higher taxes. We want few regulations; they want more. Conservatives measure the effectiveness of government programs by results; liberals measure the effectiveness of government programs by inputs. We believe in curbing the size of government; they believe in expanding the size of government. Conservatives believe in making America a less litigious society; liberals believe in making America a more litigious society. We believe in accountability and parental choice in education; they don't. Conservatives believe in advancing what Pope John Paul II called a 'culture of life'; liberals believe there is an absolute unlimited right to abortion. But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to submit a petition." [My comments: It's not that simple, Karl. Conservatives (of the Bush mold) have run up a massive deficit that will bind future generations (hardly a Burkean thing to do), waged class warfare through tax cuts that favour the rich and a bankruptcy bill that will punish those who most need help, done everything possible to free up businesses to act abusively without fear of recrimination, taken extreme views on a wide range of moral issues (including stem-cell research, which the vast majority of Americans support, and abortion, which most Americans want to remain legal), and led America into a war in Iraq without anything in the way of a plan for post-war reconstruction -- how many Americans have died? how many Iraqi civilians? Needless to say, I could go on and on. (I would also add that liberalism, America's founding political philosophy, is more than just Moveon.org -- that's like saying that conservatism is nothing more than Pat Buchanan.]
• "Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: we must understand our enemies. Conservatives see the United States as a great nation engaged in a noble cause; liberals see the United States and they see Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, and the killing fields of Cambodia. Has there been a more revealing moment this year than when Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, speaking on the Senate floor, compared what Americans had done to prisoners in our control at Guantanamo Bay with what was done by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot -- three of the most brutal and malevolent figures in the 20th century?" [My comments: Yet further misrepresentation of Durbin, who didn't say anything like that. Remember that playing the patriotism card is always a sign of desperation (the flag-burning amendment, anyone?)]

Okay, that's enough. Read the whole thing. Read it again. And get angry. Angry at the lies, the spin, the misrepresentation, the stereotyping. And speak your outrage.

And if you're a liberal, be proud. Liberalism is America's political philosophy -- in fact, much of today's conservatism is just co-opted liberalism -- not Rove's radical idealism.