Republicans Still Following Rove Script
Political guru Karl Rove gets a lot of credit for building the Republican working majority that has governed America over the past seven years. The Rove strategy requires constant pandering to conservative voters.
In keeping with the Rove game plan, George Bush completely ignores the concerns of Democrats and left leaning independents. Now even moderate voters have tuned out the president.
For the past two years or so, Bush has seen his approval ratings stuck in the mid to lower 30’s. The 30% of Americans still in approval of the president are the hard core conservative Republicans that Rove has been courting so assiduously. And since Republicans still support Bush, most of the GOP presidential candidates continue to follow Rove’s lead.
While moderates have drifted away from the GOP, factions on the right have gotten used to calling the shots. Conservatives know that if Bush can’t get their support, he’ll have nowhere else to turn. That’s why the president’s initiative on immigration failed so spectacularly last summer.
Social conservatives expect presidential candidates to wear Christianity on their sleeves. Club for Growth conservatives require all politicians to swear a solemn oath to never raise taxes under any circumstances. And the neo-cons want the next president to continue a strategy of imposing democracy through the barrel of a gun. None of these policies appeal to a majority of Americans anymore.
Even “maverick” John McCain sounds like he’s proposing a third Bush term. We’ll see how that works out. Expect Republicans to call in the swift boaters again this summer. Hillary never fought in Vietnam right?
Republicans, Karl Rove, George W. Bush
January 28th, 2008 at 5:01 am
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