Newt Gingrich contemplated the landscape and dreamed of doing "the impossible." Karl Rove considers the demographics, counts up the odds, and takes counsel of his fears.
To play with a metaphor: almost alone among military and civilians in 1861, Robert E Lee believed that the war would be prolonged and difficult. The rest of his countrymen wearing both gray and blue, generally believed that a short war would be quickly won. At the outbreak of the war and for the next year Robert E. Lee was generally regarded to be a commander noted for his prudence rather than for his daring. However, even before Lee got command he recognized that the strategic landscape had to be redrawn if the Confederacy were to survive much less prevail and so he unleashed Stonewall Jackson to wage his magnificent Valley campaign of 1862 which entirely changed the dynamics on the ground in Virginia in 1862.
When Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia he and Jackson understood that the South must inevitably lose a war of attrition. He also understood along with Jackson that the battlefield extended beyond the presence of the enemy to the civilians who sustained the enemy and so Lee dared once again to overcome an intimidating strategic landscape. To overcome great odds, to undermine civilian morale in the North, to gain life supporting recognition from other nations abroad, Lee invaded the North and very nearly succeeded in those goals.
Next year, motivated by the same considerations and understanding that to take risks with his army was perilous, Lee also knew that the strategy of avoiding mistakes was one which made defeat ultimately unavoidable so he invaded the North again in 1863. As in 1862, Lee came close to succeeding in 1863. In the next year, 1864, on battlefield after battlefield Lee demonstrated his daring and resourcefulness in the face of daunting numbers.
By Appomattox in April 1865, no one could doubt that the Confederacy, at least in the theater in the East under the command of Robert E Lee, had done everything that could be expected of mortal men to do on behalf of their cause. Lee was not entirely perfect, notably on the last day of Gettysburg at Pickett's Charge his tactical genius eluded him but no one can deny that Robert E Lee, more than any man contending under his handicaps, did all that could be expected of him.
Time after time Lee risked his personal reputation and his army because he had integrity enough to risk his own name on behalf of of a greater cause. Four years after the war began, no one would say that Robert E Lee lacked daring or that he lacked strategic vision.
What can we say of Karl Rove? Is he daring? No. Are the demographic odds against Republicans overwhelming and must inevitably spell our defeat? Yes. Has Karl Rove conceived of a single strategy which would change the landscape, change the rules of the game, indeed, change the game itself and give Republicans a chance to save their country? No, no and no again.
Every cycle Karl Rove advances a policy of minimal risk, daring little, changing nothing. Every year our relative demographic vis-à-vis the Democrats deteriorates. What is Karl Rove's answer? To abandon one state after another to the enemy. Does he attempt to invade Yankee states and catch up the civilian population in his cause? No, because he has no cause that stirs the hearts of men, North or South, East or West.
Ludendorff once remarked of the inept Austrian army, "we are shackled to a corpse." And so the conservative movement in America is shackled to the Republican Party and the Republican Party is dying at the hands of people like Karl Rove. We have seen what imagination and originality can do against daunting odds. Newt Gingrich once showed us the way. Today, Ted Cruz Mike Lee, Rand Paul point to a new and daring strategy.
In politics as in war one is either on defense or on offense and defense is no way to win wars or elections. Karl Rove is essentially a trimmer who calls himself an architect but is really a bean counter. An architect builds but Karl Rove sets out only to cut losses and succeeds too often only in generating losses. Karl Rove protects his reputation, fills his purse, and presides over the dying spasms of a national political party.
Everyone on this thread is aware that Karl Rove is a Rino but he is also a moral coward and a man of extremely limited strategic vision. Stonewall Jackson is the man, I believe, who actually coined the phrase, "never take counsel of your fears" but Karl Rove's ears hear no other message.
