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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The Fall of Imperial Rove
A lot of people are commenting on Karl Rove's departure and its implications. From a a fiscal policy perspective, Rove (and President Bush's) governing philosophy has a basic incoherance in its advocacy of tax cuts and a larger state. Rove, i'd venture, was no "starve the beast" advocate, in the style of lunatics like Grover Norquist who want to "destroy" government for some pathological reason I can't identify. Deficits to Rove were never a means toward shrinking the government. They were an unfortunate consequence of Bush's "have my cake and eat it too" attitude about fiscal policy. They wanted big tax cuts for the wealthy at the same time they would expand the state, both of which they couldn't pay for but still wanted anyway. In the long run, that contradiction seems unsustainable.
Rove and Bush once saw a positive role for government in society. It was a conservative role; one where government relies on mostly market mechanisms to achieve some measure of security and prosperity. But it was rhetorically incoherent, as President Bush always projected an unqualified veneration of the market (all the "it's your money and you know how to spend it" b.s.) and never really defended government. It also founders on the market's inability to deliver the security and prosperity that's been promised, which was a big problem in the social security privatization debate, if I recall correctly.
The tragic outcome of Rove's failures, I think, is that President Bush and the leadership of the conservative coalition have abandoned this moderately pro-government approach to policy. The recent fight over the FY08 budget and SCHIP has been rationalized as a fight over government's role, with Bush strongly advocating a reduced role. Last year's tax and program cuts are another example of the far right wing's predominance in conservative affairs.
I'll admit that I've celebrated Rove's fall from grace as much as anyone else. He's a real dirtbag. But I think it's bad for the country that Rove's assertion of a positive role for government is now being seen as a loser for conservatives.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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