Getting Some Perspective

The last week or so it's been all Rove all the time. As much as enjoy the prospect of Rove going to prison, I must admit that I've been concerned that once again liberals are missing the point. Rove himself is just a person. If we concentrate our efforts on ruining him, we may well succeed. But when he's gone they'll just be some other fascist apparatchik to replace him as the Republican's political guru. We've fallen into the same trap with Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and George Bush.

So I'm glad to see that some have tried to develop broader themes during the Rove imbroglio. Krugman talks about how Rove has debased political discourse, Dionne suggests that Rove's sliminess might rub off on the President, and AaronBurrFan (shudder) at BOP points out that Rove is an integral part of the Republican political machine. The essence of all of these posts is that we should be using Rove to attack the Republican party as a whole, rather than directing all of our fire at one guy.

This is precisely that right approach to take. In the end I don't care what happens to Rove or Bush or DeLay or any of these anti-democratic demagogues. What I care about is that we marginalize them and the party that represents them. This is a war against those who would destroy the Republic, not a feud with a couple of piddly little corrupt politicians.