The press hailed Karl Rove as some kind of "wizard" for his ability to get Republican candidates elected. We are now seeing the downside of Karl Rove's two-pronged approach, which was:
- Formulate a winning message; and
- Demand total message control
Republicans are now finding that in trouble times, it's a lot harder to come up with a winning message, and they are also learning that total message control is inflexible. What is the
right thing to do when you're faced with a range of unappealing choices? The Republican response to the Obama presidency has been total resistance. When in doubt,
mumble about how much better a job the Republicans could do. Unfortunately for the Republicans, Obama found a way to defeat them by very publicly inviting their input into important political developments. Eventually the Republicans were on the spot to introduce a plan of their own.
Message control has turned into a big loser for the Republicans. They're forcing even Newt Gingrich to pretend he likes the Ryan budget, but the Ryan budget is political
poison. Making everybody drink it only weakens the party as a whole. Republican lawmakers are going down to defeat in areas with a lot of senior citizens unless they become defectors. As things stand, they're being asked to embrace a losing issue simply to please party elders. Playing up the Ryand budget (and Republican votes in its favor) is a clear winner for Democrats.
Karl Rove was no wizard, that's for sure. He developed a way to use low information voters as a swing bloc in contested districts, but it was time-limited in its effectiveness. It also undermines Republicans' vaunted party unity.