Confronting Karl Rove
Sheryl Crow and Laurie David are amazing women for a lot of reasons, but when they spoke the truth about global warming to the puppetmaster himself — Karl Rove — they became my heroes.
You can read about the exchange on their blog at Huffington Post. Rove was typically rude, condescending, and unmoved — no surprise there. But here’s what I thought was the most telling part of the exchange:
In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, “Don’t touch me.” How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.” Karl then quipped, “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, “We are the American people.”
That simple, shocking scene pretty much illustrates what’s wrong with this Administration. From day one, they have never viewed themselves as being a government for all Americans. Time after time, they have shown they believe they are the government of some Americans–their hard-core supporters. The rest of us don’t matter.
That is why with approval ratings hovering around 30% and a newly-elected Democratic Congress, President Bush and his advisors continue to show no interest in compromise or “reaching across the aisle.” They are moving forward with their agenda: war without end in the Middle East, dismantling Social Security, denying global warming. Even though these things are at odds with what the majority of the American people want, to this crew, we don’t matter.
Read that again: President Bush and Karl Rove don’t think you matter.
If that doesn’t leave a taste of disgust in your mouth, then I don’t know what will.