Here’s a novel idea: Whether you respect GOP political strategist Karl Rove and his opinions or loathe the ground on which he walks, let’s focus on the message instead of the messenger. If you can do that, we can likely have a substantive debate in the comments section rather than resorting to ad hominems. Deal?
In a Wall Street Journal column on Wednesday, Rove argued that after nearly 32 years of baby boomer control of the presidency, it’s time to for a younger generation — in both parties.
During a segment with Fox News host John Roberts on Wednesday, Rove said, in reference to his column:
Yeah. So look, you and I are both boomers. I don’t think either one of us, frankly, is up to the job of being President of the United States. We both know from having been around the White House that this is a pretty demanding job.
And think about it, President Biden is thinking about — he’s 80 years old — he’s thinking about seeking reelection, he’d be 82, shortly before his, if he were to win, his second inaugural, he’d be closer to 90 at the end of his second term.
He’s already struggling; who thinks he’s going to get better? Is he going to get mentally sharper? Is he going to get physically more energetic? Is he going to be on top of things better than he has been? Are we going to have fewer missteps in his communication? Are we going to have less confusion at the end of events?
Are we going to have stronger leadership? No. The answer is no.
And the same with his potential opponent, Donald Trump, who … would be 78 at the time of his, at the time of the election and hoping to serve, he can only serve one term, hoping to be, you know, he’d be 82, 83 by the time he finishes that term if he got elected.
Rove is right, for multiple reasons. Most critically, when we reach a point in American politics where millions of voters — on either side of the aisle — support a person over principles, we enter the red zone.
We saw it with Barack Obama from 2008 through 2016. Obama was idolized by tens of millions of Democrat voters — Obamabots, as it were— because he was Barack Obama more than the job he did as president, including his efforts to divide America along racial lines and socioeconomic levels.
We also saw it in 2016 with Donald Trump — and we continue to see it. While the former president, in my opinion, largely delivered on campaign pledges he made, MAGA voters by the millions became increasingly focused on Trump as a 3-D Chessmaster than the baggage he acquired along the way — some of it self-inflicted, some of it not — but all of it to the detriment of the Republican Party and the ballot box.
Rove also shared what amounted to the history of the presidency over the last six decades:
In 1960, we had an election in which the country said, you know what, we really appreciate Dwight D. Eisenhower, but he was born before the turn of the 20th century. He’s the last president of the United States born in the 19th century.
And they chose, they ended up selecting two young men, the youngest candidates on both the Democratic side and Republican side won their respective party nominations, both of them in the in their 40s, both of them combat veterans, ironically enough, of the Pacific Theater in World War Two.
And for 32 years thereafter, we were governed by somebody from the greatest generation. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush was the last of that generation. He was defeated by a boomer.
In 2024, we will have been governed by a boomer president for 32 years, and the time has come to pass the mantle of leadership, in my opinion, to a younger generation to be the chief executive of the United States.
Perhaps I’m suggesting too much; to set aside allegiance to a person over important conservative principles. I get it. But I also get the reality that politics should be not only about more than a singular candidate but also about more than a singular election.
Think about it. With the 2024 election season quickly approaching, the wise among us are also thinking about 2028 and beyond. To Rove’s point, winning in 2024 with a younger candidate who can look beyond 2024 vs. one who can’t, is a wise choice, is it not?
Even more importantly, if the GOP fails to recapture the White House in 2024, everything becomes moot. The Republican Party would again be left with picking up the pieces. The question is, how much time do we have left to save America as we know it from the radical left?
That, my friends, is far more important than any one individual.