Boo The Pig

Hate him. Hate him. Hate him.

Karl Rove is coming to Oberlin, and I’m already hearing calls to be tolerant toward him. Oberlin students are embarrassed by a "self-image" that's at least four years out of date: We're a bunch of spoiled upper- middle-class radicals who are tolerant of all beliefs, except those that are conservative. Meanwhile, there were a handful of people in the Oberlin Socialists last year; as far as I know, the thing doesn't even exist this year.

I don't see this tolerant image we're supposed to have or why we as individuals would be obliged to defend it in the first place. (What's with this obsession about defending "the Oberlin image" anyway?) The average Oberlin student is about as angry and intolerant as any other overworked, stressed out person. Let's direct that anger against a deserving target, for once. The right thinks we're a bunch of radicals and perverts anyway; why not indulge them?

We should treat Rove like scum not because of his beliefs (which are indeed awful), but because of his behavior. He's a terrible person not on an ideological level, but simply as a human being. This goes beyond made-up "left vs. right" dichotomies; treating him like swine should be a matter of course, not an overt political act.

Matt Taibbi, back during the Valerie Plame affair, wrote the best description of the totality of Rove:

The result of all this was to obscure the basic fact about Rove, which is that he's not a genius at all. He is a pig, and the only thing that distinguishes him is the degree of his brazenness and cruelty. It doesn't take a genius to send out fliers calling your opponent the "fag candidate." It doesn't take a genius to insinuate that your opponent's wife is a drug addict. There's nothing cunning or clever about saying your opponent came home from a war too fucked in the head to govern (particularly when your own candidate was too much of a coward to fight in the same war), or about whispering that that same candidate may have an illegitimate black child. And there's nothing clever about calling the followers of the opposition party traitorous and un-American, and claiming that they all want to coddle and appease the murderers of our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.

This is all Rove is; this is how he’s “earned” his power and prestige and is thus the only reason he’s being invited to speak. I don't know why anyone would be "interested in what he has to say," and anyway, booing wouldn't prevent him from speaking. Boo, heckle, harass him; I’m afraid to do all that by myself, but if enough people do so, I’ll join in (assuming I go). And please: Don’t dress up as a superhero or dance in protest or some other self-marginalizing Kalan shit. Hate him because you’re a regular person and he’s someone regular people should hate.