On February 26th, Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, addressed Yale students, hosted by the William F. Buckley Jr. Program. He discussed historical challenges within American politics, comparing past adversities to current political discord, and emphasized resilience and the possibility of overcoming current issues.
Grant Shanklin
Associate Editor, The Beacon
On February 26th, Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, spoke to a room of roughly 50 students at Yale University as a guest of the William F. Buckley Jr. Program. Drawing on his historical knowledge and experience under the Bush administration, his talk, “If You Think It’s Bad Today, It’s Been Worse Before,” contextualized the challenges our political system faces today within the history of American party politics.
He argued, “We have two of the worst choices we could possibly have on the ballot, but it’s been much worse before.” He highlighted periods marked by mass unrest, assassinations, and wars to illustrate that the country has faced and overcome significant challenges in the past.
“Our politics were broken,” he stated, referring to the 1930s when “one out of every four Americans were out of work and mass migration saw thousands leaving the Dust Bowl, attempting to cobble together a life in California.”
Copies of his 2016 book, The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters, which dives into the dynamics of the Gilded Age and the recurring battles reminiscent of the Civil War in the political arena, were also distributed. He jokingly remarked, “It’s a hell of a book. I think I did a pretty good job on it myself.”
He highlighted the Gilded Age’s intense political tensions, noting that challenges due to close margins led to 61 congressional election results being overturned across 12 congresses. Rove highlighted the historical prevalence of election disputes and political violence, mentioning the first “stolen election” in 1824 and the armed presence of Congress members in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s.
Rove reassured the audience that political gridlock is not a new phenomenon, citing the 1888 Congress where Democrats employed a “disappearing quorum” strategy to halt legislative progress, emphasizing, “Nothing got done!”
Encouragingly, he concluded, “You cannot tell me it’s worse today. We have been through challenges before and we found our way out. We will find our way out of this. This is what I tell myself every morning before turning on the news.”
During the question-and-answer session, students inquired about his policy work, life after Washington, D.C., and his views on current political system changes. Highlighting the importance of civil disagreement, Rove lamented the negative impact of social media on public discourse, joking about his own Twitter following: “Who are they, and when are they going to get a life?!”
One student reflected on the event, stating, “As a college student, the divisiveness is very evident, but this historically-informed viewpoint is reassuring. I think today people want to overcome political differences and homogenize viewpoints, but I think this hurts democracy and might just be inherent to the American political system, as Rove argued.”
A full recording of the event can be viewed here.