The Uses and Misuses of Politics Karl Rove and the Bush Presidency

William G. Mayer, "The Uses and Misuses of Politics: Karl Rove and the Bush Presidency"
English | ISBN: 0700630538 | 2021 | 416 pages | EPUB | 1426 KB
The Uses and Misuses of Politics is a detailed examination of the politics of George W. Bush’s presidency, focusing on the work-and the mistakes-of presidential political advisor Karl Rove. In his role as political advisor Karl Rove stands apart from his numerous counterparts in modern American politics in three major ways. The first measure of Rove’s distinctiveness is the totality of his direction over Bush’s political career. Simply put, George W. Bush never won an election, of any kind, in which Rove was not the dominant, even sole campaign strategist. A second important difference between Karl Rove and other major presidential campaign strategists was the role that Rove played in helping formulate policy after Bush became president. In fact, Rove became the first presidential aide to both provide political advice to a sitting president while at the same time controlling the policy levers inside the White House, especially as an advocate for his own agenda in the areas of domestic policy. Finally, Karl Rove is noteworthy for the scope of his ambitions: his goal for the Bush presidency was to create a durable Republican majority that would dominate American politics for the next several decades.