Immigration reform? Katrina? Iraq? Writing in his Sunday column for The New York Times, Frank Rich says that none of these issues symbolize Karl Rove's ill-fated vision for the Republican party so well as one, formerly-obscure word captured on video just over a year ago: Macaca.
"Forced to pick a single symbolic episode to encapsulate the collapse of Rovian Republicanism," said Rich, "I would not choose any of those national watersheds, or even the implosion of the Iraq war, but the George Allen 'macaca' moment...Its first anniversary fell, fittingly enough, on the same day last weekend that Mitt Romney bought his victory at the desultory, poorly attended GOP straw poll in Iowa."
A political "century" has passed, Rich says, since incumbent Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen "was anointed by Washington insiders as the inevitable heir to the Bush-Rove mantle: a former governor whose jus'-folks personality, the Bushian camouflage for hard-edged conservatism, would propel him to the White House."
"Allen's senatorial campaign and presidential future," Rich continued, "melted down overnight after he insulted a Jim Webb campaign worker, the 20-year-old son of Indian immigrants, not just by calling him a monkey but by sarcastically welcoming him 'to America' and 'the real world of Virginia."
Why the story sprouted such legs --video of the event created a national buzz when it popped up on YouTube -- was due to a number of factors, according to Rich.
"This incident had resonance well beyond Virginia and Allen for several reasons. First, it crystallized the monochromatic whiteness at the dark heart of Rovian Republicanism...There is not a single black Republican serving in either the House or Senate, and little representation of other minorities, either," Rich said.
"Far from looking like America, the GOP caucus, like the party's presidential field, could pass for a Rotary Club, circa 1954."
Rich added that Allen's comment was a "compact distillation" of Bush and Rove's perceived attitude--standing in stark contrast to early promises of a Rove-coined "compassionate conservatism. " Rich goes on to say that while Bush and Rove are not xenophobes, history will show that the White House "spoke up too late and said too little when some of its political allies descended into Mexican-bashing during the immigration brawl. Bush and Rove winked at anti-immigrant bigotry, much as they did at the homophobia they inflamed with their incessant election-year demagoguery about same-sex marriage."
Finally, said Rich, "the 'macaca' incident was a media touchstone." Referring to its YouTube popularity, Rich said that "a year later, leading Republicans are still clueless and panicked about this new medium, which is why they, unlike their Democratic counterparts, pulled out of even a tightly controlled CNN-YouTube debate."
"The rise of YouTube certifies the passing of Rove's era, a cultural changing of the guard in the digital age. Rove made his name in direct-mail fundraising and with fierce top-down message management...it threatens the Rove ethos that led Bush to campaign at "town hall" meetings attended only by hand-picked supporters."
The face of the Republican Party--"at once contemptuous and greedy and self-righteous," said Rich--is the face of Rove himself.
"It is indelible enough to serve as the Republican brand for a generation."
