Former Presidential Adviser Karl Rove spoke to the school on Monday, February 11. Mr. Rove’s visit easily engendered the most intense controversy on Choate’s campus this year to date. Initially, Mr. Rove had been invited to speak at the School’s June commencement ceremonies, but angry reactions from some students and parents as to the appropriateness of this setting led Headmaster Shanahan to call Mr. Rove to ask if he would consider an alternative date. That date turned out to be this past Monday. Students filed excitedly into the Paul Mellon Arts Center Main Theatre after classes on Monday to hear the highly anticipated talk, which started at 3 PM.
Before Mr. Rove began, he introduced himself to freshmen seated on the stage, while a videographer scanned the room from stage left, capturing the excitement in the crowded auditorium.
Headmaster Shanahan told the students that they were in for a “treat” that afternoon, reminding the audience that Rove was a “witness to history and a big figure in shaping history” who was interested in “hearing what you have to say.” Rove ascended the podium to applause. Announcing that he was happier to be addressing the school in this setting as opposed to at a commencement ceremony, he joked that he was looking forward to answering some questions and “ducking” other questions. “No one was going to run me off,” said Rove. “So I’m here.”
Rove’s brief talk focused on prominent issues of the upcoming presidential election. The first was, unsurprisingly, the “global war on terror.” Rove described a “relentless and barbaric” enemy that must be must, in his view, be met head on by America. The second issue was the state of the economy. Rove suggested that lowering trade barriers would help the U.S., which manufactures twenty-five percent of the world’s goods. On Social Security, Rove joked that “your generation is working hard for me,” after explaining the financial challenges facing the current Social Security system. Finally, Rove cited healthcare, one of the most heavily debated topics between the two Democratic Party frontrunners, as another major program worth attention.
To those of age, Rove preached the importance of simply voting: “There is no greater thing than American citizenship—but the system doesn’t work if we don’t participate in it.” According to Rove, making it to the polls is the single most important act that supports our government.
After Rove’s remarks, Mr. Shanahan opened up a question and answer session with two questions from among a number the Head had solicited from Mr. Zachary Goodyear’s Effecting Political Change classes. The first of these questions quoted Mr. Rove as saying that wealthy citizens vote Republican, while educated citizens leaned towards the Democrats. “Is it more important to be wealthy or intelligent in effecting political change?” asked Mr. Shanahan. Rove answered that “one of the great things about America is the right to rise, and I grew up poor, so of course I am going to say that intelligence is better.” Regarding how he became interested in politics, Rove responded that one of his junior high school teachers made him become involved in a political campaign, which sparked a lifelong commitment to the political process. Students lined up behind the four microphones set up in the balcony and orchestra of the PMAC preparing to ask more questions. By the end of the afternoon, Mr. Rove would field more than twenty.
Topics ranged from the situation in Darfur to the administration’s role in deceiving the American people about the Iraq war to the Valerie Plame scandal to a possible reinstatement of the draft. To Rachel Kauder-Nalebuff ’08, Rove said that one thing he would have changed in his career in the White House would have been negotiating more across Party lines. “That just didn’t happen enough,” explained Rove. “We should have had more members of Congress over for dinner.”
Senior Marla Spivack engaged Rove about his stance on supporting a ban on gay marriage. “The Massachusetts Supreme Court allowed gay marriage without the vote of the people, and the state should have gone through traditional legislation,” said Rove. When pressed further by Spivack ’08 about how such legislation was harmful to the country, Rove said: “A child does better in a traditional setting…We should not throw away five thousand years of history.”
The topic of the media was also a springboard for another question from Marian Firke ’10 who asked Rove his opinion on why the media was intensely interested in his visit to Choate. “It is what it is,” responded Rove, who later characterized newspaper editors as deceitful in response to a question about the honesty of today’s politicians. Rove also made known his distaste for the role the media played in enlarging the Valerie Plame scandal.
Mr. Shanahan noted the “circus atmosphere” that can often accompany the media as his reason for excluding the press from Rove’s speech. When asked in a post-lecture press conference his reasoning, Mr. Shanahan explained that the school was “protecting the sanctity of the academy. Moreover, the fact that the media has not been allowed to come to this event should not be the focus of today’s story.”
Students at the press conference echoed Mr. Shanahan’s sentiment about the educational aspects of the day and said that they enjoyed knowing that none of the answers that Rove gave were calculated for the press. John Beek ‘08, president of the Young Republicans group on campus, said he “was even more impressed with Rove after hearing him speak because we finally saw the man behind the mask.”
“The best part of the day for me was having the opportunity to hear coherent and well thought out opinions that I could really disagree with,” said Spivack ’08. “I think all of us learned today that being informed about an issue is the best way to be effective as a leader.”
Student Body President Jin Ha ’08 said that Rove’s visit helped him realize how important it is to have political beliefs. “We can agree to disagree, but as global citizens we cannot turn a deaf ear to those we differ from in opinion,” said Ha.
Karl Rove, former adviser to president George W. Bush, answered student questions last Monday. PHOTO/John GiaMATTEO ‘77
