Rove On The Couch

This will be the first of a two-part series of posts I intend to do that psychoanalyze certain political figures on the right. Granted, I have not met these people (thank God) and don't know them personally. However, I believe that I may have an insight into some of their behaviors.

I have a theory about Karl Rove: he was teased and bullied mercilessly in school.

Rove seems exactly like the type of guy that might not have necessarily been 'Mr. Popularity' in high school (not that being unpopular is necessarily a bad thing, I should add). He doesn't have the most attractive face in politics (comparisons to Porky Pig, fair or unfair, have been made), and he tends towards the plump side of the weight spectrum.

I think that Rove spent most - if not all - of his time being bullied in school, but he never got over it. Unlike most people who are bullied, Rove never confronted his psychological baggage over high school social politics. Instead, he let that baggage fester for years, until it became unhealthy.

Rove is well known - infamous, even - as the poster boy of modern dirty politics. There have been many stories of the underhanded tactics Rove used in campaigns against political opponents - character assassination through smears, misrepresentation, and inventing scandals out of thin air. A list of some of Rove's "greatest hits" can be found here.

When Rove attacks  in this way, I don't believe that he is necessarily aiming that vitriol at his political opponents, but at the bullies who teased him in school. He is projecting the venom he feels for his former classmates into politics, retaliating others for wrongs that were done to him decades ago in high school.

Thus, in so doing, Rove has become exactly what he hates so much: a bully.