It was a little after 8 p.m. on the Homewood campus when Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush, took to the stage of Shriver auditorium to deliver the final MSE presentation of the semester. While the few dozen protestors camping out on Decker Quad might have indicated that Rove was a controversial choice for MSE, how controversial a choice was yet to be fully understood. This soon became apparent when a protest broke out during Rove's speech. Due to the protestors, all in all, the night was an uncomfortable, visceral and ultimately revealing experience.
The protestors, for their part, probably went about expressing their disagreement in the wrong way. The organizers of the event graciously allowed them to protest outside of Shriver and that should have been the extent of it. Bringing the protest into the hall not only disrespected Rove, but also the students who earnestly wanted to hear what he had to say, and the organizers of MSE, who worked hard to bring a balance of perspectives to campus this semester (David Axelrod, Barack Obama's former Chief of Staff, spoke last week). Their attempt to silence Rove was a de facto attempt to rob students of the opportunity to hear both sides of the story. Any intelligent conversation should involve both sides calmly articulating their point of view, but no part of this interaction could be considered intelligent.
Rove was hardly patient with the protesters, meeting their accusations of murder and corruption with accusations of his own. "Fascists!" he yelled at one point. "Buffoons!" he shouted at another. While this would be a mildly understandable response from someone unaccustomed to such vocal opposition, Rove is a seasoned political operative, well acquainted with both criticizing and being criticized. To employ such outlandish and unintelligent rhetoric in response to the protest was both disappointing and embarrassing. Even before the protests began, Rove decided to open his speech with a disparaging impression of former President Bill Clinton. One of the most influential political figures of this century should be above taunting, be it a former President about his "know it all" tendencies or a college student about his suit.
While the behavior of both Rove and the protestors was disappointing, it was also, on some level, expected. The most interesting and revealing reaction was that of the audience, which was made up primarily of students and parents clearly unprepared for a fight. When the initial protest broke out people were annoyed, but as the protest intensified so too did the reaction from the audience. During the course of the speech some cheered for Rove and booed the protesters, some even resorted to use of their middle fingers. But once the questions begun it was clear there were many vocal Rove opponents (aside from the protestors) in attendance. Most questions were highly accusatory and some even elicited cheers from the audience when Rove appeared to be stumped or evasive.
This shift would indicate that students didn't support Rove himself, but Rove's right to speak. What they desired, it would seem, was an intelligent conversation about the validity of different political ideologies. But after the event, Facebook blew up with reactions from students, many of whom condemned the Occupy protesters as "stupid," "uncivil" and "idiotic." Ironically, in an attempt to condemn the protesters these students sunk to their level. Just like the protestors condemned Rove for his behavior and refused to hear his point of view, students are now condemning the protesters for their interruption and unilaterally deciding that their points are "dumb" and not worth considering.
Maybe the stakes are too high, maybe our differences are too great, but it's a sad day when Hopkins can't host a civil discourse about the state of our country. If anyone truly desired an intelligent conversation about the political or economic situation they would rise above the rhetoric and let everyone have the chance, to quote Rove, "speak and be heard."
