Recently, Krugman talked about careerism and the thinking that makes someone an apparatchik:
[Y]ou have to understand what Bybee is: he’s someone who made a career as a movement conservative apparatchik. In his world, following orders and getting rewarded for his obedience was what it was all about; he’s completely shocked to find that the rules have changed.
…
And here’s the thing: most prominent Republicans are just the same. We wonder how someone as hapless as John Boehner could be minority leader, why one Congressman after another abjectly apologizes to Rush Limbaugh, and so on; the answer is that they’re hollow men, careerists who thought they had a safe ride.
…
And that, I think, is why the Republicans have fallen apart so completely since losing the election. Careerism is what held the party together; an environment in which the party no longer has the patronage to reward all its loyalists, and may not even be able to protect apparatchiks who broke the law, destroys the whole system.
This is very important, and helps us understand organizational behavior and organizational failure. These are people who love power but fear danger, and they never ever rock the boat. They made nice safe choices in life, and they go along to get along, with the understanding that they will be able to get along just fine. They are weak and take the safest route they can find to get what they want, whether it is to become a federal judge or just make lots of money as a lobbyist.
Now we have Karl Rove displaying his complete lack of understanding about human nature. While it must be admitted that Rove is a risk-taker, he is the exception to the rule, and in many ways he matches the coward mindset of Cheney, Bush, and so many others. His criminal behavior comes from (I believe) his hubris. However, at his core, he is obsequious to power. Here is his risible argument:
Taking, for example, the memoranda about the enhanced interrogation techniques and making them public has been a value to our enemy. It has served, frankly, I think, as a recruiting tool. They can now take these memoranda and go to prospective, you know, recruits and say, This is the worst that the enemy, the United States, would ever do to you, and they’ve even forsworn these things. We can help you, prepare you to deal with these things, but even the enemy is so weak they’re not going to use these techniques on you. And it’s given them a tool to make it more attractive to recruit people, and you know, this kind of thing is harmful to us over the long haul.
I am amazed that Rove is being so transparently stupid. Recently the Mayberry Machiavellis have been displaying quite a tin ear to political considerations, but this argument from Rove is entirely too revealing. Sure, it might, theoretically, be possible that the raw recruiting numbers would go up if somehow convincing evidence were to exist (but uncertainty would still play a big factor), however the additional people thus recruited would necessarily be cowards and not fit for warfare. That Rove misses this is absolutely embarrassing.
Anyone remember the line from Apocalypse Now? Something about the power of a small cadre of fanatics, willing to do whatever is ordered, at any time. Fanatics, like the ones we are creating through our torture policies, win battles and wars. Not cowards (like Rove) that would only sign up if there was no danger. He may as well say that long periods of peace lead to recruiting the strongest, bravest fighters into the army. Duh. Can we just arrest this guy for rank stupidity and really put this mess behind us?
[Update] I forgot that I needed to cite Kevin Drum on this one. His analysis:
Once again, Rove is demonstrating the tin ear for human nature that led him to destroy the fortunes of the Republican Party in a mere eight years.
His comment section is great on this post, so click on over.