Recently, it was announced that Karl Rove is coming to speak to American University students on February 16. For many students, that also means the world is coming to an end. Rove, a conservative political mastermind who is credited with both of George W. Bush’s presidential wins and who later served as the President’s deputy chief of staff, is known for a political career with a murky ending.
When the announcement was made that the conservative mastermind was paying a visit to our liberal-leaning campus, you would think that AU just announced Kim Kardashian as Kerwin’s successor. Students were outraged, and wanted their distaste to be known. How dare a conservative express his views on our campus?
And with that, we get to the heart of the problem. Why exactly are students so mad at Karl Rove’s speaking? Is he going to brainwash us into thinking the Iraq War was the best decision ever made? Are we all going to condemn Islam together? Is he going to stop an abortion right in front of our eyes? I think not.
It seems like students are discontented with their views being challenged, which is a worrying idea. If you can’t listen to someone who opposes you talk about why exactly they oppose you, you might need to reevaluate your beliefs. The beautiful thing about a democracy is that people can have opposing views, and we can all talk about those views together.
So yes, this crazy East Coast liberal will be going to watch (and judge) Mr. Rove on February 16. While I never plan on thinking the sentence, “That Karl Rove is a pretty cool guy!” in my life, I am actually excited to hear him speak. For one thing, I have to know what I disagree with. At some point, someone is going to ask me why I don’t like him and I should have a better answer than, “He opposes me.” Listening to a man spew all kinds of nonsense that I despise will assure me most definitely that I do actually hold the beliefs that I think I do. More than anything else, I hope there is an opportunity to ask questions, so Karl can explain why he doesn’t think I should have control over my own body.
Finally, there are people on campus, unlike me, who actually agree with my bro Karl. These brave AU students are not wrong, they simply hold different views than me. And they should be allowed to listen to someone they agree with for a change. These few souls have spent their entire college career listening to people talk about things they oppose (in the form of mostly liberal-minded speakers), so I think the rest of us can do that for one night.
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