suppliedI absolutely despise Roger Stone, but god damn do I respect him. No one plays the game better than he does.
Roger Stone is the quintessential Washington lobbyist. He began his official political career working for Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. It was there he encountered his first political scandal: Watergate. Walking away from the scandal relatively unscathed. Since then, he has become the most important Republican in Washington. Every Republican victory has involved Roger Stone in some shape or form. From Reagan to the 2000 election, Stone has been a Republican champion. His most recent victory is probably his most infamous: the election of the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
I’m not saying that Roger Stone was the main reason Donald Trump won. I’m not saying that Hilary Clinton was guaranteed the election. What I am saying is the 2016 election saw the smartest man in Washington work his magic.
Roger Stone has certain rules:
- It is better to be infamous than never be famous at all.
- The only thing worse than being wrong in politics is being boring
- Hate is a stronger motivator than love.
- Attack, attack, attack, never defend.
All these rules, whether you agree with them or not, are highly successful. Stone just understands politics. He knows politics isn’t about rights for other people, it isn’t about how safe you actually are or what jobs other people get. People are selfish, they only care about themselves. Stone capitalizes on this and wins. People hate way strongly than they love. The most successful elections are about division not unification He also gets that people outside of university campuses vote. He knows that most people can’t distinguish politics from the mass pop culture. He once said in an interview, “Politics is showbusiness for ugly people” and if that’s not the most accurate depiction of politics. I don’t what know is.
Roger Stone just takes the world for is, not how we want it to be. He plays the game by the rules that are there. People on the left only really hate him because he is successful. Moreover, he makes the right successful. He’s pro-LGBT rights, pro-choice and pro marijuana legalization. He supports everything most liberals fight for, but he backs the Republic party. In reality, if Stone was a Democrat, his name wouldn’t be a curse word on university campuses.
Roger Stone is master of disinformation. Look at any of his books, his Twitter account, and his appearances on Alex Jones’ Info Wars. He doesn’t believe any of the bullshit he peddles. His books have been described as “hack jobs” and that’s exactly what they are. That’s the thing, he doesn’t have to believe it, but his audience does. His audience is all that matters to Stone’s rhetoric because his main audience is the President of the United States.
Stone isn’t a stranger to controversy. In the 1990s, he was, more or less, kicked out of Washington after a swinger sex scandal. He took a small break from politics only to be thrust back in to support the Reform party. That party split the Republican vote, causing them to lose two elections back-to-back. Stone dismantled the Reform party, then he pushed for Donald Trump to run for president. If you haven’t heard of the American Reform party, it just proves Stone’s effectiveness. Despite this systematic destruction of the right-wing vote-splitting, Stone was still (before 2016) removed from Republican spotlight.
This brings me to my own conspiracy theory. Roger Stone is trying to dismantle the Republican party for them abandoning him in the 90’s. Stone waited for his perfect moment to strike. The Republican party was very weak with no clear leader and a string of bad presidential candidates. The Democratic party was backing a highly controversial and seemingly unlikable candidate in Hilary Clinton. Both parties were set to fail, but Roger Stone wanted the failure to have some spectacle, but also be guaranteed. With the nomination and election of Trump, Stone achieved exactly what he wanted. The Democratic party is in shambles. The Republican use of the moniker, “party” is ironic at this point. The American political system is going to hell, and Roger Stone could not be happier.
I may hate Roger Stone, but only because he’s right. In reality, I agree with every single one of his rules and would use them if I ran any campaign. Stone and I share the accurate depiction of politics that many on the extremes of the spectrum ignore. I guess what I’m saying is that I admire Roger Stone.
