I'm making a call to all political junkies. :)

[msallied]

I am starting a new novel project that is going to be sort of a political pot-boiler, and I need your help.

The premise, if you can believe it (and I guess that's what makes it appealing, because on the surface it seems absolutely impossible) is a Karl Rove-like political strategist ends up somehow redeeming himself. Now, I'm not looking for Hollywood schmaltz. This is a man who knows how bad he is and takes pride in it.

So I guess the question is, do you feel a man who is like Karl Rove is beyond redemption? And what would you say could realistically turn the tide for him?

My original suggestion was that since sociopaths like him are generally not "curable," the idea isn't to make him into a good man so much as someone who somehow develops a system of decent principles. I suggested that perhaps he somehow becomes a victim of his own game and realizes how bad it is. For anyone who saw Thank You For Smoking, you might know where I'm coming from on this.

What other things would you say could make a man like Karl Rove actually do the right thing that didn't revolve some sort of self-serving interest?

I'd love your help on this, because I think those who watch politics closely are familiar with the Rovian mindset perhaps better than anyone who isn't a paid shrink. :)

[lisa58]

1. What does the character actually hold sacred?

Whatever that is needs to be threatened in some way. The reason Rove is undeterred is because he uses people of faith not because he believes what they believe.

What does the character hold sacred?

[msallied]

2. That's a good question.

What would a sociopath hold sacred? Probably his own personal health, I would imagine. That gives me food for thought.

[Orsino]

5. A loved one, but not just one loved one...

...must be directly threatened by policies your unRove helped establish. His mother, say is left without insurance; that's not a deal-breaker, as unRove can afford the best of care for her. When her entire senior citizens' center, however, is in similar straits, and the family all know he's to blame, that's when he can have his sea change. As he ages, he sees family and community as more important and worthy of government protection.

[polichick]

3. I was thinking of sociopaths today too...

But imo Rove might actually be a psychopath: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=7065388&mesg_id=7065388

[Oak2004]

4. Well, I'm a former CR, trained in this sort of crap

First off, it is very possible for decent people to get caught up in this. It happens because A) everyone loves being "successful" at what they do (and successful campaigning can be intoxicating), and B) they operate in a bubble, where everyone around them tells them how "good" it is that they do what they do (generally, the other side is demonized, so it looks like it's morally right, or at worst morally neutral, to go to any lengths to defeat them).

Believe it or not, most people become active Republicans because they are idealists. They want to change the world, and make it better. Many of them are not, initially anyway, far-right extremists. But as one gets deeper into the bubble, it becomes harder and harder to see the gap between the ideals and the reality, and the ideals themselves fossilize, withe the tissue of principle replaced by the rock of "us against them".

How such a person might change is for that "bubble" to burst. Either someone honest finds their way p[ast the walls of the bubble and speaks the truth, causing a crisis of conscience; or someone central to creating that bubble leaves the bubble, or some other force intervenes to disrupt the operative's life (Atwater is an example here), or the operative makes a mistake and is abandoned or held distant by his or her former friends. Any one of these things can be enough for such an operative to get a whiff of the truth about themselves.

[cut_cutta]

6. If he is getting old, and his political party is cooked for the next few years...

He might flip sides just for the sake of his career.