Karl Rove knows the Democrats are in trouble. He even has the tattoos and body piercings to prove it.
During an appearance on Fox News on Thursday, Rove and host Greta Van Susteren addressed a video encouraging young people to enroll in Obamacare’s health insurance marketplaces. The video, done by a President Obama impersonator, parodies Snoop Dogg’s hit “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”
“And if you need that new healthcare, sign up cause it’s hot,” the performer sings in the video.
An innocuous parody? Hardly.
Rove, the former right-hand man to a president who donned a flight suit and landed on an aircraft carrier before delivering a nationally televised speech, said he worries about “something that seems to aim at glorification of the commander-in-chief.”
“[The video] disturbingly gets too close to the line,” Rove said.
Van Susteren agreed and said the video is “sort of insulting to young people because it says get Obamacare because it’s cool, not because substantively it is a good program for you, it’s important for your health.”
But the effort is all moot anyway, as Rove went on to explain. Citing the Obamacare experience of his tatted-up touchstone, Rove contended that young people are poised to abandon Democrats.
“I have a young friend in Austin. She’s 34 years old. I know her professionally,” Rove said. “She and her boyfriend had to go sign up under the Affordable Care Act for insurance. Her premiums went from just over $100 a month to nearly $400 a month. And her deductible went up 50 percent from $2,000 to $3,000. Now, she’s got tattoos and some body piercings. You know, not exactly look like a normal Republican voter. My sense is she is not going to be particularly keen about voting Democrat this year (sic).”
To be fair, there is polling data that at least somewhat supports the point Rove was trying to make. A 2010 survey from Pew found that Democrats and liberals aged 18-29 are more likely to have tattoos than their conservative and Republican counterparts. Of course, Rove’s professional friend doesn’t fall in that age range and 34-year-olds generally aren’t considered “young voters.”
