Have you ever heard Grover
Norquist’s defining quote?
"I don't want to abolish government, I
simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and
drown it in the bathtub."
Who thinks this way, let alone proudly proclaims this in a public
interview? This shows Grover Norquist’s extreme disdain for
almost any government regulation of the lives of citizens, and for government
itself. His philosophy is that if we rid ourselves of government we will be far
happier and more prosperous. He is by definition an anarchist, defined
as "someone who holds the political philosophy that the state is
undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful." (Wikipedia)
It’s very important for Americans to be aware of this man’s
extremist views. Although he has never been elected to public office, Grover
Norquist is the most powerful person in the Republican Party. This cock does
rule the walk. He dominates Republican politics. His Republican
"Pledgees" must follow his iron-fisted dictates. Nominally 95%
of Republicans in our 112th Congress have signed his 60-word pledge regarding
taxes. A total of 1500 Republican legislators across the country have signed
this pledge. But this man's alarming dominance doesn’t stop there- it extends
to dozens of major, destructive movements going on at national, state and local
levels. And his influential role is well under most people’s radar. Americans
are under attack by Grover Norquist and his minions, his army specializing in
political guerrilla warfare. You have seen the dismay over the gridlock in
Wisconsin, Ohio and California. But did you realize that it all emanates
from this one man? Just this one man, aided by these pledges of destruction.
To understand more about this man’s thought processes, let
us reflect upon Grover Norquist's book: Leave Us Alone; Getting the
Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives (William
Morrow Publishers, 2008). In this book
he neatly divides Americans into two groups: The "Leave us Alone
Coalition” (LUAC) and the "Takings Coalition”(TC). This is the kind of over-simplification
one might find in a low-budget, B-grade Western movie; where all of the
good guys (LUAC, of course) wear white hats, and all of the bad guys (TC) wear
black ones.
In Norquist’s view, the LUAC are the good guys because they demand
almost nothing from the government. Of course, this idea is absolute
nonsense in that ALL Americans rely on ALL levels of government for almost
everything that happens in each of their daily lives. Those services provided
by the government and avidly consumed by the LUAC refute Norquist’s notion that
ANY group in America could find it even remotely possible to have our
government "leave us alone." For example, most people
who own homes do so through a national government-sponsored loan-underwriting
agency. Even the wealthiest in the LUAC most likely have at least one of their
many homes financed through a government-backed agency. Don't want any government
help? Then just move out of your homes all of you in the LUAC. Do you own
or work for a company? You, then, benefit tremendously from having an educated
work force. Government at the state level most likely provided the public
education for the employees in most shops and factories in the USA. Don't want
any government help? Then just hire only those who never, ever attended one day
of public schooling. Good luck, all of you in the LUAC!
And so now to my final example of how all of
us, including those in the LUAC, benefit from our governments. (Please bear
with the following silliness… but the basic idea of the LUAC and their wish
"to be left alone" is silly in itself.) At the local-government level
we have cities, which regulate traffic. Most cities have an engineering
department, where trained engineers work at all aspects of city traffic control.
These engineers are contemptuously viewed by Norquist as mere bureaucrats.
Now let's pretend that we do not have
any government at the local level. Let's get rid of these bureaucrat-engineers.
"Damn it, leave us alone." OK. No more street corner traffic lights.
All of you in the LUAC just take your chances at each corner. Never mind
that you and your family run tremendous risks at every "no government
here" street corner. Might be crash and burn for you. (Pretty silly, I
know.) But by considering the logical extension of the Norquist’s “no
government” idea, we can all clearly see that they receive plenty of help from
our government at the national, state and local levels.
Then, there are the very worst of the worst, those
"black-hat" wearers. Grover Norquist lumps these ne'er do wells
into... "The Takings Coalition." It's all in his book, Leave
Us Alone:
“It's time to
meet the Takings Coalition. These groups and individuals view the proper role
of government as taking things from one group and giving them to someone else.
Taking what? Money, property, power, and control. They start with money. Often
for themselves. Who are they in favor of taking it from? You and me, the
taxpayers. Let's go around the table as the Takings Coalition gathers. Seats
are reserved for trial lawyers, labor-union leaders, government employees'
unions, recipients of government grants, and the two wings of the dependency
movement: those who are locked into welfare dependency and those who earn
$90,000 per year managing this dependency and making sure none of the
recipients get jobs and become Republicans." (Page 34)
Obviously, we must all have government and its
services at all levels to lead productive, healthy and safe lives. But
Grover Norquist sees the "Takings Coalition" as thieves who are
stealing from the rest of the population. In his view, those who fit into the
TC are 1) government workers 2) labor unions 3) the nonprofit sector 4)
universities 5) trial lawyers and 6) coercive utopians. I will go into
each of these categories in more detail in my next blog. In the meantime ask yourself: "Am
I a robber-baron or coercive utopian and don’t even know it? Oh the shame!”
It’s high time for this "Cock o' the walk" to take a
walk…
Or better yet…
Hey, Norquist, how about YOU leave US alone?
That’s my take.
What’s yours?
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