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By: Pablo Pardo/Washington
El Mundo (Spain)
September 12, 2004
The Spanish original is at: www.el-mundo.es/nuevaeconomia/2004/239/1095089802.html
The Wall Street Journal has called him "The Lenin of
the Republican Party". Other distinguished
conservatives say that this title is an exaggeration,
but it is beyond doubt that at the age of 48, Grover
Norquist, outside consultant to the White House, has
now become the dominant force in American economic
policy.
Norquist's big mouth <1> is combined with an ascetic
devotion to his caudse. So much so that the platform
approved by the Republican Party last week for Bush's
reelection repeats, point by point, his ideology. It's
not surprising. Norquist works closely with Karl Rove,
Bush's chief of electoral strategy, and has a long
history of promoting conservative causes in the United
States and world anticommunism. It is hard to overstate
Norquist's influence in US politics. He was the
architect of the crushing Republican victory in the
1994 legislative elections, which placed his ally Newt
Gingrich at the head of the House of Representatives.
Since then, the conservatives have not left control of
the Legislature, a traditional Democratic stronghold.
For over ten years he has lead the "Leave-Us-Alone
Coalition" <2>, which every Wednesday holds open
meetings in which representatives of different
conservative groups suggest initiatives and announce
programs of action, and to which George W. Bush and
Dick Cheney always sent personal representatives. He
runs the "K Street Project", designed to eradicate all
Democratic influence upon pressure groups -- the famous
lobbies -- that are concentrated on that street in
Washington. And he wants -- and all indications are
that he will prevail -- the image of Ronald Reagan to
appear on the ten-dollar bill. But his main instrument
to influence policy is the group Americans for Tax
Reform.
This pressure group rates the fiscal policy of every
legislator. If a congressman has voted in favor of tax
increases, he is finished, particularly if he is a
Republican. A bad opinion from the ATR can destroy the
popularity of any legislator, and leave him without
funds to carry out an election campaign.
Question: Who is going to win on November 2?
Answer: It doesn't matter. We will control the House
of Representatives, and probably the Senate. If Kerry
wins, he will not be able to do anything that we do not
want him to do. We will not give him money to spend.
He will not be able to raise taxes. He will not steal
our firearms. Even though we lose the White House, it
will not be the end of the world.
Q: And if Bush wins?
A: The Democratic Party will be forever doomed. If we
take control of the legislature and the executive
branch, we will reenforce our control of the Judicial
Branch to direct it against the Democrats. We will
brng about a modest limit of the ability of the people
to initiate lawsuits against corporations, which will
damage the lawyers who specialize in these cases, which
is one of the props of the Democratic Party. We will
accelerate the decline of the unions. We will cut
funding to groups of public employees, like teachers,
who are one of the great sources of Democratic votes.
And we will begin the move the Welfare State toward a
private system, in pensions and healthcare.
Q: The end of the Democrats?
A: Yes, because their demographic base is collapsing.
Two million people who fought in the Second World War
and lived through the Great Depression die every year.
This generation has been an exception in US History,
because it as defended anti-American policies. They
voted for the creation of the Welfare State and for
mandatory military service. They are the Democratic
electoral base. And they are dying. And at the same
time, more and more Americans own stock. This makes
them defend business interests, because they are their
own interests. That is why it is impossible to bring
about a politics of societal hatred, of class struggle.
Q: What are the Democrats doing to stop their decline?
A: Mobilizing. That is where all the support that
Kerry receives from people like George Soros comes
from. They are just as we were in 1968, when Nixon
won, or in 1980, when Reagan won. Then, the Democrats
controlled Congress. We could only choose a President.
We knew that if Nixon or Reagan did not win, and
Democratic domination of US politics continued, that
they would deliver the country to the Soviet Union.
Now they are living that experience.
Q: You would like the cut the state by half in 25
years. How?
A: The key is in pensions and health. Last year Bush
approved the creation of personal accounts in which
each citizen accumulates savings to pay for health
assistance. And the platform includes a partial
privatization of Social Security ("pensiones"). These
two areas are a third of public spending in this
country. In 20 years, half the population will be in
private assistance systems and pensions. And the
Welfare State will no longer be needed. To this will
be added reforms to the EPA and a reduction in the
authority of the FDA, which authorizes the sale of
pharmaceuticals.
Q: And that will be the society that you want.
A: It will be a truly American society. And we will
bury the Europeans. Further, we will reform
immigration legislation, and bring over one million of
Europe's best minds every year. You will also be
finished. But quickly, let me say why we are freer
than you.
Q: Why?
A: Because we can have weapons.
Q: But likewise Europeans -- particularly the women --
can take off more clothing on the beach than Americans.
A: Whose beaches are they?
Q: The State's. The vision of state-run beaches with
naked people -- almost -- disconcerts Norquist,
although it's not clear whether it's the public
ownership of the beaches or the moral aspect of the
question. With this unknown left open, the interview
ends. Norquist goes back to his lobbying work, and
starts to talk with his collaborators who work for the
Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham.
After a brief interruption to attend to a journalist
from Old Europe, the libertarian revolution of America
starts up again.
Norquist himself has declared his goal: "I don't want
to put an end to the State. I just want to make it
small enough for me to drown in the bathtub."
Born: October 19, 1956 in Wenton, Massachusetts.
Current responsiblities: President of Americans for
Tax Reform and the Leave-Us-Alone Coalition. Director
of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project. Member of the
Executive Committee of the National Rifle Association.
Career: Norquist says that he became an anticommunist
at age 11, reading Masters of Deceit, written by the
controversial ex-diector of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover.
After obtaining a Harvard MBA, he went on to lead the
Association of University Republicans and the National
Contrbutors' Union. In the 1980s he worked in the
White House and was financial consultant to the
anticommunist UNITA guerrillas in Angola, who fought,
with American and South AFican support, the government
of that country which enjoyed the support of tens of
thousands of Cuban soldiers. He also worked with the
anti-Soviet Afghan "mujahedin".
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