Elder Statesman

He was a promising young lawyer when he quit to stat a business. It thrived. So he sold it, moved across the country, and became Los Angeles's most controversial talk radio host. When Larry Elder talks about opportunity, people listen.

Nick Gillespie & Steve Kurtz from the April 1996 issue

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Reason: So do you think the '94 elections were meaningful?

Elder: Absolutely. They were a sea change. They said to both chambers of Congress, "We've had enough. Government is spending too much."

Reason: Do you have any hopes for the '96 elections?

Elder: It looks bad.

Reason: Any particular candidate you'd endorse?

Elder: Yeah, Margaret Thatcher. And you work out the logistics of that. With Jack Kemp as vice president and I'm there.

Reason: What do you like about Kemp?

Elder: Well, he never should have taken the job [as secretary of housing and urban development] unless his intention was to shut the agency down. He is ideologically impure the way all of them are. But Kemp is talking about growing the economy as a way of alleviating poverty and alleviating pain. That's a positive message. That's a very powerful message.

Jack Kemp cares. The fact that he went into the inner cities and talked to them about hope and investing in their own neighborhoods. That's the kind of rhetoric that I think convinces blacks that major issues in the country--such as how we spend our money and to what extent people are taxed--have a direct impact in their own lives. He is able to convince people of that.

Reason: You say you admire Kemp because he gets blacks to invest in their own communities. But in a piece you wrote for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, you once skewered the very idea of race-based commerce. Is that inconsistent?

Elder: I don't think it's inconsistent. What I am critical of is anybody that says, "Patronize my business because I am black, because I am a woman, because I am a Jew, or because I'm anything." You should patronize me because I offer the best damn service or the best damn product there is. That is not inconsistent with imploring people to start businesses in their own neighborhoods. And so to the extent that Jack Kemp is saying that, I think it's a good message.

Then again, I once got a letter where someone said, "I tailor shirts and I'm a black guy who started this business tailoring shirts. Why don't you write down your shirt size, your sleeve size, and give it to me? That way you'll be supporting black businessmen." Well, that's just crap. Tell me it's cheaper, tell me it's going to be more convenient for me, but don't try to make me feel guilty and get me to patronize you just simply because you're black, any more than you would like if McDonald's argued, "We're a white-owned business so white people should report to our business."

Reason: What's the state of race relations in the United States?

Elder: Essentially, they're excellent. In our quotidian, day-to-day lives, people get along just fine. You walk up to the store and you see an integrated line. There's a black checkout clerk there and you get your stuff processed. We're all getting along just fine. Most middle-class blacks live in integrated neighborhoods.

Reason: But if you go to Chicago, or Detroit, or Los Angeles, segregation is still everywhere.