Happy Warrior

Republican agitator Grover Norquist on building a "leave-us-alone coalition"

Rick Henderson & Steven Hayward from the February 1997 issue

(Page 2 of 5)

When we say Washington is corrupt and needs changing, the media will say we're revolutionary and we're looney tunes. The taxpayer group in every state is always--always referred to as nuts. Every state! I thought maybe we just had a lot of nuts [laughter].

I deal with both in Washington, with the establishment and with the revolutionaries at ATR, corporate guys and the taxpayers' movement. The corporate guys in every state--the Chamber of Commerce--think the taxpayer groups are nutty. Why? Because that's what the left always says about taxpayers' groups: that's how they marginalize them. Sometimes guys like Howard Jarvis [the father of California's Proposition 13] play into the stereotype and become more nutty than they probably were before everyone told them they were nutty. But just as you listen to Radio Moscow and when they tell you somebody's ill, you realize he's dead, our team hears, "He's a little bit nutty," and they go, "Oh, he must be OK."

Reason: What are your coalition's core issues?

Norquist: The next person who runs for president should run on the six non-negotiables: 1) Racial preferences: Liberals can say they're against quotas, but they have to vote against something like the California Civil Rights Initiative. 2) Tort reform: Liberals think they should be able to violate contracts any time they want to because they don't like them. Plus, the trial lawyers line the Democrats' coffers. 3) A single-rate tax system, because that goes after class warfare, along with double and triple taxation. 4) School choice, because the teachers' unions won't allow it. 5) Opposition to gun control. 6) A balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution with a supermajority requirement for raising taxes, because it explains who we are vs. who they are.

Reason: What about abortion?

Norquist: The distinction between the Leave-Us-Alone Coalition and the Takings Coalition is that we think the proper role of the state is to protect people. The abortion issue will never be solved because the disagreement is over whether there are one or two people involved. The question isn't who should be left alone--the question is, "How many people are there?" With abortion, if there's one person, then the role of the state is to protect that person and let her have an abortion. If there are two people, then both of them deserve protection.

I don't know any pro-choicers who say, "There are two distinct human beings here--kill one." And I don't know any pro-lifers who say, "No, there's only one person here and we want to compel her to have a baby." But that doesn't mean they should disagree about whether the government should steal people's property or grab their guns or about school choice.

I know lots of people who are pro-choice and are radical libertarians. I know of almost no one in elected office who is. For too many politicians the promise that they are solid conservatives except on social issues is followed by the declaration that support for racial quotas is a social issue, property confiscation in the name of environmentalism is a social issue, gun control then becomes a social issue.

People who are willing to stick to a strong pro-life position aren't going to be pushed off a strong anti-tax position. For people who like to think in ideologically cohesive ways it makes no sense, but that's the way it is.

Reason: You have suggested that your coalition may unite behind a single presidential candidate in 2000. Who might the coalition support?

Norquist: It is important that we don't commit to any one person in the next two years. We want all potential suitors to compete, not just on an ideological basis but on a party-building basis. These guys should go out there and hustle.

My biggest disappointment was when [Indianapolis Mayor Steve] Goldsmith lost in the Indiana governor's race. I thought he was presidential. I thought had Jeb Bush won the governorship two years ago in Florida, he could have been a presidential candidate. [House Majority Leader] Dick Armey is someone who could be a wonderful leader for the Leave-Us-Alone Coalition.

Lamar Alexander hurt himself by his opposition to the flat tax. Jack Kemp has to come to grips about whether he's for or against apartheid. Is state-sponsored racial discrimination a good or a bad thing? Until recently, he said it was a good thing. That is not acceptable. And he has to decide whether government spending per se is wrong, and he hasn't yet done that.

Reason: What about Steve Forbes?

Norquist: Forbes is a very strong possibility. He's been a real party builder. Had he done what Colin Powell did after he stepped out--had he withdrawn from public view, people would have said, "He wanted to be president, he wanted to be important, but now he doesn't want to play." But Forbes was aggressively campaigning for other Republicans when it was clear he wasn't going to win. That's a guy who cares about building a movement. That's a guy who's not just in this for himself, which is the route that Powell took. Had Powell just taken half a month of his time, he could have helped us win 10 more House seats. He could have gone out and done fundraisers for people or visited every vulnerable district, and he didn't.