Norquist

Grover Norquist by George Skidmore

Grover Norquist is famous for undermining the concept in the U.S. that maintaining a civilized society requires taxation. There is irony in Norquist's Swedish name and lineage.

 

Mr. Norquist, like the healthy who rail against universal health coverage, should disqualify himself from the debate on taxation and entitlements for those who need a leg up from government. Mr. Norquist was born to comparative wealth. He was raised in an economically gated community outside of Boston. He is white. He is ostensibly heterosexual. He is religious.

 

Mr. Norquist's fanaticism against taxation takes the form of bullying politicians with career assassination. He would call it lobbying. I doubt politicians see him as a benign advocate for tax limitation.

 

The Norquists of the world are boilerplate reactionaries, representing a threatened aristocracy. They must remove the silver spoons from their mouths to lecture the poor on pulling themselves up by their boot straps. They themselves have pulled little or no weight in their privileged lives. They cannot or will not understand the potholed roads traveled by the less fortunate. In fact, they resent fixing the actual roads that convey them in their new cars from pricey suburb to pricey urban center.

 

I do not know Mr. Norquist. I do not travel in his circles of elitism. Therefore, this is not a personal attack, but a realistic evaluation of what he does and stands for. He could not help being born into wealth, but he can help trying to shut the door to social security and free education to those who need it. His behavior, which I reasonably suspect reflects his beliefs, is antithetical to practical humanist values.