Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives

384 Pages·2008·2.57 MB·English

by  Grover Norquist

L E AV E U S

A L O N E

Getting the Government’s Hands
Off Our Mone y, Our Guns,
Our Lives
G R O V E R N O R Q U I S T
Fo r my Mom and Dad ,
Caro l and Wa rre n No r q uist
CONTENTS

PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION: THE CONTEST FOR AMERICA—
A NOTE TO THE READER xi
PA RT I: THE T WO COM PETING COA LITIONS
Chapter 1: THE LEAVE US ALONE COALITION 3
Chapter 2: THE TAKINGS COALITION 34
PA RT II: THE T REND S
Chapter 3: THE GROWTH OF THE INVESTOR CLASS 59
Chapter 4: THE DECLINE OF LABOR UNIONS 68
iv CONT ENTS
VOTERS COME AND VOTERS GO:
Chapter 5:
ENTRY AND EXIT 81
Chapter 6: THE POLITICAL TRAINING OF THE YOUNG 95
Chapter 7: BAMBI IS GETTING SAFER;
MUGGERS, LESS SO 102
Chapter 8: BACK TO EUROPE OR
FORWARD TO AMERICA 113
Chapter 9: “HE WAS HOMESCHOOLED” 122
Chapter 10: TAKING THE KING’S SHILLING:
FRIENDS OF GOVERNMENT 126
FINDING MORE VOTERS: INCREASING
Chapter 11:
TURNOUT, VOTING THE PRISONS, AND
VOTER FRAUD 132
Chapter 12: THE ECUMENICAL RIGHT 146
Chapter 13: THE NEW MEDIA: CUTTING OUT THE
MIDDLEMEN 158
PA RT III: THE BA T TLEGRO UND
Chapter 14: THE BUSINESS OF BUSINESS:
WHAT IS GOOD FOR GENERAL MOTORS 173
Chapter 15: RACE AND POLITICS 185
CONT ENT S v
Chapter 16: THE SENATE, THE HOUSE,
THE PRESIDENCY 194
Chapter 17: THE STATES 209
PA RT I V : T A XES , AND WHAT WE
MU ST DO A B OUT THEM
Chapter 18: TAXES: THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE STATE 227
Chapter 19: TAX REFORM 244
PA RT V : GOOD P OLICY, GOOD P OLITICS
Chapter 20: SPENDING: WHAT WENT WRONG? 287
Chapter 21: THE FIVE GREAT REFORMS 304
AFTERWORD 335
NOTES 339
About the Author
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher

PREFACE

A sculptor was once asked how he created a marble statue of Zeus.
The sculptor explained that first you get a big block of marble and
then you simply remove the bits that don’t look like Zeus.
In writing this book, I first decided what book I did not wish to
write. I chose not to write another book entitled The Other Team
Sucks or My Team Is Going to Win Come Heck or High Water, So Get
Used to It. Others have done fine work here. Such books do serve to
rile up the troops, preach to the choir, and make oneself feel better
after a well-turned rant.
Nor did I want to write a book about how my team is losing and
Western civilization is slouching toward Sodom and there is simply
nothing to be done.
One such book explaining the collapse of the modern Republican
Party and conservative movement came out weeks before the revolu-
tion of 1994. Another book describing the permanent decline of the
Democrat Party was published just before Bill Clinton was elected to
govern with a Democrat House and Senate in 1992.
I also chose not to write a utopian book about how the world
would be perfect if all my ideas were turned into law tomorrow. It
viii PREFACE
was a while ago that I discovered that the world was not organized
around what I wanted done. I was very disappointed. But unlike
some, I was ten years old when this truth became painfully clear. It
takes a great deal of hard work by millions of Americans to turn
around the ship of state and keep it moving in the right direction for
a generation. This book is about how the center-right can move
America toward greater freedom and individual liberty, not just an
assertion that we should.
I also worked hard to avoid writing a book that could be summa-
rized as a “longer version of a good magazine article.” There are many
fine books on the market that take one interesting idea and put it on
the literary rack and turn the wheel until toes and fingers have two
hundred pages distance between them. I have written more than one
hundred magazine articles and given hundreds of political speeches
and created dozens of political meetings, coalitions, and campaigns.
The lessons of success and failure, what works and what doesn’t in
real time are poured into this book.
Rather I have written a book that describes the two competing co-
alitions in American politics, how they are organized, what makes
them stronger or weaker. What each can achieve and what they can-
not do. And how you the reader may fit into the contest. These two
competing political coalitions—descriptively titled the Leave Us Alone
Coalition and the Takings Coalition—are at the heart of the center-
right and the left, respectively.
To gain a deeper understanding of American politics—where it’s
been, where it is and particularly where it will be over the next half-
century—it is more important to understand those coalitions than
the parties themselves. This book was written to give you that under-
standing.
Returning to what this book is not, it is not a book about the 2008
presidential campaign or the strengths or failings of President Bush
or Hillary Clinton. It is about the near and far future.
Nor is the book a reaction to Republican success in 2000 and 2004
or Democrat success in 2006. I do believe, as an analyst and a combat-