Leave Us Alone!

Helen and Peter Evans

Grover Norquist has just published a new book. Its title is "Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives." The ever-surprising founder of Americans for Tax Reform has given us a brilliant analysis of American society that sheds a revealing new light on politics and is actually fairly encouraging to Republicans as we approach this November's presidential election.

Perhaps you've heard the old joke, "There are two kinds of people - those who believe there are two kinds of people and those who don't." Well, Grover falls into the first category, but not so simplistically. And, as humorous as he is, it's no laughing matter. He identifies two coalitions that correspond broadly with the political alignments of Republican and Democrat. More interesting is the motivating factor that causes individuals to select the coalition they will join.

The "leave us alone" coalition is discussed first and the name says it all. The main reason they come together (politically) is because they want to be left alone (governmentally). This disparate group would tend to believe, as did many of the Founders, "that which governs best, governs least." They tend to vote Republican, but typically do not sign on to a whole policy platform. There is usually one main issue that "moves their vote" and that is the area where they want government to back off and leave them alone.

An obvious natural constituency of the leave-us-alone coalition is every taxpayer. This group would really prefer that the government leave their income and their property alone. Home-schoolers, the religious, property-owners and gun-owners also find a natural alliance in that they all want the government to leave them alone. They all want the same thing, but for their own, different reasons. They don't agree on everything, but they do agree on one thing and that can be enough to win an election. They cherish their liberty and the responsibility that comes with it. They are motivated to continue to pay taxes if the government does its job - defending the nation and maintaining the infrastructure - and leaves them alone to do their jobs and pursue happiness their own way.

The opposing coalition he calls the "takings" coalition, and is composed of trial lawyers, labor-union leaders, government employees unions, recipients of government grants and what Norquist describes as "the two wings of the dependency movement - those who are locked into welfare dependency and those who earn $90,000 a year managing this dependency and making sure that none of the recipients get jobs and become Republicans." Also around the takings table are big-city political machines, the "welfare industrial complex of hospitals and health-care professionals beholden to government funding" and "coercive utopians" like radical environmentalists and the "food Nazis." These folks want to supervise our moral regeneration and be paid for their 'help' from our taxes.

While the leave-us-aloners are net contributors to government, these people are literally "takers." They live and move and have their being, directly or indirectly, on the government payroll. Where once it was tradesmen and factory-workers, now teachers and other government employees, at all levels, are the most heavily-unionized workers in the country.

While the leave-us-aloners tend to regard public service as an obligation of citizenship, a sacrifice they owe to the nation that guarantees their freedom, the "takers" regard public service as a lifetime career opportunity, with wages and retirement security much superior to a 'real' job. Average federal employee wages and benefits are an astonishing 50% more than those of the private-sector employees whose taxes pay federal wages. The takers have absolutely no motivation to reduce the size and reach of government - as government grows, so do their prospects.

Do not mistake the takings coalition as "mistaken" in their beliefs and policy intentions. Norquist was at pains to defend his evaluation of the Left as "evil, not stupid" based on the fact that they really do mean to maintain and extend the dependency of more and more Americans, and maintain and extend their own position as the well-paid managerial elite who runs the "plantation."

This is not an alliance of friends, but a cohort of "competing parasites" attracted by the smell of so-called government money. As long as government and the flow of money continues to grow, they will cooperate in spending it. However, as many analysts have pointed out, current levels of federal spending are un-sustainable. So, even if the leave-us-aloners can't persuade their Republican representatives to change anything in Washington, the present entitlement structure will bankrupt itself (and us) in the not-too-distant future.

According to Norquist, the most important demographic shift in the last quarter century is not that Hispanics now out-number Blacks in America, but that more than 60% of Americans are now invested in the stock-market, either directly or through retirement or mutual funds. This is up from less than 20% when Ronald Reagan was in office. The significance of this change is that the emerging "ownership society" will not be confused about where the government gets "its" money. The Democrats favored ploy of offering "free" programs by increasing taxes on "Big Business" will lose its appeal when about two-thirds of the population can see the cost of those programs reducing their own retirement portfolio.

Add to this insight the demographic fact that the leave-us-alone coalition is reproducing about 3-to-2 over the takings coalition, and you can see that there is, indeed, reason to be hopeful that we can turn around the government-dependency movement that threatens to turn America into a stagnating, Euro-style welfare state. And if you're a little doubtful about candidate McCain, Grover's advice is to work on getting more Republicans into Congress. Let's get to work!

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This husband and wife team - freelance writers and speakers - teach a philosophical approach to conservatism. They are also real estate agents in the Washington, DC area. http://peterandhelenevans.com

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