Deval Patrick on Grover Norquist

[MBS]

They were classmates at Harvard?!

Anyway, Deval nails him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/how-grover-norquist-hypnotized-the-gop/2011/06/30/AGYOUlsH_story.html

At our 25th college reunion in 2003, Grover Norquist — the brain and able spokesman for the radical right — and I, along with other classmates who had been in public or political life, participated in a lively panel discussion about politics. During his presentation, Norquist explained why he believed that there would be a permanent Republican majority in America. One person interrupted, as I recall, and said, “C’mon, Grover, surely one day a Democrat will win the White House.” Norquist immediately replied: “We will make it so that a Democrat cannot govern as a Democrat.”

In a way, Republicans have accomplished that. . . .It is now clear that the Republican strategy is to drive America to the brink of fiscal ruin and then argue that the only way out is to cut spending for the powerless. . .


I remember sitting in the Dunster House dining hall at Harvard with Norquist when we were sophomores or juniors in college, while he explained his view of government, or lack thereof. It sounded logical — the notion that we could live independently of each other, making our own decisions in our own self-interest. But then who puts out the fires? Who answers the calls to 911? Who educates poor children? Who helps people with disabilities? I’d like to think that the most prosperous nation in human history can have both freedom and security. I think we have reached a point where my personal success is not threatened by a program to help our parents retire with dignity. Voters are smart enough to see that taxes are one of the ways we get those things. They are the price we pay for civilization.

[mk2guy7355]

1. delete

[Kat45]

2. I was pretty surpised to see that they were classmates at Harvard.

And it looks like Grover was an asshole all the way back then too.

[JAnthony]

3. Patrick is correct Frightening to see exactly what the Republicans

are up to.

And what the rest of America is up against.

Governor Mitch Daniels, Bush' former budget chief, called raising the debt ceiling "just a small housekeeping issue" when asked on NBC's Meet the Press in 2001.

Bush got the debt limit raised from 5.95 trillion, all the way up to 10.something trillion...all as a simple housekeeping procedure. No big deal back then