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| Grover Norquist is No €˜Useful Idiot' |
| 2015-03-28 |
| Moved to Opinion In the course of an uncomfortable hour-long television interview with Grover Norquist yesterday, radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck established a number of things. The most surprising is that the libertarian activist best known for his anti-tax campaigns would rather be perceived as what influence operators call a "useful idiot" -- an individual unwittingly duped into helping hostile forces -- than as an "agent of influence" for those forces. As Bill Clinton used to say, "That dawg won't hunt." No one who knows Grover Norquist would believe that this Harvard MBA with decades of experience running sophisticated and impactful political and lobbying campaigns at the highest levels of official Washington is an idiot, useful or otherwise. Certainly, he is too smart to have been taken for a ride by relative newcomers to the business, namely Muslim Brotherhood-associated operatives. (As pollster John Zogby recounted in 2001: "[Norquist has] played the role of interlocutor. With all respect, many of the [Muslim] leaders are immigrants and don't have years and years of experience. Grover has filled that void." http://tinurl.com/oebajak) |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #2 This is just the latest evidence that the political consulting industry is completely driven by financial greed and not loyal to the West or the Constitution. But really, what are they other than a reflection of the public at large in an age of bread and circus? The nonmilitary public sector is comprised almost entirely of people loyal to their magic paycheck, not the Constitution or even the task their agency is ostensibly about, so they increase regulations without regard to any logic or proof of utility. Unions are completely OK with shutting down profitable mines like the one in Raton NM if they don't get their way. The legal profession promotes more and more laws because that is good for their bottom line. In an immoral and predatory environment like this we should not be surprised at consultants catching the same groove. A good buddy of mine pointed out fifteen years ago that America had gotten to the point here the only thing holding it together was money and affluence, much of it borrowed. Take it away, he said, and things would split apart. We are living through those times. A shared vision of limited government, religious freedom, work ethic, and individual initiative tempered by charity at the community level had been under assault since Woodrow Wilson and had taken huge hits in the Thirties and Sixties. It had ruptured by 2000 and we are seeing now that many Americans and the vast majority of those publicly funded in some way have signed on to something completely different. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2015-03-28 05:04 |
| #1 Ooops: h/t Gates of Vienna |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-03-28 04:35 |