Harpers: "The wrecking crew: How a gang of RW con men destroyed Washington and made a killing"

[TomCADem]

I have seen a couple of posts speaking approvingly of Grover Norquist based on his demand that Timothy Geithner resign as Treasurer. Let me just say that the quoting Grover Norquist does not support one's argument, particularly among actual liberals. You might as well say that John Yoo supports your views on human rights or John Bolton supports your views on Iran. The fact that you may agree with Grover Norquist on an issue is a good reason to re-evaluate your own views, rather than to celebrate the fact that Grover sees things the way you see them. Grover Norquist is one of the fathers of astro-turf as a profit generating industry as explained in this in-depth Harper's article:

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/08/0082132

The wrecking crew: How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing

* * *
It was Abramoff’s friend Grover Norquist, then a recent graduate of Harvard Business School, who came up with a plan for changing the very nature of the College Republicans. Norquist made a study of the CRs, developing a scheme to transform them from “a resume-padding social club,” as one account puts it, into “an ideological, grassroots organization.” Abramoff made Nor-quist the College Republicans’ executive director, and the two put Norquist’s theory into action. They purged the “old guard.” They amended the group’s constitution, establishing a structure that made the Washington office more powerful, and rewarded proselytizing on campus.

What the rising conservative sensibility of those years treasured above all else was “confrontation” with the left. It called for a quasi-military victory over liberalism; it would have no truck with civility or fair play; and it made heroes out of outrage-courting lib-fighters like Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan, the organizer Howard Phillips, and the young Jack Abramoff.

* * *
The point, and the profit, was in getting the people with money to understand which ideas served their common interests, which ones didn’t, and then to act together as a class—supporting the good ideas and crushing the liberal ones. This was a plan with legs: When I spoke to Grover Norquist in 2006, he was still insisting that businesses had to be instructed on big-picture thinking, on the amazing returns to be realized through funding conservatism. By then, of course, Grover Norquist was no longer some campus activist; he was the architect of the most effective defund-the-left program Washington has ever seen. And his old friend Jack Abramoff was on his way to jail.

[liberalmuse]

1. Ah, rightly placed outrage.

It's sure nice to see on DU once in awhile. :)

[TomCADem]

5. Thanks, I Checked Out DU...

...and see a bunch of posts defending Grover Norquist or suggesting that various Democrats are worse than he is. I thought I was in Free Republic for a moment. Grover is the father of astro-turf as noted in the Harper's article. Grover sells grass roots support for a profit, and his speciality is taking out left leaning opposition by trying to defund them. He is very good at what he does.

[Gold Metal Flake]

2. Norquist and a minority of rural repukes are starving California.

Using Prop 13.

[Zoeisright]

3. They destroyed much more than Washington.

They've destroyed the country, and the world is going to go with us.

[KittyWampus]

4. Grover Norquist is Ground Zero for the near destruction of our Democracy. He ORGANIZED IT!

[blondeatlast]

6. The College republicans were the architects for the defeat of Gore--

and this slime ucking rat made them what they are.

"The republican Noise Machine" by David Brock exposes this feces for what he is.

May he rot in front of a California (victim of Prop 13) Hollywood Democratic organizing meeting.

[RainDog]

7. k&r

[snagglepuss]

8. To read later. Looks interesting. Thanks.