The blast killed , including 19 children younger than six, and injured more than Timothy McVeigh, the chief bomber, had grown up on Red Dawn, had been a gunner in the Gulf War, and had become increasingly disaffected when he got home, convinced that America was turning socialist.
More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up. We suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight. Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? But it might. The Republican revolution took on a life outside official channels in Washington, too. Gingrich, Armey, and DeLay, together with Norquist, launched the K Street Project, designed to change the culture of Washington to favor Republicans, rather than the congressional Democrats who had built up long-standing ties to businessmen and lobbyists over their many years in power.
Delay pointed out to lobbyists that Republicans were now in charge, and that if they wanted access to the channels of power, they had better remember Republicans and forget Democrats when they were hiring and making political contributions. K Street, the address of Washington lobbying firms, quickly got the message. At the same time, the budget cuts the revolutionaries pushed through Congress led to congressional staff cuts, meaning that representatives increasingly turned to lobbyists, rather than staffers, to explain issues and write bills.
Government pay stagnated, making the private sector an attractive alternative for former congressional staffers, and the space between congressional offices and K Street became a revolving door. As the business community wrote legislation, congressmen justified it with the language of Movement Conservatism, emphasizing that only businessmen knew what was best for their industries. The Fox News Channel FNC was the brainchild of Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who recognized the frustration of Movement Conservatives with what they insisted was a Liberal media biased against their version of the world.
Buckley had outlined this argument initially, and followers like Schlafly and later Limbaugh amplified it until followers believed that anything coming from a mainstream reporter was Liberal propaganda. By giving a voice to those ideas, Fox News promised to restore fairness and balance to American politics. Ailes used his trademark visual skills to set up an information system based on a clear, simple narrative.
Stories used colorful graphics with bullet-pointed information. Newsreaders were handsome men or young, beautiful women; their stories created a narrative uncluttered with nuance. To hurry the spread of the new channel, Murdoch offered ten dollars per subscriber to each cable company that carried FNC.
Its Americans were overwhelmingly white and rural and wanted just to be independent individuals. They hated taxes and intrusive government, and they would do fine if they could just get the socialistic Democrats to leave them alone.
This vision had resonated in America since , but it was even less real in the s than it had been a century before. The census showed that more than three-quarters of the US population lived in cities of more than one hundred thousand people. Whites were the slowest-growing racial group in America although they still made up about 80 percent of the population. Fox News quickly became a major political player.
By election , FNC charged all other news stations with bias, forcing them to air the views of Movement Conservatives in self-defense. This technique had driven McCarthyism in the s, and in the s it acquired a new, scientific-sounding name.
Overton, came up with the idea of the Overton Window, a span of ideas the public would accept. To move that range rightward, Movement Conservatives had to promote their views aggressively, until arguments and policies that had previously been considered outrageous would become acceptable.
FNC moved the Overton Window by keeping up a constant stream of media chatter charging Democrats with socialism, elitism, and anti-Americanism. Clinton won reelection in because no matter how Republicans tried to spin it, the economy boomed during the Clinton years. Indeed, it put the Reagan economy to shame. He made small cuts to defense and overall spending but increased the earned income tax credit for low-income households with children.
Republicans howled that Clinton was destroying the economy by raising taxes on all Americans to fund special interests, but in fact the economy jumped back from its weak performance in — to perform brilliantly. Per capita GDP climbed and would climb 3 percent each year after ; unemployment dropped from 7. The raging deficits that had plagued the country since the Eisenhower years began to shrink.
In , the booming economy gave Clinton room to expand health care for poor children, provide tax credits for college tuition, and cut the capital gains tax rate from 25 percent to 20 percent.
The very fact that the economy was doing so well under a Democrat convinced Movement Conservatives that Clinton had to be stopped. If the Democratic program worked, Americans would continue it, just as they had chosen Eisenhower Republicanism in the s. The country would be right back where it had been when William F.
Craig Varoga David Farmer Maine. Jon Ralston Robert Novak. Wayne Hughes Sr. Richard DeVos Sr. Delgado A. Andrew Kennedy Washington, D. Pearson C. Kittle Major Garrett.
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Hasan Harnett Heath Garrett. Vance J. Randolph Evans J. Stryker Patrick J. The emphasis is always on what action your group is taking right now. Norquist gained more national attention in , when the Tea Party movement started to gain traction. But he really pops up on the national radar every time raising taxes is brought up as a solution to something — like the debt-ceiling negotiations in and, now, the fiscal-cliff talks.
The "60 Minutes" interview was arguably Norquist's most high-profile appearance, and contributed to his reputation as the force behind Republican aversion to raising revenue. Kroft: But you make it pretty clear.
If someone breaks the pledge, you're gonna do everything you can to get rid of them. Norquist: To educate the voters that they raise taxes. And again, we educate people Norquist: To encourage them to go into another line of work, like shoplifting or bank robbing, where they have to do their own stealing.
Norquist: With the taxpayers of their state. I applaud from the sidelines. I go, 'Very good. Norquist and ATR came under increased scrutiny in , when the Washington Post reported that the organization had helped funnel money for controversial Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
According to an investigative report on Abramoff's lobbying released last week by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Americans for Tax Reform served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns. As the money passed through, Norquist's organization kept a small cut, e-mails show. Abramoff, of course, pleaded guilty in to three felony counts of defrauding clients, most prominently Native American tribes.
He also was accused of illegally providing representatives with money and gifts for their votes in legislation. Did you think Grover Norquist would help make that decision? Well, he does, apparently.
He has also competed three times in "Washington's Funniest Celebrity" contest, placing second once. In the past week, a number of prominent Republican lawmakers are renouncing Norquist's pledge , including Sens.
Peter King. At the heart of the Republican breakaway is the difference in philosophy between these Republicans and Norquist. The key Republican compromise for a fiscal cliff deal centers on a plan to raise revenue by eliminating deductions and closing loopholes. Under Norquist's rules in the pledge, this counts as a tax increase. But it appears that Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, are prepared to make these concessions. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.
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