GROVER NORQUIST: REPUBLICAN INQUISITOR

I pledge allegiance

To the gag

Of Grover's twisted America

And to the Republicans

For whom he stands

One nation, roughshod
Divisible, with misery

And injustice for all,

Except Very, very rich people

Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, my version of which is above, is the 21^st century American variation on the Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis, which was the "fight against heretics " by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church started in the 12^th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy. In practice, the Inquisition handed over convicted heretics to secular authorities, today, the Tea Party.  The laws were rules against certain religious crimes (today, such as raising taxes), and the punishments included death by burning or losing the next election, whichever comes first.  

Grover Norquist, the fanatic whom the Republican Party encourages to extract an oath from elected Republican Senators and Congressmen, to never, ever raise taxes under any circumstances, is the single biggest reason the federal government is unable to function as an economically responsible nation.  Its signers will not allow revenues necessary for funding the government. Republicans use it as an excuse to do grievous harm to their own country.  Here we see a typical Republican member of Congress hiding behind Norquist’s pledge.

A brief side bar: Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as "...[a]... citizen’s actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]."  OK, you tell me if taking Norquist’s pledge amounts to treason, i.e. taking an oath to seriously injury one’s own nation?

Who is this Norquist guy, anyway?  He has never been elected to anything by anyone. He’s a free-lancer, like Erik Prince, of Blackwater.  He is a far Right Wing enabler supported by unknown financial backing.  

Norquistst’s main official qualification for his elevated position is that he has an MBA from Harvard Business School. But so did Jeffrey Skilling (former Enron President) who is serving a 24 year term in a Federal prison, along with Samir Barai, a hedge fund manager who graduated from Harvard in 1999, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. Michael Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and securities fraud is also another impressive Harvard MBA.   In other words, Norquist is in good company.

Norquist’s mother Carol, interestingly enough, was a city tax assessor in Massachusetts, and his father was a VP Polaroid.  Norquist’s wife, Samah Alrayyes works for The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the US federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid, which presumably Norquist must absolutely despise, since it is a government agency that spends taxpayer money.

Among Norquist’s other resume’ highlights was his stint working with a support network for Col. Oiver North’s efforts with Ronald Reagan’s illegal war to support the Nicaraguan Contras by selling arms to Iran, which won him the hearts and minds (an oxymoron) of the Far Right Wing. He is the head honcho at Americans for Tax Reform which is incorporated as a non-profit corporation in Washington DC.  I can’t imagine how ATR qualifies as a non-profit, but he has gotten away with it. I tried to figure out the arcane provision under which ATR is considered a non-profit which was amended by Congress in 1984, but I’m not a tax attorney.  For the 2009 tax year, their 1040 tax return shows ATR claims total net assets of minus $6,49201,526, which was apparently covered by loans or loan guarantees by other organizations (Gee! I wonder who covered his expenses?).

So here we have a private individual, a Right Wing free-lancer with no credentials and who in unelected, and unappointed to a governmental agency, and is entirely unaccountable to the American people, who is used by the Republic Party to hold the United States of America hostage.  

Why does the leadership of the Democratic Party not do something about this travesty?