So, how did you expect to feel the day after the election? Relieved? Angry? Ecstatic? Disappointed? Hung over? Is that how you felt? Me neither ... well, a little hung over.

After one of the most difficult and hard-fought elections in American history, reality now begins to set in. Our problems are still with us. Through a deliberate strategy of the past eight years, our national debt is so great and economic strength so weak that few of the hopes and dreams that drove this election have much of a chance of becoming fully realized.

Grover Norquist made sure of that. You may never have heard of the President of Americans for Tax Reform, but he was the principle architect of the tax policies of the past eight years. He persuaded President Bush and the congress to pass huge tax cuts, without passing corresponding spending cuts. In fact, for the first time in history, we launched wars without raising the money. Money borrowed mostly from China has funded the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving future administrations and generations with the bill.

The reason for that is as simple as it is insidious. Norquist is a radical opponent of government programs such as welfare, education, Medicare, etc. He believes taxes should fund the military and little else. In fact, he says that using tax money to help the poor is “stealing,” and his strategy is to starve out all such programs. By creating a national debt so great that it is impossible to provide health care or education to anyone but those who can afford it, Norquist and his allies Bill Kristol, Newt Gingrich, Jack Abramoff, and other upper-class white males have left the economy exactly where they want it.

They actually are gleeful that the nation has elected an African-American president and a Democratic congress who now will be blamed for not being able to keep their promises, because they have inherited an utterly bankrupt nation. Please do not hear me suggest that the Democrats are without blame. They could have stopped Bush economic policies from day one, but they did not. You can be sure that their counterparts won’t hesitate to filibuster against taxes to pay the bills, but the Democrats were too cowardly to stop tax cuts on the wealthy and thus allowed these overdue bills to mount.

Personally, I believe we have elected a brilliant and capable leader as our next president. However, Grover Norquist really will be the one who shaped the future of America. He appealed to the greed of many politicians, and, as for the rest, he just had to ensure that all they really cared about was re-election.

I challenge you to read about this man and discover who really determined the kind of country will be for the next few years. After you do, remember this: Grover Norquist is proof of what one person can do with a small group of determined allies. I believe that what he stands for is evil. Now it is up to us to see what a small group of determined individuals can do for good. Our new president will need all the allies he can get.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice