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Grover Norquist at his Harvard 25th Reunion
Posted: 2003-06-11 20:15
Grover Norquist attended his 25th Harvard Reunion last week. I doubt if he enjoyed himself.
The Harvard Class of 1978 is soundly liberal—not hard left, but they would feel generally at home here at SC. Quite concerned with social equity, multilateralism, the environment, nuclear proliferation, poverty, health care, and more. 53% describe themselves as Democrats, while 17% are Republicans and 13% call themselves Independents. 36% call themselves liberal, 32% are moderates, and 14% call themselves conservative.
As you might expect, Grover is not popular among his classmates. More precisely, he is loathed and considered dangerous, if not psychotic. There was a widespread undercurrent of "How could this loser become the most powerful person in our class?" (One discussion ended with the conclusion that we should rush him and give him a wedgie.)
Even people who didn't know him well remembered his oily pony-tail, his scrawny goatee, and his habit of talking with his mouth full. But few of us were graceful back then, and none of us would want to be judged on our behavior back then.
He was on the most-attended symposium panel discussion on politics. The rules of attending required that the entire affair was off-the-record, but no such stricture was placed on the extensive conversations immediately before and after the discussion.
It is safe to say that he represented himself to his Harvard peers quite differently than he does to the public. With his us, he dealt matter-of-factly with the mechanics of his work, avoiding the demogogic soundbytes and sounding more like the technician explaining his craft.
One classmate observed that this was almost more insulting than the soundbyte Grover:
"Hey, we haven't seen each other in 25 years—I'm a dentist now!"
"How the heck are you? I'm working to destroy the American way of life!"
He made mundane the true evil of his work, and it pissed people off. It's not "same-old, same-old" backslap time for people who realize the threat Grover poses.
He made a big deal about how our ideological framework is fully etched at the age of 21. Maybe for you, Grover—and those who know him agree that at 21 his ideological viewpoint was fixed. The facts of future events have not shake his certainty that he has it all figured out. There is no self-doubt in Grover Norquist—nothing can change his conviction that he was right all along and will be forever. As a result, no one wants to talk with him. What's the point?
Among his peers' observations: "He was the most gullible person I knew at Harvard. We could get him to believe anything. We made a game of it."
"He was the first person I met who called himself a Libertarian. He told me it was my duty to own a gun."
"I had lunch with him once and was so disgusted at his table manners that I never even sat near him again."
"He has no moral compass and no self-doubt."
"I asked him how he could raise money for Jonas Savimbi, who had the biggest child-army in Africa, and he said that was what it took to defeat Marxism."
"He's a Marxist who hates Marx."
"He hasn't dealt with his sexuality. Instead, he's turned it into hate." (Grover, at age 46, is unmarried.)
The Reunion covers five days. Most people have fun. Not Grover, though. To his credit, he continued to show up at events—but no one talked to him. I watched him at two of the large meals (under tents, as the skies opened up upon us). He would get his plate of food, and then wander amongst us, looking for someone to sit with. My sympathetic side kept saying, "C'mon, ask him over, just say Hi. The guy is lost." I am ashamed to say that I couldn't bring myself to do so. I let him wander, and I watched. He ate alone. I'm not proud of this -- but what would I say? "How's life with you?"
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