Today’s bloggers briefing was right down the hall from DAG's new offices at ATR. David already blogged about some of Grover Norquist's remarks, but I'm going to add some more fodder to the blogosphere, because Grover talked at length about his new book Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives, and what he had to say was top-notch.

In his book Grover describes two coalitions that formed during the Reagan years, the Leave Us Alone Coalition and the Takings Coalition. The Leave Us Alone Coalition, as it’s aptly named, basically wants the government to stay out of their affairs, whether it’s gun owners who want to be free to hunt, business owners to earn a profit, or home schoolers who want to educate their children – the coalition is united by the common desire to keep the government out of their lives.

Each one says of the others ‘that’s not how I’m going spend my time’ but they tolerate other parts of the coalition because they're united in a common goal.

The Takings Coalition on the other hand is the heart of the tax-and-spend left and is made up of those who, on their primary vote moving issue, want the government to take something from one group and give it to another. Their coalition is made up of trial lawyers, labor-union leaders, government employee’s unions, recipients of government grants, those locked into welfare, and those who earn a living making sure welfare recipients never leave welfare.

The Takings Coalition has more rules then Leviticus and theirs are slightly more tedious.

The other team is evil, not stupid.

There isn’t one policy idea among the Democrat presidential candidates that will make your 401k bigger.

Some highlights from Grover's remarks:

*What’s Your Top Issue

We need to always keep in mind the difference between intensity and preference.

A lot of times people say they care about an issue, but what’s important is whether or not the issue moves their vote.

*Stockholders

The biggest demographic shift of the past twenty years has not been in Spanish speaking immigrants, it’s been of stockholders. Currently, 60% of adults and 2/3 of voters own stock.

Every tax on business is understood by voters as the government reaching into their own pockets.

*Gun Rights

Concealed carried permit-owners are much more dedicated to second amendment rights then hunters.

Except for two weeks out of the year, hunters might as well not be gun owners.

*Branding the GOP
95% of GOP lawmakers at the federal level have signed the taxpayer protect pledge.

At the federal level we spent a lot of time branding the GOP as the party of tax cuts.

Republicans who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a coke bottle. They hurt all Republicans, because they harm the GOP brand.

After listening to Grover, I dug into his book and found this interesting quote from the intro,

I also worked hard to avoid writing a book that could be summarized as a “longer version of a good magazine article.”

This strikes a real cord with me because I’ve read quite a few books on politics that left me with that exact thought – “good point, but this doesn’t need to be a 200 page book.” After listening to Grover talk non-stop for an hour, while keeping everyone in the room completely enthralled, and skimming the book for this post, I'm confident this book will have plenty of heft to it.

I’ve also been thinking long and hard lately about the future of the GOP, conservatism, and American politics in general (big thoughts, I know). After listening to a talk last week about how the millennial generation (which I’m a part of) is primed to vote Democrat, I’ve been feeling a bit dejected about the future of conservatism. That coupled with the fact that I've been searching for a good paradigm to describe where the American political system is heading, means that I'm looking forward to reading Grover’s book; I think it may have some of the answers I've been searching for.

Today at the Conservative bloggers briefing we were joined by Grover Norquist at the ATR offices on L Street NW (typically our weekly meetings are hosted @Heritage but we're moving around due to the construction at Heritage).

Grover was on hand to discuss his new book, Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives. I've now got a signed copy of the book which I plan on reading and I'd encourage you to pick one up at your favorite online retailer.

After Grover's discussion of the book (which I expect Joe will blog about shortly in this space), I asked him about his impact in the movement with regard to the technology + politics space. Specifically, I asked Grover about the Republican YouTube/CNN debate which used his submission.

After I showed the question to the group as a refresher, I asked Grover, "What kind of feedback have you heard from within the movement with regard to the movement online?"

His answer:

“A lot of people saw the video that night and after the debate. [By using YouTube and having our question asked, it] raised the visibility of the issue.

"I was one of the few Republicans that asked a question. Our team needs to get more comfortable with [communicating through mediums like YouTube]. We need to be on the production-side as well. Had we sent in more questions from the center-right, we would have had more of an impact. I’ve been recommending to others to put their material out there and it will get picked up."

With regard to embracing new technology to better deliver a message, Grover recalled how Newt would put new tools in to context of what Member's were already willing to do:

"I remember Newt Gingrich asking his fellow Members if they would travel to meet with his local Chamber of Commerce to give a speech. They all said they would. Then Newt asked then if they would take to the floor of the House of Representatives to deliver a five-minute floor speech where 200K people would see the message because it was being broadcast on C-SPAN."

His conclusion was important:

"In politics, everyone has access to the same technology, it’s a question of whether or not you use it or not. We need to teach the old dogs new tricks, and we also need to teach the new dogs new tricks because the new dogs will be around for 60 years.

"We’re getting there on it. These things are do-it-yourself. You have to do it to see the results for yourself. It was a good teaching moment and very cool.”

Grover's absolutely right. The Right needs to better embrace modern tools, like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I think our movement is better served having our prominent General's, like Grover, helping push that ball further down the field.

RESOURCES:
* Examiner profile on Grover Norquist.
* Americans for Tax Reform website.
* Grover's new book, "Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives."

Recently, several conservative leaders have submitted questions to the Republican YouTube/CNN Debate which is taking place next Wednesday in Florida.

Via the Americans for Tax Reform blog, we find this YouTube video question to the Republican Presidential candidates submitted by the great Grover Norquist:

And former House Majority Leader Dick Armey who heads up FreedomWorks has also submitted a question to the debate:

It's great to see our conservative leaders joining the modern discussion.

If you haven't yet done so, there's still time to get your question in to the mix.