Our Enemy, the States

ON November 5, 1990, the first President Bush signed a tax increase into law. The event is remembered as a betrayal of Bush’s campaign promise not to raise taxes, and as the mistake that, in the opinion of many, cost him reelection two years later. But the date is important in the modern history of the Republican party for another reason. Since that time, no Republican in Washington, D.C., has voted for a broad-based tax increase.

We tend to think of the Republican party as a strongly anti-tax party, but that identity is a fairly recent development. It is also a work still in progress. Anti-tax activists took over the Republican party from the top layer down, in the same order that conservatives generally did. Conservatives captured the Republican presidential primaries first, then became a majority of House Republicans, then of Senate Republicans, and then started making inroads in the states. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform has followed the same sequence in promoting his “taxpayer protection pledge,” which asks candidates to promise not to raise marginal tax rates on income.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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ON November 5, 1990, the first President Bush signed a tax increase into law. The event is remembered as a betrayal of Bush’s campaign promise not to raise taxes, and as the mistake that, in the opinion of many, cost him reelection two years later. But the date is important in the modern history of the Republican party for another reason. Since that time, no Republican in Washington, D.C., has voted for a broad-based tax increase.

We tend to think of the Republican party as a strongly anti-tax party, but that identity is a fairly recent development. It is also a work still in progress. Anti-tax activists took over the Republican party from the top layer down, in the same order that conservatives generally did. Conservatives captured the Republican presidential primaries first, then became a majority of House Republicans, then of Senate Republicans, and then started making inroads in the states. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform has followed the same sequence in promoting his “taxpayer protection pledge,” which asks candidates to promise not to raise marginal tax rates on income.