Cicada

Major Garrett quoting the President of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, in The Enduring Revolution:

Norquist explains, 'There are three major goverment programs -- education, health care, and Social Security. These are the three programs you cannot cut. These three have to be reformed, not cut. We started back in the late 1970s to push 401(k)s, IRAs, and mutual funds as useful alternatives to Social Security. Now we're in the process of debating the privatization of Social Security.'

The 'we' Norquist refers to is the conservative movement, comprising primarily free-market thinkers who have an appetite for ideas that can change political equations. Norquist, like Newt Gingrich, thinks and plans in cicada-like cycles. 'I was always more comfortable with Gingrich than any other politician, because I could say, 'Fifteen years from now I want to be here,' and he was the only politician to say, 'Of course, I see that. I understand.'