Are liberty and equality contradictory terms?

Question: How do you reconcile liberty and equality?

Grover Norquist: I think across the political spectrum people are always sensitive to their rights and less sensitive to other people’s rights. It’s just over time, people understand that if my rights are to be protected; if I want a government small enough to leave me alone, it also needs to be small enough to leave other people alone; and that my freedom to own a gun, to run a business, to have my money not taken away, to have my property not taken away, to educate my kids as I see fit, to be a person of faith – my ability to do any one of those things necessitates other people with different interests on how they spend their time, but who share my goal of being left alone. And so you see other guys come in who don’t want to have to wear helmets when they ride on motorcycles. They’re part of the coalition.

Recorded on: September 12, 2007