Larry Elder
Larry Elder
He's the self-proclaimed “Sage from South Central” who has become one of the more prominent black Republican pundits in the nation. Larry Elder was a 1977 University of Michigan School of Law graduate and lawyer with his own business in Cleveland, but a chance appearance on local talk radio earned him a weekly television show. In 1994, he moved to Los Angeles to start The Larry Elder Show weekdays on KABC (790 AM) talk radio, which now airs 3p.m.-7 p.m. It wasn't long before a small group of African Americans organized a boycott against the show and its advertisers, but that only raised Elder's ratings and his stock as an emerging national voice. Elder has been subsequently profiled on television's 60 Minutes and 20/20, and his self-described libertarian views (he says he's fiscally conservative and socially liberal) are featured in two books and a weekly syndicated column.
CityBeat: You went to law school but a few years later started working in broadcasting. What attracted you to the airwaves?
Larry Elder: It was purely by accident. I was living in Cleveland, even though I was born and raised here. I wrote an op-ed piece on big government for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and I got a phone call from a programming director at a local talk radio station. He asked if I would discuss it with the host. My mom always had it on in the house. I thought it was a bunch of racket, idiots talking to idiots. I decided I would go on, and for an hour I was called “Uncle Tom” in many imaginative ways. I said to myself that I would never do that again. But the head of the station called and said, “I heard you and thought you were fantastic.” She said, “My guy's going on vacation. Would you fill in?” I said I think talk radio is shallow, glib, and stupid. She said, “It is.” So I did it. I can get all this stuff off my chest? This is fantastic.
Did you always lean toward Republican?
I think it was an evolution. My father has always been a Republican. My mother was a liberal Democrat. I would always hear both sides. The older I got, the more sense my father made. I moved from Democrat to Independent to Republican. One of the defining moments was when I took Economics 101 in my second year in college. I learned tax-and-spend-and-regulate has many a negative consequence. I thought at one time that we should have national healthcare, but the reason we have the best system is because of a thriving private sector. The private sector is what we ought to be embracing.
Are you happy Viacom canceled the CBS airing of The Reagans?
I'm pleased with it. The head of CBS, Les Moonves, is a well-known Democratic activist. The two producers are well-known leftists. James Brolin plays Reagan. His wife, liberal Barbra Streisand, according to Matt Drudge, did make appearances on the set. Ronald Reagan, for many fiscal conservatives, is an icon. The movie apparently made him seem unfocused. It made Nancy Reagan seem a shrill pill-popper. It seemed to me, based on what I read, that it would be the equivalent of a cinematic hit piece.
Following the historic wildfires, some critics are calling for stricter, statewide no-rebuilding, brush-clearance, and building-materials rules. What do you think?
Insurance companies should determine this. If you build in a dangerous area, the insurance companies will deny you insurance. We also need to have better forest management. Years ago, in some areas, there were 50 trees per acre, now there are 500 trees per acre because of the environmentalists. If you put more property in the hands of the private sector, they will be far more vigilant.
What did you think of the recall results?
I was pleased. I didn't vote for Gray Davis the first two times. He taxed, he regulated, he spent, he blamed the Republicans, he blamed everybody but himself. When he got the government involved in the power business and tripled the car tax, people had enough. I think it's true democracy at its finest.
Was it a smart thing for Arnold to avoid promising he wouldn't raise taxes?
He said he wouldn't raise them absent some sort of catastrophe. This state is overtaxed. It is clear that when you give people the right to keep their own money, they spend it, and it creates a thriving economy. Businesses are leaving this state because of excessive regulation.
Schwarzenegger is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Is he your kind of governor?
I consider myself to be a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I don't think the government should be involved in licensing marriage. I also believe that gambling and prostitution is something the government ought not forbid. I think the war on drugs is a mistake.
Schwarzenegger said he would address the groping issue after the election. Do you think he should soon?
I don't recall him saying that. I recall him saying he's sorry. I don't think he needs to.
Immigration became somewhat of an issue during the recall. What's your view about immigration and giving undocumented migrants state identification cards?
I think a willing supplier of labor and seller of labor should be able to get together. So I support a guest-worker program, so we know who they are and where they are. We have a huge demand for unskilled labor. There is a huge desire for people from Mexico to come here to work. So I think we should put the two together. I don't support providing illegals licenses, or providing blanket amnesty. But people like to say illegal immigration is an assault on this country. Turn to your neighbor and ask them who is hiring people to cook their food. When you go to a store and you see a blouse for $10, what does that say that the average consumer wants? I think it is inconsistent to rail against immigration while benefiting from it.
Did you support Proposition 54, the unsuccessful “Racial Privacy Initiative” that would have banned state agencies from collecting racial data in many cases?
I don't see why the government needs to compile information based on race. We already have a law that says you can't discriminate. There were necessary exemptions, so it seemed perfectly legit. [Initiative author] Ward Connerly didn't have enough money nor the time to explain it, so it didn't surprise me when it failed.
As service people continue dying in Iraq, some of the Democratic presidential candidates are trying to make a big issue of the war. What are your thoughts?
It was not a mistake, and we shouldn't pull out. After September 11, 2001, this country properly took another look at Saddam and his failure to declare his weapons of mass destruction. We knew he had them. What are you to do, wait for Saddam to hand off a WMD to a terrorist? This is a country that is as large as California. The evidence could be as small as a couple boxes in a car trunk.
If Iraq becomes modernized, then people in the Arab world will realize the kinds of things that will make a country prosperous. There will be pressure on Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to realize the Jews, Christians, and Westerners are not the problem, but rather that it's their own corruption. There have been other benefits of our going into Iraq, though. North Korea was adamant they weren't going to dismantle their nuclear weapons program without a formal non-aggression treaty, but now they have agreed to do so with something less than such a treaty. Why? Because we went into Iraq after calling it, North Korea, and Iran part of an axis of evil. Now Iran will allow nuclear inspectors to come in.
You wrote recently that the media show a liberal bias against President Bush. Al Franken argues in his new book that the media, if anything, sway to the right. What's your reaction?
Virtually every major newspaper in this country is liberal, with liberal reporters and editorial pages. There clearly is a liberal bias on the part of those who gather and report news. It's not a conspiracy, but I don't think they can help themselves.Published: 11/13/2003
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