Unless they find some principles anyway....
L
Posted on 01/01/2007 7:37:59 PM PST by neverdem
This month Ryan Sager's new book, The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party, hits bookstore shelves. Below is an interview excerpted from the book that Sager conducted with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Gingrich became Speaker after the Republicans took over Congress in 1994. He remained in that position until resigning the House in 1998. Currently, Gingrich is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He sat down with Sager in March of 2006 to discuss the future of the Republican Party.
(Responses are verbatim, though condensed for the sake of brevity.)
Sager: What's your general view of the current state of the relationship between social conservatives and libertarians within the Republican Party?
Gingrich: I think the Republican brand is in trouble. People forgot why they were doing what they were doing. There's sort of a performance minimum, and if you don't meet it, you're in trouble. There's a degree to which it's almost like watching recessions in industries. You now have a Republican Party in danger of being in a recession. The party is confused as to its identity. And I don't see a very large market for a pro-pork, centrist Republican Party. You're caught in a muddle that is one part incumbentitis, one part lacking an understanding of venture investments in politics, and one part intellectual shallowness. The real breakthroughs we need require a level of intellectual depth that is not one of the strengths of the Republican Party.
You say the Republican brand is in trouble. One man has been managing it for five years. Is this George W. Bush's fault?
It's the collective leadership of the party's fault. I'm uninterested in who's to blame. I'll let you...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Newt's good. Too bad the hammering that he will get in the press over past issues would most likely prevent him from becoming president.
I think the Republican brand is in trouble. People forgot why they were doing what they were doing. There's sort of a performance minimum, and if you don't meet it, you're in trouble. There's a degree to which it's almost like watching recessions in industries. You now have a Republican Party in danger of being in a recession. The party is confused as to its identity. And I don't see a very large market for a pro-pork, centrist Republican Party.
There's someone here who needs to understand this, but for the life of me I just can't think of the name.
That's what we're looking for now. We're looking for a next cycle of intellectual politics.
Flat Tax.
Social Security Reform
Immigration reform
Push those ideas like you mean 'em and the Republicans will do okay. They benefit every single US citizen. The people who oppose those ideas just don't understand those ideas.
Wow! Good quote Newt!
Unless they find some principles anyway....
L
With this bunch running the RINOcrat party, it and we are doomed. The socialist will now run the country for good. We are out numbered at the illegals vote legally with Bush and the socialist plan becoming law. Thanks GWB. My back hurts from the knife you stuck in it.
I wish Newt would run for President.
And COULD WIN.
I'm a Gingrich Republican.
BTTT
Immigration reform now only means amnesty.
If that's what you infer, they will be in the wilderness a long, long time.
Bump!
He might be able to beat Hillary,
He'd either get crushed or crush Hussein Obama.
A moderate Demonrat would kill him, but none are running.
My vision of "reform" is a little harsher than some others.
"Modern, bureaucratic, unionized education is a form of intellectual child abuse."
This quote by Speaker Gingrich should be given the widest dissemination possible.
I like Newt too. He's a feisty one. So the media would attack him -- they always attack the conservatives, what's new about that? So they'd find things to slander him about? As if they are perfect. I say, 'Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.'
So far I like Newt the best of all the possible candidates.
Newt for RNC leader!
Instead of running for President, Newt should be RNC chairman.
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