Posted on 12/07/2011 8:42:54 AM PST by tcg
heard Glenn Beck's radio interview of Newt Gingrich. I knew that Glenn Beck was not a fan of the Republican primary Presidential candidate, so I listened closely. What I heard in the exchange revived a long held concern I have with some aspects of what is being called "conservative" politics these days.
What is needed in campaign 2012 is a discussion of whether there can be such a thing as "good" government. Clearly, from the tenor of the interview, Glenn Beck seems to think not - while Newt Gingrich disagrees.
...We need to ask whether the exercise of governance respects the family first and then the other proper mediating institutions - and defers first to them before assigning the task it attempts to accomplish to a higher level of government.
...The last level of governing should be the federal government. When the mediating institutions are bypassed, the common good is not served and subsidiarity is not afforded its rightful place.
...Some on the political right sound as though any government is the problem. That is how I heard Glenn Becks' comments this morning. Michelle Bachmann's quick characterization of Newt Gingrich as a "frugal socialist" did not help the discussion.
...even worse, are the many on the political left who want to federalize everything. They question the empathy of anyone who disagrees with their collectivist and statist model of big federalized governance. Such an approach is a disaster waiting to happen morally, politically, socially and economically.
An overly centralized or collectivized approach to government threatens human freedom, stunts human flourishing, stifles creativity, can discourage and even punish initiative and fails to understand the proper governing role of mediating institutions, the first of which is the family, the smallest governing unit and first vital cell of society.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
Good government acknowledges the primary role of the mediating institutions and associations beginning with the family in the process of governing and supports their role as the best place for governance to first occur. Then, it fosters government from bottom up to top, looking last to the federal government.
Hmmmm good government an oxymoron??
Gingrich is a big government guy and big is never good in government. He can’t even consider eliminating the EPA without expressing a desire to create another agency to fill the void.
Good Government is limited small government that is only there to enforce a meager set of common sense laws and arbitrate disputes between private parties and provide basic national defense.
Anything more is giving the beast too much power.
I agree.
Which is why separation of church and state, is so very important.
Encyclical of Pope John XXIII, On Establishing Universal Peace In Truth, Justice, Charity, And Liberty, April 11, 1963
“Man’s personal dignity requires besides that he enjoy freedom and be able to make up his own mind when he acts.
In his association with his fellows, therefore, there is every reason why his recognition of rights, observance of duties, and many-sided collaboration with other men, should be primarily a matter of his own personal decision.
Each man should act on his own initiative, conviction, and sense of responsibility, not under the constant pressure of external coercion or enticement.
There is nothing human about a society that is welded together by force.
Far from encouraging, as it should, the attainment of man’s progress and perfection, it is merely an obstacle to his freedom.”
“Hence, a regime which governs solely or mainly by means of threats and intimidation or promises of reward, provides men with no effective incentive to work for the common good.
And even if it did, it would certainly be offensive to the dignity of free and rational human beings.”
“Consequently, laws and decrees passed in contravention of the moral order, and hence of the divine will, can have no binding force in conscience, since ‘it is right to obey God rather than men.’”
Pope Leo XIII on True Liberty by MICHAEL DAVIES
http://www.catholictradition.org/Tradition/true-liberty.htm ^ | unknown | MICHAEL DAVIES
Posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:16:39 PM by stfassisi
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2389225/posts
You are wrong. Beck let Gingrich know what was coming, and stated every possible way that it would not be a “gotcha”, and Gingrich explained himself cordially, and they parted cordially. Gingrich defended each of the past tapes that Beck played for him. In other words, he stands by all of his previous stances. Beck simply is exposing these views as a continued use of big government to solve problems. The Tea Party, in all that I have understood of it, stands against the use of government as we have used it in the 20th century, and seeks the beginning of a return to foundational principles. Gingrich does not represent that point of view.Having said this, of course if he is the nominee it is our critical duty to vote him in and Obama out, but better still, we need to vote in the best electable Constitutional Conservative. That is what Beck stands for.
Agreed. “Logical me” was illogical, and wrong, in every aspect of his post. The fact is, that Newt IS a big government politician. And not only that, his statement of a slow, gradual conservative movement is not only illogical, but impossible. People get dirty bit by bit, but they clean up all at once. The fact is, the Founders knew this (”refreshing the tree of liberty” talk, and so forth), and it’s a fundamental fact.
People who have a change of heart from evil to good, want to change their behaviour all at once. The don’t want to eat a little less of the crap sandwich, they want to eat NONE of the crap sandwich. They don’t say, “Well, I’ll just nibble around the edges.” Liberals, however, both boil the frog slowly, and slowly pollute, incessantly, the culture and the way of life. There will be no gradual improvement, that’s not how it works. The chains get completely thrown off, or not at all. If not at all, then they are merely replaced (and added to) with less obvious chains, but chains all the same.
Which proves she is brainwashed by evangelical anti Catholicism and she has know idea of love for the downtrodden of society which has nothing in common with socialism
She is just using Beck to try and get press.
At least Palin shows compassion to humanity,I don't see that quality in B-Man
Good Stuff!
“Beck is a very sad libertarian. “
Beck says he is a conservative.
“He did not understand a damn thing Gingrich tried to tell him. “
Um. No. That is incorrect. Everyone understood what Gingrich was saying. We were just in disbelieve that he was actually saying it.
While Newt failed to get tenure as a college history professor, most of us would think he would learn something about history after being paid by Freddie Mac $1.5million to teach them history.
However he must not have as he lauded Hamilton and Teddy Roosevelt as positive examples of big government conservatives. To double down on his apparent ignorance of history, he then had the temerity to mention the Erie Canal as a good example of government picking winners and losers. Perhaps his misunderstanding is why he failed to get tenure. The project went way over budget, started and stopped several times due to government mismanagement and was eclipsed technologically by the railroads before it was completed.
“Change back from where we are now cannot be done immediately. It will take constant change for many years and we will never be back to a totally Constitutional Government. It is impossible. “
Gingrich’s argument that we have to grow the government to shrink it is nonsensical.
“Beck is now a real sad case and his interview was a gotcha.”
There was no gotcha. Perhaps you can give an example. Otherwise, I’ll continue to believe you just make things up to make your case, much like Newt.
Agree.
After that interview, no one who even sympathizes with the Tea Party could vote for Newt.
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