Posted on 01/05/2013 6:36:51 AM PST by Kaslin
This time I shouldve been the one listening.
But listening can be tough sometimes when youre an analyst and a commentator, and people around the country listeners, readers, media, candidates, causes, businesses, etc. come to you to find out why things are happening and what may happen next. Analysis and commentary is one of the few things in life Im really good at. My car expertise begins and ends with changing a tire. Any toy that comes with the phrase some assembly required my kids immediately take to my wife. And when that much-anticipated Zombie apocalypse finally happens Im going to have to heavily rely upon my gun-toting doomsday prepper friends to survive.
But analysis and commentary I can do. Its how I provide for my family, and since it puts food on my kids table regularly somebody must think Im pretty decent at it. Yet this time I swung and missed.
I am 39-years old so a little young for the Reagan era. I wasnt legally able to obtain a drivers license yet when Reagan left office. Like many my age, my conservatism was actually honed by listening to Rush Limbaugh and cheering on Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution of 1994. In my era, Gingrich is a transformative figure. Hes still the only man alive to win a national election on conservative principles. He played a part in establishing much of the conservative infrastructure we take for granted nowadays. There are only two authors I ever sought autographed books from: Bo Schembechler and Gingrich.
Yet despite my fan boy crush, I am well aware of his peccadilloes. Hes on his third marriage. He lost the Speakers gavel because of a caucus revolt against his leadership. He inexcusably backed Dede Scozzafava. He rightly stood up against the TARP, and then reversed course and backed what I believe may be the most criminal legislation in American history. These are just some of the reasons why several people close to me told me I was making a mistake when I endorsed him for president during the 2012 primary.
Yet I pointed to the fact he is one of the few national figures in the GOP that has the wit and knowledge to effectively communicate what we believe in todays short-attention-span-society, which I believe is very important to our movement going forward. He was the only candidate last year that was really speaking to what I believe is the biggest threat to liberty and morality in Americajudicial supremacy (which is really the judicial oligarchy Jefferson warned us about). And I was also impressed with the way Gingrich was willing to speak openly about his past moral transgressions, including one very blunt joint appearance on my radio show with Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. As a Christian Im a sucker for a good redemption story.
However, theres a reason I have often compared Gingrich to King David in the Bible, beyond the marriage infidelity both have in common. Both were also extraordinarily God-gifted leaders whose legacies were tarnished by their slack of self-discipline. Both were often at their best when pursuing power and at their worse once they obtained it.
While on vacation I was reminded of that comparison when I saw Gingrich say that Republicans should accept the destruction of marriage as inevitable. As a historian Gingrich should know better. He should know that marriage and free market economics are the essential societal bedrock components of western civilization, without which liberty isnt possible. I know firsthand he should know that, because he has communicated right to my face that he does.
In a letter to The Family Leader just 13 months ago, Gingrich said:
As president I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act. I will aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in state and federal courts. I will support a federal constitutional amendment (defending marriage). I will oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to redefine marriage.
So which is it, Newt? Do you want to defend marriage or not? Those words do not read like someone who thought destroying marriage was inevitable? Did you mean them?
For the past week Gingrich has been rightly urging conservatives to fight the fiscal cliff tax increase. Maybe Gingrich should be urging us to surrender instead, being that our slide towards bankrupt statism seems inevitable after all. As a father with three small children at home, Im looking for leaders who will fight to stop our inevitable destruction as a free republic, not come to grips with it. Especially on an issue like marriage, that is 31-4 (89%) at the ballot box.
Gingrich was arguably the most gifted political figure of his era. He couldve been an American Churchill. Check that, he should have been. Despite all that he has accomplished (which Im thankful for) his legacy still includes a waste of potential. He couldve led us out of the wilderness. Instead were still circling the mountain (or the drain).
Several of you warned me about this, which is why despite his obvious gifts Gingrich failed not once but twice to coalesce conservatives when he was the presidential frontrunner. Some of you were once bitten and twice shy. Now I get it.
I still have a soft spot for Newt, and hes still one of the few politicians Ive met whose intellect I actually respect. But thats not enough to believe he should hold the highest office of this land. If someone wont defend marriage, the oldest institution in Gods created order, then what can you count on them to defend when its hard?
Those of you that warned me were right. I was wrong. This time I shouldve listened to your analysis.
To utter Churchill and Gingrich in the same article makes this a ridiculous article, with the quoted line being the utmost in hilarity.
On the contrary...if you look deeply into the political history of Churchill, before WWII you will find a very very tarnished individual, not averred to cutting back door deals and sucking the rug out from under those with whom he disagreed. Even FDR fell under his spell.
My problem since the election is discovering we have this huge conundrum now: Our country has passed a line where the majority could be convinced by Reagan himself that the values we once stood for are important enough to return to.
1. The media is too powerful, and has NOT been neutralized and until we figure out how to beat them, we're screwed. They have learned how to take out the likes of Reagan, they have it down.
2. The American culture has crossed a line where free stuff is welcomed and embraced long term, success and the work ethic is vilified.
3. Conservatives (of all stripes) have become a circular firing squad, vilifying other potential candidates, and taking their ball home when their chosen candidate loses.
4. The Academic/Hollywood/media complex has stolen the hearts and minds of the next generation(s), and unlike in the past people aren't waking up and changing back as they see the false paradigm.
Yoiks, I'm even depressing myself....need to stop.....:-)
Nice find. I too still have a soft spot for Newt, and hes still one of the few politicians whose intellect I actually respect.
I'm curious. Do you think Newt listens to anyone? Does he have advisors that assist in his strategy? He clearly blew it in Florida in his response to Mitty's all-out assault.
I wasn't sure you were around, kindly consider and address my most recent post to Servant of the Cross as a discussion point.
Breitbart was fond of quoting that "politics swims downstream from culture", I think it's my main point. A line has been crossed, one that will take more than a political fix.
Churchill was undercut by FDR in the Tehran and Yalta talks. FDR thought he could charm Stalin, and Stalin played the ailing FDR like a fiddle. There is a really good book by Lynn Olson and Stanley Cloud on the contributions of the Polish Squadrons fighting under RAF command in the Battle of Britain called “Question of Honor, Kosciusko Squadron.” It gets into to the betrayal of the Poles, largely orchestrated by FDR.
That might have gotten you banned this time last year. Having said that, I agree wholeheartedly with your statement.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
However, I think the reality of $1 trillion unsustainable deficits and unashamed Lefties insanely wanting to just spend more, that obviously doesn't work and won't ever work, is known by at least 50%+1, who will go out to vote in November, 2014 and give the House and Senate back to the opposition party, assuming we have leaders that can articulate a coherent and passionate case.
We have been successful on a targeted state and local level, which could be replicated nationally.
:-)
I know.
LLS
Perhaps this is the darkest hour and we can still prevail, maybe I'm just being a Puddleglum, it's just so hard to believe we can extricate ourselves from the institutionalization that has happend and is happening in the next 2 years:
No strong leadership, a foe determined to destroy conservatives, a foe with power who is determined to make us a crony socialist nation and destroy our founding principles, the enshrinement of Bambicare and its myriad of landmine regulations and taxes, the new debt being piled up daily, the free stuff mentality, the low information voters, the successful villiying of business excellence and free markets.
Auughh!!!!
*Off to find humorous books, stand up routines, and movies*
Newt Gingrich is a genius. Period. He could have been great. The personal failures did him in.
My problem since the election is discovering we have this huge conundrum now: Our country has passed a line where the majority could be convinced by Reagan himself that the values we once stood for are important enough to return to.
If Reagan could even win today, it would probably be by a whisper - and he'd be savaged by our own side for not being conservative enough. Conservatives always believed there was a silent majority of decent, traditional people that would step up and vote the right way when the chips are down - that silent majority probably no longer exists. Worse, the masses that don't turn out, pollsters call them "adults", are probably even MORE supportive of populist left policies that Obama pushes than the actual population that voted. You can see this in any poll these days. "Adults" are far more supportive of Obama than "Likely Voters".
Things look pretty bleak for America right now. The future seems to be with Asia while the West declines. Asia is largely throwing off the shackles of socialism and is growing rapidly. A massive middle class is rising in India, China, etc. It won't be long till the productive people in the US and Europe start fleeing to the better business environments in Asia.
And no matter what ... our "home" is not here. Even if it is 'A Long Way Home' .
I wish I could stand up and say, “You’re wrong!”
But, alas........
All of us here need to make a pact with one another to talk each other off of the ledge when necessary..........
:-)
I'm not giving up, I just need a hot bath and a massage........
With the help of communist spies within FDR's administration, Alger Hiss comes to mind.
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