I don’t mind admitting I am an old conservative. Followed Reagan from the very moment he gave “The Speech” in 1964 for Goldwater. He used to write articles for Human Events and National Review, so it was easy to see how his political philosophy developed. When you’ve been devoted to a candidate over the years you get a real sense of their sincerity to the cause.
Gingrich reached his public in the eighties when he gave late-night talks on C-Span from the House of Representatives. I remember the camera constantly panned the empty seats behind him but who cared. He was talking about freedom!
I can’t help comparing Reagan and Gingrich. I’ve heard both talk about freedom and their love of America hundreds of times. Newt may not be quite as lovable as Reagan but he’s as good a communicator and he knows more about history. He’ll always have my vote.
You do make good points. And I do admit to being a bit harsher on Newt than I really intended. To put things in perspective, I turn 31 this month. The first election I ever had the chance to participate in was back in 2000. My first presidential candidate was George W. Bush — his “compassionate conservatism” aside, I backed him rather enthusiastically, if only because I feared the consequences of seeing Algore take the Oval Office. I backed him again, of course, in 2004. George W. Bush was no Ronald Reagan. In practice, quite a bit of his governance came straight out of the liberal playbook — government solutions to all our problems and whatnot. Then, in 2008, my presidential candidate was McCain, whose only saving grace was that he was not Barack Obama, a man about whom I had suspicions ever since I first heard about him in 2004.
Throw on top of those two a lack of inspiring Republicans in Congress and you might start to see what I’m getting at. I’m rather jaded when it comes to politicians, who seem, in my experience, to have this knack for saying one thing with great, wonderful words and then go off to do just the opposite. Even when they do right they seem to find ways to sink their hooks straight in so they can take a chunk to call their own. Sure, I’ll back Republicans... but it’s only because they at least pay lip service to that in which I believe. But I can’t get excited about them. It’s all phony to me, albeit less than the crap the Democrats pull off (I wanted to vomit back during the Wellstone Memorial... that sealed my opinion of that den of vipers).
I was in my teens when Gingrich became Speaker of the House. I admittedly never had much against him and could tell that he was getting the raw end of the deal when it came to a lot of the coverage he received. All the same, I’d readily admit that perhaps it tainted my opinion of him a bit on a subconscious level which, when coupled with my general distrust of politicians as being all hat and no cattle, makes me hesitant to jump on the gung-ho bandwagon.
Like I said, I’ll support the man. But I’ll need to see accomplishments over the next four years before I’m willing to start extending my trust.