Gingrich has always supported the Ryan's budget plan (parts of which he helped create) but separated it from the Ryan's timing and "solution" for Medicare reform, which Ryan lumped together in the budget process (right after the election campaign which GOP won, in part, by beating up on ObamaCare as destroying Medicare and vowing to "protect Medicare for the seniors") and the GOP paid a heavy price in that budget battle, not only discarding Ryan's Medicare reform (which was a feeble, not very robust or cost-saving attempt at reform, to begin with) but also having to retreat on some of the budget issues. It's been downhill for Republican Congress ever since... And people were accusing Gingrich on "caving" to Clinton, while Bob Dole routinely sabotaged Newt to be "electable" for 1996 presidential run.
Many good points about that (and Santorum's "knee-jerk conservative" reaction to Newt's reasoning) on this thread :
Gingrich knocked by right on healthcare - FR, posts #1, #2, #25, #27 / The Hill, by Michael O'Brien, 2011 May 16
Newt was savaged then, on talk radio and by his campaign rivals, because it became an unthinking "established dogma" that any plan coming out of new Republican Congress was the "only good solution" and not to be criticized. They neither would give him time to explain, nor understand what he was trying to warn GOP about. The results of GOP House pushing the "Paul Ryan plan" were a predictable budget disaster.
Newt, probably better than most, understands the plight of Cassandra. But that's what always made him a leader, as opposed to a a talk show host, whose job may depend on "not understanding" certain things that go against the everyday mantra.
The Rush Limbaugh LIVE Radio Show Thread - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - FR, posts #57, #82, #144, #38, 2011 May 18
Despite the "diversity" of their different groups, most Democrats are united in one goal: "Power is the Money and Money is the Power - the "diversity" of the groups is just the means to an end. That's what Alinsky methods are all about. Gingrich understood this long time ago and was concentrating on fighting to discredit and defund the liberal leftists' means of funding their faux "goals" through government trough - instead of futile attempts that have been made for decades by the "conservative media leaders" to discredit the well-sounding liberal "goals" (education, environment / climate change, medical help, "universal" insurance for everything, poverty relief, advancement of science, etc. etc.)
Co-opting the true (not rhetorical) goals and showing the lemmings the real solutions of how to achieve them cheaper, without required financial "sacrifices" and pain, more equitable and more beneficial, for more people and for the "system" itself, is much more efficient and effective strategy than trying to dissuade them that the "goals" are phony.
This approach spells the doom of the huge income stream for the people in the government and NGOs "industries" that spout the dangers of "doing nothing" and benefits of [broader] government involvement, whether through government spending or laws, rules, regulations, mandates and taxes. But that requires a leader, not just a talk show host, whose job it is just preaching the same ol' slogans as "solutions" to the same ol' choir, even as the same ol' methods keep resulting in the battles (and the war) getting lost.
Unfortunately, Small Government doesn't have big constituency, even in many supposedly "conservative" circles. It doesn't help that many of the fractions of so-called Republican or "conservative" coalition are only too happy with big government, as long as they can use the government to do their bidding, "moral" or financial. That's what Newt called about presiding over or "managing the decay".
Two GOP candidates, both with MBA and law degrees (Romney's double major from Harvard, Santorum's from Penn State) are not planning to make government smaller, they'll just reshuffle the margins to their own liking, just ready enough for the next big step up in size and scope of government authority and spending when they transfer it to the next Harvard/Yale/Princeton Democrat.
The establishment (GOP-E) always expected to "balance" the ticket of Romney with some social conservative (even Santorum if he can make a good showing, though they'd really prefer someone more serious and less "controversial" like Bob McDonald of VA) but they would even accept Romney as VP if Santorum somehow racks serious delegate count at the expense of Newt and it's the only way they can quickly regain "unity" and calm at the convention. Their real common enemy is Newt Gingrich, which is why you don't see a coordinated media onslaught (NRO, AmSpec, Drudge, Coulter, "analysts" at FOX/FNC etc.) claiming, amazingly, that the candidate is/was always disliked by true Reaganites and was known dissing Reagan and his ideas, on anyone else but Newt...
You also don't hear any "rumors" from the "media" just before the primaries, that the candidate has lost or is about to lose "his" PAC funding from a wealthy benefactor, despite all evidence to the contrary... unless that candidate is Newt. Everyone else, who is not a small government / Reaganite conservative, and who is willing to toe the establishment line, is mildly or warmly acceptable to GOP-E. Newt was the only one at the CPAC talking about shaking up the establishment (and he didn't whine afterwards about an irrelevant Mitt-bought straw poll) - the establishment can't possibly be happy with that.
So, the Tea Party, having no leaders or central organization, and existing as only small loose local affiliates, has an inherent logistical difficulty to help those who truly represent their point of view of smaller government, and competing with those "conservatives" who want to use GOP for their piece of the "government pie" even when they are outnumbered by the "we just want the government to leave me alone" groups within the GOP. There may be strength in the overall numbers, but occasionally it has to be "organized" and properly and forcefully utilized, or else, without a champion to unite behind, the TP will be forever fractured, marginalized and co-opted time and again.
Wow, very good post. You’ve expressed all the thoughts and feelings I have in a rather eloquent, educated way. You’re absolutely right.
And more detail about this - and why Rush is wrong about it (but pride goeth before a fall and Rush is "over 99% right" so he has a lot of pride and it's not easy for him to concede something he angrily repeated many times) - here:
Reagan Had the Recipe for Success. Let's Follow It (Newt Gingrich in WSJ) - FR, posts # 17, #1 / WSJ, by Newt Gingrich, 2011 December 29
Good post.
Santorum doesn’t have the competence to facilitate the change that’s animating his campaign. He’s just an establishment bit player that’s too often in a state of disbelief.
You want our Country back, folks, vote Newt!!!