Imagine a world in which Americans weren\u2019t remotely as susceptible to media manipulation as they currently are.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call it \u201cAmerica2.\u201d\u00a0 In such a world, Americans would be more disposed to \u201cthink for themselves,\u201d as we say, to think just a bit critically about the images and sound bites to which they are bombarded daily.\u00a0 The measured skepticism with which they would treat the media, especially its coverage of politics, would cultivate within them intellectual and moral virtues that, in reality, are sorely lacking among a good portion of the electorate.\u00a0 In this possible world, Americans would be far more fortified against intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy than are their counterparts in the real world.<\/p>\n
For example, self-identified Republicans would know that when they loudly and passionately affirm \u201climited government\u201d and \u201cindividual responsibility,\u201d it is because they and those who aspire to represent them are genuinely committed to such goods.\u00a0 Safeguarding liberty <\/em>would be their top priority.<\/p>\n Our America, however, is a far more confused place.<\/p>\n Let us take Newt Gingrich, to begin with.\u00a0 Gingrich is now in second place in some national polls.\u00a0 In other words, today, <\/em>in 2011, in the Age of Obama and the Tea Party movement\u2014just that time when the Republican Party is supposedly amending its ways by returning to its \u201cconservative\u201d principles\u2014long time establishment Republican Newt Gingrich\u00a0 <\/em>is regarded as a viable presidential candidate by the base of his party.<\/p>\n While there can be no denying that Gingrich is deserving of credit for some of his accomplishments as House Speaker, neither can there be any denying that he is as committed a proponent of Big Government\u2014i.e. a system within which the federal <\/em>government is ultimately the supreme <\/em>authority\u2014as anyone.\u00a0 To put this point another way, Gingrich is most definitely not <\/em>a champion of the liberty that the framers of the Constitution sought to bequeath to their posterity.<\/p>\n As far as foreign policy is concerned, Gingrich conceives of the United Statesgovernment as an agent by which the entire world <\/em>may be fundamentally transformed.\u00a0 While interviewing with Christiane Amanpour on ABC\u2019s This Week <\/em>back in February, Gingrich called for America\u2019s promotion of \u201cdemocracy\u201d around the globe.\u00a0 \u201cI think we should be pressuring everywhere, <\/em>includingRussia, including China, including Cuba,\u201d he told the host.\u00a0 \u201cWe should be pushing steadily and saying, \u2018America stands for freedom\u2019\u201d (emphasis mine).\u00a0<\/p>\n Gingrich, not unlike both <\/em>the vast majority of his colleagues in the Republican Party as well as <\/em>his leftist rivals, is preoccupied with visions of grandeur.\u00a0 He shares none of America\u2019s Founders\u2019 skepticism regarding large concentrations of authority and power, a skepticism that our Constitution both reflects and codifies into the supreme law of the land. Rather, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives desires a tireless, activist government, a government that, whether the world wants it to or not, will make it \u201csafe\u201d for Democracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gingrich also supports \u201cforeign aid.\u201d\u00a0 During the same ABC appearance in which he called for theUnited Statesto \u201cdemocratize\u201d the planet, Gingrich reiterated his endorsement of \u201cforeign aid.\u201d\u00a0 Although he expressed dismay with the current government-to-government model, urging instead the transfer of American resources to non-governmental organizations, it is clear that he has no objections at all to the federal government\u2019s deployment of American taxpayers\u2019 resources in time, energy, and money to foreign lands.\u00a0<\/p>\n Domestically speaking, Gingrich is no less an advocate of an omnipresent federal government.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2003, he supported the controversial Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act that created the Medicare Part D prescription drugs benefit program.\u00a0 As the \u201cnon-partisan\u201d site Politifact.com states, this new program expanded government \u201chugely.\u201d\u00a0 In 2010, 34.5 million people availed themselves of this benefit, and by 2015 that number is expected to soar to 40.5 million.\u00a0 According to the Congressional Budget Office, through last year, the entitlement had cost $203 billion.\u00a0 By 2015, at $391 billion, it will have cost nearly twice as much.\u00a0 Politifact quotes Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at theDemocratic-friendlyCenteron Budget and Policy Priorities.\u00a0 Van de Water asserts that the creation of Medicare D marked \u201cthe biggest expansion of the program since the beginning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On May 15 of this year, during an interview on Meet the Press, <\/em>Gingrich unabashedly reiterated his long held belief that \u201call of us have a responsibility to pay\u2014to help pay for health care.\u201d\u00a0 We could fulfill this collective \u201cresponsibility,\u201d he said, by way of either an individual mandate<\/em> to purchase health insurance\u2014precisely that feature of \u201cObamacare\u201d that renders it anathema to the vast majority of Americans\u2014or a requirement to post a bond that would insure health coverage\u2014which doesn\u2019t differ from the mandate in any morally meaningful way.<\/p>\n In 2005, together with Hillary Rodham Clinton, <\/em>Gingrich proposed the 21st<\/sup> Century Health Information Act.\u00a0 If enacted into law, this bill would have authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make \u201chealth information technology grants\u201d as well as serve \u201cother purposes,\u201d according to Govtrack.us.\u00a0 That is, it would have strengthened the federal government further.<\/p>\n Gingrich is <\/em>in favor of eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency.\u00a0 However, this isn\u2019t so as to trim down our bloated federal government.\u00a0 Gingrich, rather, seeks to replace the EPA with an agency of his own imaginings, what he refers to as the \u201cEnvironmental Solutions Agency.\u201d\u00a0 In short, his objective is to substitute one bureaucracy for another.\u00a0 That the latter would allegedly be more market-oriented, more accommodating of \u201cchoice,\u201d is neither here nor there: whether the federal government owns <\/em>\u201cthe means of production\u201d or whether it simply seeks to oversee <\/em>it, it is the federal government\u2014not <\/em>the private sector\u2014that is in control.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ever the environmentalist, Gingrich also supports a \u201cflex fuel\u201d mandate <\/em>for all automobiles sold in theUnited States.\u00a0 Ostensibly, such a course of action would lower fuel prices while improving the environment.\u00a0 For Gingrich to take this position, though, belies his reputation as a man of good economic sense.\u00a0 As the Cato Institute\u2019s Jerry Taylor says, \u201cCongress can no more guarantee that fuel prices will go down from now until the end of time than it can guarantee a robust sex life for fat, balding, middle-aged men.\u201d\u00a0 If Congress enacted this mandate into law, it would prove that it \u201cis not a serious legislative body.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2008 Gingrich joined with Nancy Pelosi <\/em>in ad for government \u201cleadership\u201d vis-\u00e0-vis \u201cclimate change.\u201d\u00a0 This dynamic duo \u201cdemanded\u201d of the country\u2019s \u201cleaders\u201d that they do something immediately to address this crisis.\u00a0 The ad, it is worth noting, was sponsored by the Alliance for Climate Protection\u2014an organization founded by none other than Al Gore.\u00a0 <\/em>Pelosi exploited this appearance with Gingrich to push for \u201cCap and Trade.\u201d\u00a0 Conveniently, Gingrich now<\/em> refers to this as among the biggest mistakes of his career.<\/p>\n Another decision over which Gingrich now <\/em>admits to having regrets was his decision to endorse left-leaning Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava over her Conservative Party rival, Doug Hoffman, in New York\u2019s \u201cspecial\u201d 23rd<\/sup> congressional district race of 2009.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi aren\u2019t the only leftists with whom Gingrich has partnered during his career.\u00a0 He joined forces with, of all people, Al Sharpton <\/em>to promote \u201ceducational reform.\u201d\u00a0 If Sharpton found Gingrich a worthy ally in his cause, it is clear that this cause in essence amounted to the promotion of ever bigger government.\u00a0 Even if Gingrich, not unlike most Republicans, advanced school vouchers and charter schools, contrary to appearances, these do nothing to liberate education from the dominance of the federal government.\u00a0 The language of \u201cchoice\u201d appeals to Americans.\u00a0 But the truth of the matter is that until the Department of Education is abolished and the federal government recognizes that education lies well beyond its constitutionally-defined jurisdiction, our educational system will remain subject to its power.<\/p>\n In 2008, while he initially <\/em>rejected the bank bailouts, Gingrich eventually, albeit, \u201creluctantly,\u201d came to support them.<\/p>\n While some of Gingrich\u2019s ideas for the country may be less destructive of liberty than those of others, there is no circumventing the ugly truth that he is an establishment Republican through and through.\u00a0 Newt Gingrich, that is, is just another Big Government politician who will do nothing to weaken the federal government\u2019s control over our lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n originally published at The New American\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine a world in which Americans weren\u2019t remotely as susceptible to media manipulation as they currently are.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call it \u201cAmerica2.\u201d\u00a0 In such a world, Americans would be more disposed to \u201cthink for themselves,\u201d as we say, to think just a bit critically about the images and sound bites to which they are bombarded daily.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n