I've always been a big fan of Gingrich and many of his ideas on conservatism are sound but, he relegates the tea-party conservatives to the fringe of the GOP at the peril of his own relevancy......
Gingrich said the movement is a "natural expression of frustration with Republicans and anger at Democrats," which is "more likely to end up as the militant wing of the Republican Party".
Hey Newt, when did fiscal responsibility, low taxes, and small, unobtrusive government become militant? I thought these were the tenets the GOP has stood for all this time. If those beliefs are considered militant to beltway republicans like you, then I haven't left the republican party, it has left me.
4 comments:
Ed, you clearly take "militant" as a negative adjective. I don't think so in this case and don't think Newt did. I remember when people used to speak of the "church militant" in the sense of evangelising for Christ. It doesn't always serve as shorthand for a terrorist, the way much of the media speak of "militants" setting off IED's in Afghanistan.
I don't know Bill. fiscal responsibility, low taxes and small government should be the foundation, not a wing of, the republican party. I'm not interested in third-party politics. I'm interested in kicking out any republican who has shown fecklessness when it comes to this platform of conservatism. While the term "militant" may have had a different meaning in the past, like the word "gay", today it means "fringe" and "aggressive". We use it to describe the lesbianism of Rachael Maddow, the environmentalism of eco-terrorists, and the appetite of Rosie O'Donnel. It's not a complimentary term today and I think Newt resents the attention, whether positive or negative, the tea-party activists have garnered from the media. It's put garden-variety, in-crowd republicans on the back burner and taken some control of the party away from them.
Remember Newt is very historically minded and has somewhat of a classical education. I wouldn't be surprised if he meant militant positively, but your take could very well be right.
I'd like to think he meant it as a compliment. I hope you are right. I just think there's no room, heading into November, for republicans who are for compromise. Conservatism always gets compromised and liberalism rarely ever does. I mean Newt is OK with Lindsay Graham for heaven's sake. I don't think Newt and Callista want to be disinvited from the cool cocktail-parties at George Will's house for snuggling up too close to tea-party riff raff.
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