Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
Newt Gingrich delivered a strong speech today at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, denouncing Islamic Sharia law and further denouncing those non-Muslims who would allow Sharia to emerge in the West--in the name of tolerance, multiculturalism, or just plain woolly-headed-ism. The former House Speaker also repeated his call to block the building of an “Islamic center” just a few hundred feet from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.
The reaction within the room was extremely positive, but the reaction from the MSM is likely to continue to be negative. Time magazine’s Joe Klein, who has occasionally had nice things to say about Gingrich in the past, recently called him a “a complete jerk.” Over at The Atlantic, Max Fisher rounded up anti-Gingrich commentary under the headline, “With War on NYC Mosque, Has Newt Gingrich Lost It?”
But what did Gingrich actually say earlier today? Was it that bad? He said, for openers, that “the failure of homeland security is a national scandal.” Continuing, he added that “our elites are hiding from [their own] catastrophic failure.” As he put it, the first that our multi-hundred-billion-dollar homeland security apparatus knew of the Christmas Day underwear bomber was the sighting of smoke by a passenger. Similarly, the first that Janet Napolitano et al. knew about the Times Square bomber was a report from a tee shirt vendor, who saw a car on fire--mercifully, not exploding. And what is the source of this systemic failure? According to Gingrich, the source is “the left’s refusal to tell the truth about the Islamist threat,” which, he said, “has a parallel in the 70 years of communism,” during which the left routinely whitewashed the evils of communism. (No need to wonder anymore why the MSM dislikes Gingrich.)
So what should the rest of us do? Gingrich argued for a fight on many fronts, including perseverance in Afghanistan and a new focus on Pakistan. On the homefront, he urged a new federal law absolutely prohibiting Sharia law in US courts--after citing several cases in which judges and law school leaders expressed willingness to embrace Muslim law. And of course, Gingrich set forth his many reasons for opposing the mosque at Ground Zero, describing it as a case of “stealth jihad,” financed, most likely, by Saudi Arabia.
OK, we know what Newt thinks about the mosque, and we know what the elite MSM thinks of Newt, but what does the country think? Not too many polling outfits have seen fit to poll on the mosque question--perhaps because they are afraid of what they will find--but the always contrarian Rasmussen Reports has popped the question, and a poll released on July 22 finds that, by a 54:20 margin, Americans oppose the mosque.
So it could be that once again, the elites have misapprehended the will of the people. But then, there’s a long tradition of that.
Way back in the 1824 presidential election, for example, Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, won the popular vote by more than 10 points against John Quincy Adams, but he lost the White House in the electoral college. For the next four years, Jackson and his top aide, Martin Van Buren, campaigned vigorously against Adams, and they worked with the state legislatures as well, expanding the popular franchise so that more Jackson men could vote in the next election. Thus the 1828 presidential election, a rematch between Jackson and Adams, is remembered as “the revolt of the rustics.” Old Hickory won the popular vote by an even larger margin, and he won the electoral college, too--and the presidency.
In the decades and centuries that followed, populist fervor--against slavery, against the railroads, against the trusts, against Wall Street, against big government--has ebbed and flowed. In most instances, the elites were able to acknowledge popular fury and process that anger into moderate and incremental reform. That’s why we have only had one civil war, and never a violent revolution.
Yet of late, it sure seems as if the elites are failing to listen to the people--and the people, empowered by new technology, are rising up to smack down the elites as never before. And while the right has sometimes misread public opinion--see Harriet Miers, the early hesitancy in the Katrina relief effort, and the Dubai Ports Deal, to name just three--the left appears to have a tinnier ear. Just in the past few years, we’ve seen the failure of “comprehensive immigration reform,” the failure to close Gitmo, the failure to find an American location for the Khaled Sheik Mohammed trial, and, of course, the failure to understand the Tea Partiers and the townhall-ers.
So where will it end? Will Gingrich ride a populist Jacksonian wave into the White House? It’s hard to know the future, of course, and Gingrich isn't the only opponent of the mosque and assorted p.c. positions. But it seems inevitable that we are going to see a showdown between the elites and the masses. And interestingly enough, these days, the MSM--those self-proclaimed speakers of truth to power--usually takes the side of the elite.
But in a democracy, the people usually win. No matter how many powerful interests are lined up against them.
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Comments :
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
It will be fun to see someone as bright as Newt, unafraid to call it as he sees it, running for the ring. I would love to see the Republican Party re-organize around the Tea Partiers and become the Everyman's Party. Common sense and honesty, pride and historical perspectictive, all exhorting inclusive Americanism. Let's put an end to the Balkinizing and demeaning and weakening effects of identity politics. Let's get our governments back on a sensible economic track. We can overcome this unsustainable, idiotic deficit spending. When you get on a plane and the flight attendant explains all the safety proceedures before takeoff, they always say a very profound thing. Put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then take care of the children. We cannot continue to help others if we, as a nation, are as weak as them. We must protect and preserve our own strength so we can continue being the uplifting guiding light for the world. Newt understands that.
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
I'd vote for him but I'll vote for pretty much anyone except Romney. In the primary I'm sticking with Palin and I'd love to see her and Newt on a ticket together, but...we could do a lot worse than him on top of the ticket. And have done worse. So it'd be a refreshing change.
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
Lets make it a twin project. When a new Catholic Cathedral opens in Riyadh, the Cordoba House can open its doors too. That would be a real cross-cultural project--not this fake one.
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
Newt has two problems that, unless he fixes them tout de suite, will keep him out of the White House for the forseeable future.
1) He has a very strong tendency toward establishment, pragmatic thinking. This has gotten him in very hot water with the populist Tea Parties more than once in the recent past. If he doesn't learn to keep that impulse in check, he's going to find himself on the wrong side of a number of burned bridges.
2) He has all the warmth and personality on stage of a Vulcan. He's great for coming up with ideas and breaking down those ideas into bite-sized pieces. He lacks the skill to connect with voters on a scale that would get him elected President. My impression of him is that he doesn't really like interacting with people on the "retail" level. He needs to find some way of borrowing some of Chris Christie's blunt charm soon.
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
Jimmie Bise Jr:
1) He has a very strong tendency toward establishment, pragmatic thinking. This has gotten him in very hot water with the populist Tea Parties more than once in the recent past. If he doesn't learn to keep that impulse in check, he's going to find himself on the wrong side of a number of burned bridges. · Jul 29 at 9:22pm
Agreed. I'm having trouble squaring this anti-Islamist speech with his stance on anthropogenic climate change. I never know when Newt is being honest and when he's playing to an audience. He's not a typical D.C. politician. But he is a D.C. politician, and therein lies the problem.
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
If I were to guess. I would say Newt wishes he hadn't made that commercial with Pelosi and had supported Hoffman in NY23. JB,jr puts it beautifully about his stage presence. He could deliver some mighty strong debates, however.
If only I were perfect, I would take the job. But.
How bout Sarah does the retail stage stuff and Newt makes the commercials, debates, and TV shows
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
Isn't being called a jerk by Joe Klein a little like being called scatterbrained by Joe Biden?
Re: Will Newt Gingrich lead the next populist revolt? (The MSM is making it easy for him.)
I see mentioned -- the failure of “comprehensive immigration reform,” --
What is in Failure right now is securing the border. First things first, everything else NOT first.
Many of us "Rustics" understand that when Congress does anything Comprehensive we the people will be getting ALL of the Hensive and none of the Compre.
In my book comprehensive immigration reform was a fourth instance of Republicans having a tin ear.
jd