Newt Gingrich changed the Republican party from being a representative of business and taxpayers into a reinterpretation of the confederacy. In 1994 I was president of a Kiwanis Club, a church officer and, as now, a small business owner. I was also a twenty-year Republican, and left that party because of Gingrich’s promise to divide and conquer the country I loved. I lost a lot of “friends” over that change. They simply did not see it the way I did — that our exceptionalism comes from the vote.
There is a straight line between the politics of Newt Gingrich and the presidency of Donald Trump. He has committed his party to a wiin/lose situation - and they seem to be losing. Time will tell. Newt can watch from hell.
Yes, I agree. Newt is responsible for so much rot, and most people don't know his name. I remember people thinking the Contract for America was either total b.s. or genius. I knew it was b.s.
People are motivated by either love or hate. You have hit the nail on its head by showing us how we’ve been led to where we are today. Thank you. Hopefully there are more people as smart as you.
Perfect! Keep telling our history to all the generations. When former GOP members, the anti-Trump conservatives, kept shouting at Democrats to fight more like Republicans, I always thought of Gingrich (and Tom DeLay). I'd say, "We don't want to be like them!" It strains credulity that he thought he was a civilizing force. More of a Hobbesian force. Thank Tim.
Very well written and I’m assuming there are many more who contributed to where we have arrived. Never liked the man I saw, but someone like me who voted for Jimmy Carter wouldn’t.
Great article. Never cared for him and Now, I despise him. Amazing what the power of complete rot can accomplish. Glad he’s no longer relevant, except for a new generation of haters that want to ruin America and conquer the world with their obscene mumblings.
Fantastic piece! I knew some of this, but your article was a great refresher and very detailed! He certainly sucked my mom in. She was a junkie for his news. It made her feel alive, I’m sure, because having someone to hate roused her emotions
Johnny Carson once quipped that Gingrich’s Contract with America was more A Contact on America. And as you adeptly point out, we’re still living with the consequences. I was especially interested in your analysis of Gingrich’s focus on the power of words to sway opinions. “Words are the handmaiden of reality,” as Emerson put it. Just today, Trump called his at best mediocre meeting with Xi an off-the-charts success—a “12.” In reality, the Chinese walked away with greater concessions and looked more powerful than Trump. Words can bend reality, they cannot break it.
I grew up with my FDR loving grandmother, who despised Newt Gingrich as soon as she learned his name. I remember she received a sticker in the mail, from some Dem org, shaped like a lizard that said “No More Newts.” If only 😞
The Gingrich Luntz memo fundamentaly changed American politics by making dehumanization a campaign strategy rather than a bug. What's most damaging isn't just the word lists themselves but the instrutional manual aspect, teaching an entire generation of politicians to abandon persuasion for destruction. When you systematically train people to call opponents traitors and terrorists, you're not just winning elections, you're dismantling the possibility of democratic governance. The tragedy is how succesful this approach has been, proving that in modern politics, controversy and division are more rewarded than coalition building.
I’m finding that coalition building among “Democrats” is happening, but the advent of social media as so much of our country’s and the world’s attention span has digressed from critical thinking and analysis to trollish clicks and responses, bludgeoning truth and reality, is now being swarmed with fake AI generated videos that immediately gain a life of their own portraying various parts and cultures of our society as heathens, criminals, commies and terrorists, exhibiting that we are still on a very perilous path with enlightenment threatened every moment by the evil propaganda machine Newt spawned.
Thank you for this article. It’s good to refresh our memory and connect the dots, the straight line to the Miller’s and Vought’s of our time now. Stay strong. We can, I believe find our way out of this evil morass their puppet and cover Trump facilitates daily. But know, the real “Manchurian” JDV waits in the wings. That’s who our votes must defeat now. And forever more.
Fabulous article! Thanks for profiling one of the absolutely slimiest of slimeballs in DC. I remember seeing Gingrich on a Fox News show about 10–15 years ago. He was giddy with excitement over the fact that facts no longer mattered.
At first read, my ire was high with your comparison of Harry Seldon to Newt but I do understand the analogy now. Power is a huge motivator with the deplorables.
I didn't know this. Very enlightening and it explains a lot as well. Too bad he failed to keep up with his reading and personal reflection as he clearly lost his way. He too, became a victim of his ego and hatred of anything outside his own experience, from which he was able to lift himself up by standing on the shoulders of those he trampled.
Miller needs to be sent home where he can steep in his own hate juice. His hatred is the kind that has no intellectual basis and is horrifyingly accepted by the president.
Remember that old school yard retort, “What you say is what you are”? Think about that whenever you hear Trump call a Democrat or liberal judge a “deranged lunatic”.
I am old enough to have been a witness to the deep damage Newt Gingrich did from debating the issues in a healthy government to making it all about character assasination for the sake of power. Now we have half of Congress and the Senate so afraid of losing power that they don't speak up. Absolute power has clearly corrupted absolutely.
Tim Barnicle , you are on to something very big. I encourage you to watch this breakdown of the strategies of deep propaganda. And so much of it does go back to Gingrich - and his near-daily communications with Limbaugh.
Newt Gingrich changed the Republican party from being a representative of business and taxpayers into a reinterpretation of the confederacy. In 1994 I was president of a Kiwanis Club, a church officer and, as now, a small business owner. I was also a twenty-year Republican, and left that party because of Gingrich’s promise to divide and conquer the country I loved. I lost a lot of “friends” over that change. They simply did not see it the way I did — that our exceptionalism comes from the vote.
There is a straight line between the politics of Newt Gingrich and the presidency of Donald Trump. He has committed his party to a wiin/lose situation - and they seem to be losing. Time will tell. Newt can watch from hell.
Yes, I agree. Newt is responsible for so much rot, and most people don't know his name. I remember people thinking the Contract for America was either total b.s. or genius. I knew it was b.s.
People are motivated by either love or hate. You have hit the nail on its head by showing us how we’ve been led to where we are today. Thank you. Hopefully there are more people as smart as you.
I left out fear.
Perfect! Keep telling our history to all the generations. When former GOP members, the anti-Trump conservatives, kept shouting at Democrats to fight more like Republicans, I always thought of Gingrich (and Tom DeLay). I'd say, "We don't want to be like them!" It strains credulity that he thought he was a civilizing force. More of a Hobbesian force. Thank Tim.
Very well written and I’m assuming there are many more who contributed to where we have arrived. Never liked the man I saw, but someone like me who voted for Jimmy Carter wouldn’t.
Great article. Never cared for him and Now, I despise him. Amazing what the power of complete rot can accomplish. Glad he’s no longer relevant, except for a new generation of haters that want to ruin America and conquer the world with their obscene mumblings.
Fantastic piece! I knew some of this, but your article was a great refresher and very detailed! He certainly sucked my mom in. She was a junkie for his news. It made her feel alive, I’m sure, because having someone to hate roused her emotions
Johnny Carson once quipped that Gingrich’s Contract with America was more A Contact on America. And as you adeptly point out, we’re still living with the consequences. I was especially interested in your analysis of Gingrich’s focus on the power of words to sway opinions. “Words are the handmaiden of reality,” as Emerson put it. Just today, Trump called his at best mediocre meeting with Xi an off-the-charts success—a “12.” In reality, the Chinese walked away with greater concessions and looked more powerful than Trump. Words can bend reality, they cannot break it.
I grew up with my FDR loving grandmother, who despised Newt Gingrich as soon as she learned his name. I remember she received a sticker in the mail, from some Dem org, shaped like a lizard that said “No More Newts.” If only 😞
The Gingrich Luntz memo fundamentaly changed American politics by making dehumanization a campaign strategy rather than a bug. What's most damaging isn't just the word lists themselves but the instrutional manual aspect, teaching an entire generation of politicians to abandon persuasion for destruction. When you systematically train people to call opponents traitors and terrorists, you're not just winning elections, you're dismantling the possibility of democratic governance. The tragedy is how succesful this approach has been, proving that in modern politics, controversy and division are more rewarded than coalition building.
I’m finding that coalition building among “Democrats” is happening, but the advent of social media as so much of our country’s and the world’s attention span has digressed from critical thinking and analysis to trollish clicks and responses, bludgeoning truth and reality, is now being swarmed with fake AI generated videos that immediately gain a life of their own portraying various parts and cultures of our society as heathens, criminals, commies and terrorists, exhibiting that we are still on a very perilous path with enlightenment threatened every moment by the evil propaganda machine Newt spawned.
Thank you for this article. It’s good to refresh our memory and connect the dots, the straight line to the Miller’s and Vought’s of our time now. Stay strong. We can, I believe find our way out of this evil morass their puppet and cover Trump facilitates daily. But know, the real “Manchurian” JDV waits in the wings. That’s who our votes must defeat now. And forever more.
Fabulous article! Thanks for profiling one of the absolutely slimiest of slimeballs in DC. I remember seeing Gingrich on a Fox News show about 10–15 years ago. He was giddy with excitement over the fact that facts no longer mattered.
At first read, my ire was high with your comparison of Harry Seldon to Newt but I do understand the analogy now. Power is a huge motivator with the deplorables.
I didn't know this. Very enlightening and it explains a lot as well. Too bad he failed to keep up with his reading and personal reflection as he clearly lost his way. He too, became a victim of his ego and hatred of anything outside his own experience, from which he was able to lift himself up by standing on the shoulders of those he trampled.
Never did like Newt. How do we move on from this hate?
Miller needs to be sent home where he can steep in his own hate juice. His hatred is the kind that has no intellectual basis and is horrifyingly accepted by the president.
Remember that old school yard retort, “What you say is what you are”? Think about that whenever you hear Trump call a Democrat or liberal judge a “deranged lunatic”.
It never fails to please me to cross paths with the few who pay attention long term over time. Bravo !
I am old enough to have been a witness to the deep damage Newt Gingrich did from debating the issues in a healthy government to making it all about character assasination for the sake of power. Now we have half of Congress and the Senate so afraid of losing power that they don't speak up. Absolute power has clearly corrupted absolutely.
Tim Barnicle , you are on to something very big. I encourage you to watch this breakdown of the strategies of deep propaganda. And so much of it does go back to Gingrich - and his near-daily communications with Limbaugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7EZpgByQrA