Conceding the Future: The Introduction

I have been writing a refutation of Newt Gingrich’s book Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America.

My preliminary title is Conceding the Future: Gingrich Republicans and the Evasion of Individual Rights. Below is a draft introduction:

As the proclaimed Age of Obama begins, why write or read a book refuting Newt Gingrich’s agenda for America?

To borrow Gingrich’s title, my book is concerned with winning the future and the ideas that will make that happen. The current intellectual vacuum on political issues has resulted in the ephemeral cult of personality enjoyed by Obama. As we enter into yet another weak Democratic presidency to be dominated by Congress, an affirmative agenda needs to be advanced to replace the unprincipled pragmatic flailing and failing that dominates our current debate.

Following Obama’s election and Democratic advances on the Hill, I often heard the historical precedent of Gingrich’s Contract with America hopefully asserted as a paradigm for checking the Democratic ambition to dictate the terms of American life. During the election season, Gingrich’s organization, American Solutions, provided one of the few jolts to Senator McCain’s campaign, when Republicans became animated with the chant of ‘Drill Here! Drill Now!’

Gingrich’s track record of success in setting the political agenda establishes him in a leading position to define the alternative to the Democrats‘ program. In the House, he led the building of a majority, ending 40 years of Democratic dominance. Upon becoming Speaker, he set the policy agenda and effectively leashed President Clinton’s policy ambitions. In the 2008 election, he demonstrated the ability to advance a single issue to dominate the agenda and compel the Democratic Congress to end a long standing ban on offshore oil drilling. Further, unrestrained by congressional ethics rules, Gingrich has established and is growing an influential grassroots organization dedicated to developing and implementing new government policies.

In contrast to that demonstration of ability, Gingrich’s history is also filled with failures to actually implement lasting change. The Republican congressional majorities are gone, as Democratic out-of-control spending and scandals were followed by Republican out-of-control spending and scandals. The opportunities to restructure federal liabilities offered by the short term revenue windfall from the capital gains tax cut were squandered. Despite the legislative promise, welfare-as-we-knew-it remains. His policy successes lack a lasting positive legacy in reality.

Why does Gingrich suffer a disconnect between rhetoric and results? Simply, it is his ideas; his reputed strength is actually his weakness. Should his agenda, the so called “21st Century Contract with America,” become America’s agenda, then his ideas will also become America’s weakness.

Following tradition in political writing, this book is written and organized as an examination and refutation of Gingrich’s. My purpose is to identify Gingrich’s principles, where any can be found, and then identify the correct principles to be applied, based upon the concept that the purpose of a proper government is the protection of individual rights. I will integrate and organize these correct ideas using a paradigm, which I call Francisco’s Hierarchy.

I invite you to share this journey with me as we grapple with Gingrich’s ideas, squeezing from them the unspoken premises that identify his errors so that we will avoid being handicapped by them. This is our opportunity to break the cycle of failure defining our politics and return America to the advancement of Reason, Justice, Freedom, Production, and Achievement.