Newt Gingrich: Five threats to American way of life

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | February 7, 2005 | Newt Gingrich

[RWR8189]

Newt Gingrich

is former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

Ten years ago last month, the 104th Congress was sworn in. I was honored to be elected by my colleagues to serve as their speaker. A key to our success, the Contract with America, was not only a remarkable political tool, but it served as a blueprint for governmental change. The House Republicans bound ourselves to do something, not simply to be for something.

Since leaving the speakership in January 1999, I have been intensely studying the major policy issues that affect our nation and, indeed, its survival. What I have learned should challenge all of us. The American way of life is vulnerable to five major threats as difficult as any America has faced.

The first threat is the potential for Islamic terrorists and rogue dictatorships to acquire and use nuclear or biological weapons. The second is the effort to drive God out of American public life. The third is the possibility that America will lose the patriotic sense of itself as a singular civilization. The fourth is that America's economic supremacy will eventually yield to China and India because of failing schools and weakening scientific and technological leadership. The fifth is that an aging America's demands on Social Security, Medicare, and related government programs will collapse the current system.

Each threat can be overcome, but standing in our way is an entrenched political system and news media that refuse to confront these threats seriously. Just as previous American generations have met the challenges of their times, however, so can we.

To succeed, we need a 21st-Century Contract with America to "win the future." The new contract would be not a political tool but rather an agenda that can be embraced by any American concerned with securing America's future. It is designed to build a grassroots movement large enough to implement the large-scale, transformational changes necessary not only to ensure America's survival as the freest, most prosperous nation on the planet, but also to create a stable governing majority of elected officials - both Republicans and Democrats - who embrace those values.

Over the last four decades, America has divided into two camps. Most Americans believe that 9/11 was evidence enough that we have real enemies who hate us and who would kill millions of us given the chance - yet our national security bureaucracies continue to operate within a peacetime framework. Most Americans support a strong military capability to keep America safe - but our liberal national security elites advocate gaining the approval of an ineffective United Nations and a skeptical Europe before defending ourselves. Most Americans believe that America was founded as a nation in which people are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights and that we rightly pledge allegiance to one nation under God - but an arrogant judiciary continues to drive God from the public square.

America is a good and decent country created by heroes worth studying - yet schools teaching young Americans and American immigrants have replaced their stories with politically correct, multicultural drivel that fails to teach American history. Worse, they ridicule what little they are required to teach.

Most Americans believe that hard work will keep America's economy second to none. But our efforts are hampered by trial lawyers who seek their own enrichment and not justice. Labor unions get away with special deals and protection from competition by bureaucracies that value process over achievement.

For this generation to pass on our nation's blessings, we need a grassroots movement that demands profound change to defeat fundamental threats to our way of life. This movement must be focused on values, solutions, and on telling the truth even when it is controversial.

The first Contract with America proved that it was possible to bring together people from all across America to forge a strong majority that would implement the promised program. If we have the same persistence and courage, we can win again.

---

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, author of "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America," will speak to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia on Thursday.

[radicalamericannationalist]

Has also spent his time in the wilderness.

[AirForceDVM]

& the next 5 reasons
Slick Willie
Slick Willie
Slick Willie
Slick Willie
Slick Willie

[itsahoot]

I know the younger generation gets tired of hearing about "the good ol' days", but life was definitely different 50 years ago.

Amen,

[cainin04]

yes, absolutely. That is pretty much all this book is. It is a book outlining his conservative agenda. I believe he must be planning to throw his name into the hat in 08--got to be!

[webstersII]

Newt came to a place I used to work a few years ago for a speech and question/answer.

His speech was okay but the first question for Newt was about ensuring privacy in the digital age, with identity theft a growing problem. The guy asked Newt how we could develop more privacy.

Newt basically said that it used to be 100 years ago that if you wanted to live by yourself and be anonymous you could go live out west and no one would bother you. He said that that wasn't an option anymore, and he basically said that there was no more privacy anymore in our society and we just had to get used to that and determine how best to protect the financial and personal information which is available on all of us, blah, blah, blah.

I was rather unimpressed with his answer. It was more of "the gov't is here to take care of you because we know best" and "just trust the gov't to do the right thing" sort of answer.

He gave the same answer as Hillary or most any of the leftists would (and on a couple of other things, too). When you couple that with the fact that under Newt's watch the federal budget grew enormously and he and the conservatives were the ones pushing for bigger gov't, Newt is not really a "Small Gov't" conservative, he's a "Big Gov't" conservative, which is about the same as being a liberal IMHO.

[jwpjr]

re: life was definitely different 50 years ago.

I remember when my grandmother, my mom, my aunt, my sister and friend would spend all day Saturday doing Toni home permanents. Horrible smell. And I remember when packages of cigarettes purchased machines from had two or three shiny new pennies inside the cellophane on the package. Cigarettes were twenty-two or twenty-three cents each and the pennies were your change for a quarter. I also recall when you picked up the phone and waited for an operator to say "Number please" and you had to listen for your specific ring signal on the party line. Ours was a long and two short. Ah yes, the good old days!

[radicalamericannationalist]

That's all I could think of as I read it.

[itsahoot]

Cigarettes were twenty-two or twenty-three cents each and the pennies were your change for a quarter. I also recall when you picked up the phone and waited for an operator to say "Number please" and you had to listen for your specific ring signal on the party line.

I had forgotten about the pennies. Do you remember when they added a penny coin box to coke machines, when they raised the price from a nickel to 6 cents? They spent a lot of money changing those machines, then very shortly raised soda to 10 cents.

[jwpjr]

re: added a penny coin box to coke

Wow, you're right. I had forgotten that little piece of history. How about that little box on the front porch where the milkman put the milk every morning?

[swilhelm73]

It is a damn shame the Dems were able to take down Newt with their false charges of wrong doing. He definitely was a fighter - something the Republicans always need more of.

Of course we did lose the biggest fight of his career with Clinton, but Slick was an opponent easy to underestimate - an even bigger mistake with the monolith of the MSM circa 1995 in full support of him too.