I see a legitimate role for government in pathfinding in space like Columbus or Lewis and Clark. However, with them, there was hope for entrepreneurial followers.
Unfortunately, space has been effectively rendered off limits to industry aside from the role of taxi driver, freight hauler, and hotel management under government contract.
I’d be a lot more impressed if Gingrich were promising to work toward withdrawing from the international space treaty (which will take a decade in itself). I would go even further and announce that any company can lay claim to asteroids and hundred thousand acre tracts on the moon or any planet they can put feet on and show a drive to utilize the resources.
That’s all great and everything, but, like Columbus, there is a reason that Spain and Portugal are no longer serious contenders in exploration - or anything else.
Dreams are great. However, reality is the hunger in your gut, the empty gas gauge, the overdue notices in the mailbox and the endless crisis’ of home and kids. High flown rhetoric is not going to do it. We are on the precipice; you and I both know it and, at some level, most Americans do too.
Now is the time we squarely face the problems, not invent diversions to recapture past granduer. The truest test of genuine greatness will be whether or not we are men (and women) of the mettle needed to meet ourselves and conquer our weaknesses.
For my money, none of the top picks in the ‘R’ column are fit for this task.