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by Newt Gingrich, Winning the Future
Reading the news this week and talking to friends and leading conservative analysts has convinced me that we are seeing something new and powerful emerging: We are seeing the beginning of a three-way split in American politics among “Stand-pat Republicans” who do not understand change is needed, a leftwing machine that wants to impose the wrong changes, and those Democrats, Republicans and Independents who understand that America is truly being challenged by historic forces and that we must find real solutions large enough to meet those challenges.
Let me begin with the patterns of power in Washington, Detroit, and Sacramento that convinced me there is a new power structure on the left. There is an emerging alliance of leftwing activists and union leaders that will change the pattern of politics and government. These groups have worked together before, of course, but never before have they been this well funded, this well organized, and this determined to impose their will on America.
Their strategy isn’t to work collaboratively with all Americans to develop solutions to the challenges that threaten our future. Their strategy is to work together as a machine to mutually benefit themselves – at the expense of the American people. They want to impose their leftwing agenda from the top down. And their tactic isn’t to encourage debate, it’s to stifle it.
If the 2006 mid-term elections taught us anything, it’s that “Stand-pat Republicans” are no match for this leftwing machine.
Who are the “Stand-pat Republicans”? They are those in the Republican Party who don’t recognize the need for large-scale solutions to deal with challenges of the aging baby boomers or the unending effort to drive God out of the public square. If the leftwing intimidation machine believes in the wrong changes, Stand-pat Republicans don’t believe in much change at all. But business as usual isn’t what our party or our country needs.
The country wants real change when it sees bureaucracies failing as they have in New Orleans, failing to control the border, failing by graduating only one out of every five entering freshmen in the Detroit public schools on time, failing in the California prison system that potentially may have to release up to 75,000 convicted criminals before serving their full sentences, and failing to win in Baghdad.
The country wants its values defended on issues such as English as the official language of government, teaching American history, and protecting the right to say “one nation under God” as part of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Stand-pat Republicans fail to offer real leadership on both implementation effectiveness and on successfully defending classic American values.The leftwing machine actually wants the wrong changes.
For real change in both our politics and our policy, a third coalition will have to emerge: Americans who know we need change and who understand that standing pat and doing nothing will fail and that the left actually wants the wrong changes. I believe there are millions of these Americans, in fact a vast majority, who want the values of classic American civilization and the solutions necessary for our country to successfully win the future.
The goal of the organization I have founded, called American Solutions, is to be the political home of those Americans who know success for our country and for our children and grandchildren will require real solutions to our challenges. American Solutions will spend the next seven months developing real solutions to challenges such as health care, energy independence, securing our borders and protecting our national security…
American Solutions supporters are Republicans, Democrats and Independents who have had enough of negative, trivial politics and pork-barrel-payoff governing. Their real allegiance isn’t to any political party but to the belief that we can and should be doing much more to ensure a better future for our children and grandchildren.
American Solutions supporters believe in entrepreneurs, productivity, the power of technology and innovation to transform our healthcare and our retirement, and the traditional American values of hard work, optimism and acknowledgement of the self-evident truth that our rights come from God.
The leftwing machine isn’t merely an example of governmental failure or incompetence. Like any greased machine, the leftwing machine actually functions quite well, and therein lies its danger. The culture of political payoff and mutual benefit that defines the leftwing machine serve many powerful political interests. And they will not be defeated by business-as-usual, Stand-pat Republicans.
If Republicans “stand pat,” the leftwing machine will roll right over them.
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