Gingrich on NY-23: Conservatives have every right to be angry at me

anXdem on November 4, 2009 at 10:44 PM

thuja on November 4, 2009 at 11:09 PM

I think maybe the problem with the “Big Tent” model is that it’s ill-defined. Republicans have yet to take ownership of the language and make it their own. For too long, we’ve allowed Socialist Democrats to control the verbiage.

To my mind, if one believes in the principles of Individual Liberty and Limited Government under the Constitution… then it’s a plenty big tent. It’s only liberal spin that would have us believe that SoCons singularly define us. Conservatives know that all these issues sort themselves out agreeably when the Constitution is followed as written. The Constitution is our final arbiter. When followed to the letter, it’s the referee which puts a stop to our endless bickering and allows unity of purpose.

Gingrich has run afoul with conservatives because he has, himself, put politics above principle. And at this point… he REALLY ought to know better.

Unlike Steele, Newt can’t complain at the prospect of being caught muddling between ideological principles and job responsibility. Newt waded in unbidden when it was not his place. For Michael Steele, there was a call to be made between our federalist belief in Self-Determination at the local level and his responsibility to fund qualified Republican candidates.

It’s late in the day for guys like Newt to not understand that we’re going to INSIST on principled leadership. As we face the prospect of active fascism, we’re well past the point of game-playing where we’re expected to support the red jersey as opposed to the blue one regardless of who’s wearing it. There are a handful of core principles that leadership MUST espouse. And while it’s okay to have differences on the issues, it’s no longer acceptable to twist the Constitution like a pretzel in support of any particular aspect of populism.

Democrats would have us all believe that it’s about social issues like abortion and gay marriage. The true conservative, however, understands that these issues MUST be decided in the several States in accordance with the Constitution, and that the Supreme Court is not the last word on the subject when they’re wrong, ie. when it’s clear that Roe v. Wade ignored the 10th.

There IS room in the tent for differences of opinion on the issues of the day if that’s the definition of “moderate”. But there isn’t room for those who are unwilling to follow the model laid out by the founders in arbitration of those issues. Adherence to the Constitution, the law that binds us together as a nation, is NOT asking too much. It’s a simple thing. There’s no wiggle-room in it, no need for moderation, no gray areas. It’s not written in Greek. It’s in plain English. And it comes to us with supporting documents from the era which serve to further clarify it us.

James Madison tells us:

“If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare,

they may take the care of religion into their own hands;

they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury;

they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union;

they may assume the provision of the poor;

they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads;

in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress….

Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”

We EXPECT our leadership to understand the basic principles of Constitutional governance. Political machinations will no longer be tolerated. And if you are of the same mind, if this is your definition of Republicanism… there’s plenty of room for you under the Big Tent. :)

Murf76 on November 5, 2009 at 8:17 AM