Quotations from Speaker Newt Gingrich: on Civil Rights
Newt Gingrich:
GOP can no longer be the party of the country club
Even though he first ran for Congress in a district by one-time segregationist George Wallace in an unsuccessful presidential quest, Gingrich has generally refrained from using racial issues to his advantage.
While some of his comments about welfare state victims are tinged with racial undertones, most of the time he sincerely emphasizes the need to recognize that America is a multiethnic and multicultural society.
He argues that the GOP can no longer afford to be "the party of the country clubs" and instead has to evolve into a party "that cares enough about the poor to actually help them,
rather than a party that cares just enough about them to exploit them.
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p. 36-7
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Equality of opportunity, not equality of result
Americans have historically preferred to focus on equality of opportunity, not equality of result. Americans have no interest in saying, "Every quarterback should be treated as if they're Joe Montana." Americans have every interest in saying, "Everybody
should be allowed to try out for the team." Americans declare themselves prepared to countenance very substantial economic inequalities, while insisting on the importance of the ideal of equal opportunities.
--Renewing American Civilization, Class 6
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p.117
Jan 1, 1995
Newt Gingrich:
Affirmative opportunity instead of affirmative action
A decade of affirmative action has produced office after office in which people have their jobs because of quotas rather than competence.
--Newt's book, "Window of Opportunity"Conservative Republicans are. explicitly for integration and civil
rights for everyone--but civil rights based on individual characteristics, not genetic code.
--Policy Review. Window 1991
We believe in affirmative opportunities for those from a culture of poverty or in genuine economic need.
However, helping a millionaire's son or daughter because they fit the right quota, while denying the child of a low-income worker because they are in the wrong quota, is simply wrong.
We also believe that any efforts to set up group politics based on quotas and set-asides is inherently destructive of that ideal.
--Congressional Record. January 30, 1992
Source: Quotations from Speaker Newt, by A.&P. Bernstein, p.127-8
Jan 1, 1995
Page last updated: Feb 24, 2019