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Newt Gingrich on Principles & Values
Former Republican Representative (GA-6) and Speaker of the House
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Polls are biased left; GOP wins on the issues
There is another great source of liberal power, not quite the same thing as the press but working hand in hand with it--and that is news media public opinion polls. Polls can be manipulated: through the pools selected for polling and through the
wording of the questions. First of all, if you ask all adults rather than likely voters, your results will be skewed by the responses of people who are not interested in politics and will therefore be more likely simply to parrot
what they have picked up from television. The more likely you are to vote, the more likely you are to pay attention to the arguments. As we’ve lately been discovering, the more you pay attention to the arguments, the more likely you are to vote for us.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p. 73-75
Jul 2, 1998
Six challenges for a prosperous, free, & safe America
Let me outline the six major changes that I believe are necessary to leave our children with an America that is prosperous, free, and safe:- We must reassert and renew American civilization. Until we re-establish a legitimate moral-cultural
standard, our civilization is at risk.
- We must accelerate America’s entry into the Third Wave Information Age. Second only to renewing our civilization is making the intellectual investment necessary to understand these changes and harness them to our
lasting advantage.
- We must rethink our competition in the world market. We want our labor to add the highest value so that we can be the most effective competitor on earth.
- We must replace the welfare state with an opportunity society.
- We must
replace our centralized, micro-managed, Washington-based bureaucracy with a dramatically decentralized system more appropriate to a continent-wide country.
- We musty be honest about the cost of government programs and balance the federal budget.
Source: To Renew America, p. 6-9
Jul 2, 1995
Culture of irresponsibility began in 1965
We must reassert and renew American civilization. From the arrival of English-speaking colonists in 1607 until 1965, there was one continuous civilization built around a set of commonly accepted legal and cultural principles. From the Jamestown colony
and the Pilgrims, through de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, up to Norman Rockwell’s paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, there was a clear sense of what it meant to be an American. Our civilization is based on a spiritual and moral dimension.
It emphasizes personal responsibility as much as individual rights. Since 1965, however, there has been a calculated effort by cultural elites to discredit this civilization and replace it with a culture of irresponsibility that is incompatible with
American freedoms as we have known them. Our first task is to return to teaching Americans about America and teaching immigrants how to become Americans. Until we re-establish a legitimate moral-cultural standard, our civilization is at risk.
Source: To Renew America, p. 7
Jul 2, 1995
Our civilization is a shared opportunity to pursue happiness
We have gone from being a strong, self-reliant, vigorous society to a pessimistic one that celebrates soreheads and losers jealous of others’ successes. I came out of my two years of reviewing American history convinced that our first need is to
rediscover the values we have lost. In my reading, I found five basic principles that I believe form the heart of our civilization: - The common understanding we share about who we are and how we came to be
- The ethic of individual responsibility
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The spirit of entrepreneurial free enterprise
- The spirit of invention and discovery
- Pragmatism and the concern for craft and excellence.
We stand on the shoulders of Western European civilization, but we are far more futuristic, more populist,
and more inclusive. American civilization is not merely a subset of Western Europe’s. We have drawn people and cultures from across the planet and integrated them into an extraordinary shared opportunity to pursue happiness.
Source: To Renew America, p. 33-34
Jul 2, 1995
Contract with America: 10 bills in 1st 100 days of Congress.
Gingrich wrote the Contract with America:
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body, we propose not just to change its policies, but to restore the bounds of trust between the people and their elected representatives. That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.
Within the first hundred days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given a full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote, and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny:- The Fiscal Responsibility Act: Balanced budget amendment & line item veto
- The Taking Back Our Streets Act: More prisons, more enforcement, more death penalty
- The Personal Responsibility Act: Limit welfare to 2 years & cut welfare spending
- The Families Reinforcement Act: Use tax code to foster families
- The American Dream Restoration Act: Repeal marriage tax; cut middle class taxes
- The National Security Restoration Act: No US troops under UN command; more defense spending
- The Senior Citizens Fairness Act: Reduce taxes on Social Security earnings
- The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act: Incentives to small businesses
- The Common Sense Legal Reforms Act: Limit punitive damages
- The Citizen Legislature Act: Term limits on Congress
Further, we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation above, to ensure that the federal budget will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills. Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.
Source: Contract with America 93-CWA1 on Sep 27, 1994