January 26, 2012

South Carolina's Newtron Bomb: Part 3 - The Rift in the Newt

Hatched by Dafydd

Republicans in general and conservatives in particular should demand that Newt Gingrich start demonstrating some discipline -- and that Mitt Romney start showing some flexibility and spine. Newt habitually displays woefully too little discipline, while Mitt habitually has vastly too much! Dang, if we could only average them out...

Romney tends to overregulate himself, never stepping "outside the box." Newt Gingrich, alas, lives eternally outside the box that his fellow citizens inhabit.

Romney, the obverse, that boy needs to get out more and start showing us ideas that haven't already been gummed to death by everybody else first. But Newt, the reverse, needs to find his way back to the actual mainstream of America (whch is much more conservative than the mainstream of journalism). Come back, Newt, and all will be forgiven!

At this point, I'm more afraid of a Gingrich nomination and even a Gingrich presidency than a Romney nomination and presidency. It's akin to my reaction to the two main political parties: I have about as many disagreements with the GOP as I do with the Democrats; but the things I hate about the latter seem much more dangerous to me than the things I hate about the former.

Same with Mitt vs. Newt: The latter's savage, unfair, and leftist attacks on Capitalism itself, and his j'accuse against Romney for being "anti-immigrant" (which is liberal code for "racist") are far more damaging to the American experiment than are Romney's attacks on Gingrich for his (nonexistent) ethical lapses as Speaker or on Newt's lobbying -- as I now believe, having changed my mind since a few weeks ago -- for Freddie Mac.

Romney's transgressions damage only Newt Gingrich, or possibly himself, if there's blowback; but Newt's attacks strike at the very heart of the distinction between Right and Left: If conservatism can be deformed to encompass class warfare, racial favoritism, and hostility towards the normal functioning of Capitalism, then what is left of the ideology?

To me, today's Newt is more dangerous than today's Mitt: dangerous to the success of the presidential and related elections; to the presidency itself; and even to the Great Dichotomy between Right and Left -- Capitalism vs. command; individualism vs. collectivism; republicanism vs. authoritarian parliamentarianism; American exceptionalism vs. national homogenization leading towards one-world government. If today's Newt is nominated and even if he is elected, it will be a disaster for those of us who desperately cling to that which makes America different from all other nations.

But I'm holding out hope for tomorrow's Newt. If tomorrow's Newt can lasso his wild horses and start showing discipline and consistency in his rhetoric, adverts, and especially his attacks on Romney (he can still go over the top attacking Obama); if he can begin thinking not only broadly but deeply; if he can if he can start seeing his candidacy less as reviving Gingrich and more as restoring America; then my balancing act between Romney's timidity and Gingrich's mania might start tipping back towards the latter.

(Alternatively, if Mitt become bolder and more effectively aggressive about pushing a pro-growth, revivalist, and more American vision of America, then I might show even more enthusiasm for his candidacy.)

But honestly, both those candidates deserve a stern "come to Jesus" meeting for serially violating Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment.

What a pair! But given the alternatives, with Rick Santorum fading into the wallpaper and Ron Paul heading further and further off the wall, we're going to have to nominate one of those four-letter words, Mitt or Newt.

Our only hope is the sheer ferocity of Barack H. Obama's hatred of a strong and prosperous America and of mainstream Americans. Once we have a nominee, and assuming the loser will join the winner's campaign, we still have an excellent (much better than even) chance of ensuring that the obamachete is a one-term germ.

Our previous forrays into the eye of Newt and mitt of Romney can be found here:

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 26, 2012, at the time of 7:33 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: Baggi

I see that these attacks on Newt Gingrich have really taken hold, like the attacks against Sarah Palin.

However, I find them wholly unfounded. I was happy to read another blog called http://legalinsurrection.com/ which pretty much spelled out how I felt about the Bain attacks and how they are not socialist, or anti-capitalist. I also find that sometimes, listening to pundits on the radio (like Ed Morrisey today on Hugh Hewitt) that i'm living in the twilight zone.

As an example, they kept talking about the hundreds of billions of dollars that Gingrich intended to spend (And most likely into the trillions) for a moon base.

What?! It's like they weren't even bothering to listen to Gingrich. He was very clear that he wanted to offer prize money to private firms to go to the moon. Not put together government programs and NASA to do it.

With all that being said, you should be pretty happy tonight, Dafydd. I was. Romney appeared to grow a spine in this debate. He looked good. He looked strong. He gave me a little more confidence in him that if he does face Obama, maybe he will punch him in his cake hole (Verbally, that is).

The above hissed in response by: Baggi [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 26, 2012 8:14 PM

The following hissed in response by: Bart Johnson

Note that Romney mounted a massive attack on Newt. It was effective, and nearly pushed Newt out of the contest. Newt said he had no choice but to reply in kind, even though he recognized Obama as the enemy. Newt's counterattack was sufficient to hurt Romney, who suddenly complained that Republicans should not attack each other, even as he continued to run adds against Newt.
Given Romney's two-faced, backstabbing attacks, Newt has little choice but to ignore Romney's complaints.
Personally, I prefer Santorum, but I do not find fault with Newt's response.

The above hissed in response by: Bart Johnson [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 26, 2012 11:29 PM

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