tsetsefly
12-09-2011, 03:14 PM
From Reason.com (http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/09/david-brooks-gives-newt-gingrich-the-kis#commentcontainer)
I love reason's Hit&Run:
The National Greatness Progressive Conservative damns Newt, both intentionally and un:
Of all the major Republicans, the one who comes closest to my worldview is Newt Gingrich. Despite his erratically shifting views and odd phases, he continually returns to this core political refrain: He talks about using government in energetic but limited ways to increase growth, dynamism and social mobility.
As he said in 2007, "It's not a point of view libertarians would embrace, but I am more in the Alexander Hamilton-Teddy Roosevelt tradition of conservatism. I recognize that there are times when you need government to help spur private enterprise and economic development." [...]
His 1984 book, "Window of Opportunity," is a broadside against what he calls the "laissez-faire" conservatism — the idea that government should just get out of the way so the market can flourish. As he wrote, "The opportunity society calls not for a laissez-faire society in which the economic world is a neutral jungle of purely random individual behavior, but for forceful government intervention on behalf of growth and opportunity."
But Brooks isn't backing him, because of unsuitable temperament, and because "Gingrich loves government more than I do." (Ouch!)
[H]e would severely damage conservatism and the Republican Party if nominated. He would severely damage the Hamilton-Theodore Roosevelt strain in American life.
Wow, that's the first convincing argument in favor of Gingrich I've heard....
Haha
I love reason's Hit&Run:
The National Greatness Progressive Conservative damns Newt, both intentionally and un:
Of all the major Republicans, the one who comes closest to my worldview is Newt Gingrich. Despite his erratically shifting views and odd phases, he continually returns to this core political refrain: He talks about using government in energetic but limited ways to increase growth, dynamism and social mobility.
As he said in 2007, "It's not a point of view libertarians would embrace, but I am more in the Alexander Hamilton-Teddy Roosevelt tradition of conservatism. I recognize that there are times when you need government to help spur private enterprise and economic development." [...]
His 1984 book, "Window of Opportunity," is a broadside against what he calls the "laissez-faire" conservatism — the idea that government should just get out of the way so the market can flourish. As he wrote, "The opportunity society calls not for a laissez-faire society in which the economic world is a neutral jungle of purely random individual behavior, but for forceful government intervention on behalf of growth and opportunity."
But Brooks isn't backing him, because of unsuitable temperament, and because "Gingrich loves government more than I do." (Ouch!)
[H]e would severely damage conservatism and the Republican Party if nominated. He would severely damage the Hamilton-Theodore Roosevelt strain in American life.
Wow, that's the first convincing argument in favor of Gingrich I've heard....
Haha