For some reason unknown to me other than my gut instinct, I’ve been putting a distance between myself and American electoral politics. It hasn’t been exactly clear what I’ve been seeing, let alone understand with the ever-shifting trends of conservative public opinion about the current slate of challengers to President Obama.
As of this moment Newt Gingrich has overtaken Herman Cain, November’s front runner for the nomination, replacing him as polling highest among the current slate of Republican candidates. Cain’s popularity deflated with the revelation of a long-term affair and the alleged hush money he paid to keep it from his wife. For those of our readers who were too young or not around for American history during the mid-1990’s, Newt Gingrich is an asshole. Far from the primary days of George W. Bush, who ran against Al Gore on the platform of “compassionate conservative’, Mr. Gingrich prides himself on being a compassionless conservative.
He was instrumental in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, enabling too big to fail banks to underwrite and trade instruments that contributed to the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009. He wants to privatize Social Security, an idea whose time should end given the rapacity of Wall Street and big banks in general, and he can’t seem to keep his mouth shut when it comes to punishing the poor, especially poor women and children. While on the campaign trail, Gingrich proposed poor kids (mainly African-Americans) learn about job skills by working as janitors — mentored by parental peers if not parents themselves in the skills behind pushing a mop or cleaning a toilet.
With the help of conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, Newt helped build a firewall blocking the people who needed government assistance the most, and the corporate lobbyists who have berthed themselves on the perimeters of the Capitol Building with keys to gain access after-hours. After being disgraced by charges of ethics violations, he resigned from Congress, parlaying his post-congressional career into a money-making business entity.