Gingrich or the Missed Bullet

Among prayers and an intolerant air of superiority, Newt Gingrich has launched his bid to become the Republicans’ candidate against President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

The grave problem with Gingrich is that he is not a man to trust.

Newt Gingrich, who was Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, has recently announced he will seek the Republican nomination to run in the 2012 presidential election; he is doing this because he believes that “the United States of America is in trouble and it needs every possible citizen to come to its aid if we are to remain the great center of freedom, the great developer of prosperity, and the provider of safety to our citizens and friends around the world.” Gingrich is convinced that the United States is an exceptional nation — that it is not similar to the rest of the countries — and it has certain inalienable and exclusive rights. Currently, it is experiencing tough times.

In order to gain back the recently lost American exceptionalism, Gingrich has an electoral platform that combines his fiscal and social conservatism with his religious values. After being a Lutheran from birth, he became a Southern Baptist when he entered politics. Two years ago, he converted to Catholicism.

The formal launch of his electoral campaign came as no surprise since Gingrich has never left political activism, even though after he departed Congress he was repudiated by both his enemies and friends. He has written many books about politics. Nowadays, he serves as a commentator in radio and cable news shows. He has also set up a communications agency and formed several political organizations, among them a website that has a section of news, comments and propaganda of conservative ideology addressed to Latin Americans.

According to Gingrich, it is a contradiction that most Latin Americans vote for Democratic candidates, because the Democratic Party is extremely conservative. And it is not only for that reason. During one of his rhetoric excesses, he said that first-generation immigrants are precisely those who agree most with his firm defense of American exceptionalism, even though he does not clarify on what grounds he stands to defend such a rash statement. Regarding the immigration issue, Gingrich´s political position has so many shades of meaning that is difficult to understand it. On the one hand, he repeats the Republicans’ chorus by demanding the strengthening of the Southern border. On the other hand, he complains that it is not right to deport 11 million people who illegally live in the country, but he does not dare plead for their legalization that would lead towards the end of this situation.

If we compare Gingrich’s political position on this issue with the positions of possible Republican candidates, it is true that — though they do seem vague — Gingrich’s positions seem more reasonable. The problem with this is his lack of specificity. And if we use his past to try to predict the future, once again we come across contradiction and uncertainty. The law that allows thousands of illegal Central American refugees to obtain legal residency would not have been possible without his support. But we also have to remember that not so long ago, he described bilingual education as teaching “the language of living in a ghetto,” and later on he called Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor a racist.

The problem with Gingrich is that he is a missed bullet. He is always making alarming and inflammatory generalizations against Muslim people; he questions President Obama’s patriotism; he is intolerant to those who defend homosexuals’ rights; and behaves with extreme arrogance. Take into account that this man sets himself up as a defender of traditional values, shows off his religiosity, cheated on his first wife with his second, and cheated on his second with his third wife while denouncing President Clinton’s infidelity. The grave problem with Gingrich is that he is not a man to trust.