This is a politician who is no stranger himself tothe wilder shores of extremism, a populist and a purist who rose to great poweragainst the GOP establishment, and a demagogue whose lexicon lacerated the"Democrat Party" as decadent, elitist, unpatriotic and immoral.
In his day, Gingrich channeled the same phobias andfury as the Tea Party activists whose growing influence in Republican ranksseems to have shaken him so badly. Why is Newt scared now?
Despite his habitual ranting against the Easternelites, the former House speaker is a professional historian and anintellectual with wide-ranging interestsmaking him a figure of potentialsuspicion to radio talkers without much formal education and the raving mobsthat follow them.
Much as he exploited the prejudices of the religiousright and fantasies of the conspiracy crowd, Gingrich has always affected amore sophisticated and urbane attitude. He may be troubled to realize that hesuddenly ranks far lower than Sarah Palin, who can barely muster a coherentpolitical thought, or Glenn Beck, who enthralls his audience with weird, weepyrants.
Leaving aside any lingering presidential ambitions,Gingrich understandably feels that brand of leadership will have a very limitedappeal for most Americansand that the more voters see of it, the less theywill like it.
Beck and Palin Dominance Make GOPUnappealing
Is it fair to stigmatize the tea-baggers and theirleaders as a movement of the fringe? In New York's 23rd congressional district, Douglas Hoffman,the right-wing carpetbagger who drove out moderate local Republican DedeScozzafava, apprenticed himself to Beck, obsequiously flattering the FOX Newshost as his "mentor."
Hoffman signed a pledge to uphold the "912principles and values" endorsed by Becka juvenile tract that demandshonesty, thrift, humility and charity even as it complains that governmentforces citizens to "share" when they don't want to. (As far as Beckis concerned, all Democrats are "Marxist" and almost all Republicansare "Marxist lite.")
No doubt Hoffman is eagerly studying the collectedwritings of the late Cleon Skousen, the Beck-endorsed prophet whose speechesused to stir up meetings of the John Birch Society, mostly against Republicansof the Rockefeller and Kissinger variety. He has plenty of time for readingnow, after losing the special election to Democrat Bill Owens.
If the revival of Birchite mania troubles Gingrich,then the Palin phenomenon, now breaking loose with the publication of hermemoir, must be equally disturbing. The former Alaska governor has a long, Beck-likehistory of affiliation with bizarre causes and characters, including an Alaskansecessionist party and a Kenyan witch-hunting evangelist who conducted anexorcism rite in her Wasilla church. She will ignore or minimize those episodesin Going Rogue, but putting extralipstick on this pit bull may not help.
Most Americans don't know much yet about theidiosyncratic ideology of the Tea Party crowd, beyond their conviction thatPresident Obama was born in Kenya(and that his birth announcement in the Hawaiinewspapers is therefore part of a plot that dates back to the Kennedy era). Butwhat they have seen so far, they don't seem to like: The more that Beck, Palinand kindred spirits appear to represent the Republican brand, the less appealthat brand possesses.
From the perspective of Gingrich and other veteranRepublicans, there is deep irony in these untoward developments. Many of theTea Party types actually hate Republican politicians, unless, like RonaldReagan or Barry Goldwater, they are already dead. They hate Democrats, too, ofcourseand lots of other peoplebut their invective against Republicans issuffused with special outrage.
If they have their way, every Republican who doesn'tadhere to the Beck canon will be driven out at the end of a pitchfork, justlike poor Dede Scozzafava.
Fifteen years ago, when Newt rode to power on theresentments of the religious right, the gun lobby and the economic royalists,he celebrated their extremism as the political style of "normalAmericans." Today when he hears the violent rhetoric, the hateful threatsand the fanatical intolerance, he knows they are talking about him, too.
%uFFFD 2009Creators.com.
