Like The Mamas and Papas, I'm not fond of Mondays. Don't trust that day. You can find me crying all of the time…
Indeed, I'm only passing time until Newt Gingrich's special weekly newsletter dedicated to Winning the Future pops into my inbox in the early afternoon, choking me with laughter like a ham sandwich lodged in Mama Cass's throat.
Every Monday, you too can get a personalized, Onionesque commentary outlining the vital issues of the day which is (the note is basically Newt's Human Events column, plus some ads, which themselves are highly entertaining). This week's episode, for instance, includes a section titled, "It's Important That We Say It: Our Enemies Are Evil."
Some snippets:
When I travel around the country speaking to groups of Americans, I often tell the story of a couple arrested last year in Great Britain. They were arrested on the suspicion that they were going to use their eight-month-old baby to smuggle a bomb onto an airplane. They were apparently going to disguise the bomb as baby food. And they were perfectly happy to kill their baby just as long as they killed some Americans in the process.
There is a word for people like this. The word is evil.
It's important that we say this out loud and that we render this moral judgment. Because if we fail to understand that our enemy is evil, we have failed to understand what we are fighting.
We are not used to adversaries who will kill young children—even their own children—just to get a chance to kill us. But we had better get used to it, because this is the level of seriousness in the threat we face—this is the level of its ferocity….
We are living in serious times—a time when all of us need to think of the needs of our country and its future rather than our own personal or party interest….
Everywhere I travel across this country I am approached by those of you who have this same understanding. You're not out to score cheap political points. You're not blinded by political correctness. You're demanding that your families and your nation be defended. You're demanding something more serious and more substantive from your leaders.
And if I know you, I have a feeling you're going to get it.
Your friend,
Newt Gingrich
P.S.—Speaking of elites who lie to themselves about the dangers of the world, my soon to be released active history novel, Pearl Harbor, will describe the drastic consequences of being unwilling to come to terms with a dangerous reality. To pre-order a limited edition, signed copy of Pearl Harbor, visit Premier Collectibles.
I was among the throng earlier this month that caught Newt's show at CPAC (as did the Wall Street Journal–alas, a sub is necessary to eyeball their account). Just how serious are these times? Well, he wasn't out to score "cheap political points" and boy, was he talking about uber-serious issues. In the Journal's telling:
The biggest cheers–and much of his popular appeal–were for his red-blooded appeals to patriotism, religious faith and a muscular foreign policy. "Why is it we don't have a law?" making English the language of government or enshrining "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, he asked to roars of approval.
I am more than willing to grant–sans irony–that Newt Gingrich is about the most intellectual pol out there. This is a guy who does think in terms of ideas, and unlike virtually all of his similar numbers, actually knows something about history. But Jeebus H. Christ, here's hoping that conservatives–and all Americans–demand something more serious and substantive from our leaders.
Dave Weigel told the secret history of Newt's Speakership here.
