Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Why conservatives should not vote for Newt Gingrich


Seven policy positions that make Gingrich untenable as the Tea Party conservative candidate:
1.     He supports Federal government involvement in education through Race to the Top, and does not want to get rid of the Department of education. In fact, he would not get rid of any executive departments at all, even just theoretically in the primary, let alone in practice.

2.     He wants to have local tribunals determine whether individual illegal immigrants get to stay or not on a case by case basis. This is a terrible idea. Whatever the solution to illegal immigration is, it should be uniform. We can’t have some people stay and some people go just based on whether or not they’re well liked in their community! That’d be the Salem Witch Trials all over again, where we use the legal system to pick on anybody who's ostracized in the community. He also depends on illegal immigrants to turn themselves in if this system is to work, saying "we won't go round them up". Ha!

3.     He wants the Executive and Legislative branches to have the power to impeach any judge that makes a ruling they don’t agree with. This is essentially flipping the middle finger to the constitution. While Judicial activism has its downsides, it’s also the only defense we have against the other two branches and an imperative part of our system of checks and balances. If Obama impeached any Supreme Court judge who overruled his healthcare law, I take it Gingrich would be irate. He wants the courts restrained, but only when they dare to disagree with him! This hypocrisy must be nipped in the bud if we are to have an effective check on the people, the Congress, and the President to do whatever the heck they please. The only groups I trust less than the courts are Congress and the administration!

4.     He’s supported the individual mandate in the past, as well as many other controversial, non-conservative positions. This is because he lacks principle, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get things passed and help his political career. And unlike Romney, he doesn't even have the excuse that he was in a state that’s 80% liberal and he had to pander to them. 

5.     He has close ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and continues to support their mission of inflating home ownership. That is exactly what caused the crash in 08, and exactly what will cause future crashes. More importantly, he took millions of dollars from them, which means...

6.     He is the symbol of the very Washington insiders that both the Tea Party and the OWS movement despise. In an election that will center upon distrust of government and lobbying and a desire to change from the status quo, a long time Washington insider is unelectable.

7.  He's incendiary and controversial, and says inflammatory things that sound good on a radio show but ultimately only serve to alienate people. Essentially, he is no more eloquent than Obama, but comes off as much more ornery, old, cantankerous and divisive.

8.     He favored the death penalty for high-level drug dealers, and wants to strengthen the War on Drugs. The first half of that sentence is draconian and absurd, while the second is an unconstitutional, unfair, and unnecessary waste of money that hurts the economy and makes people less safe.

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