Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Lizza List: Florida’s Nine Best Newtisms

On Sunday, I was standing near the full bar set up in the parking lot at a Newt Gingrich rally in the enormous central Florida retirement community known as The Villages when another reporter and I imagined what life would be like if Newt Gingrich won the Presidency. We agreed that while it might be bad for civilization, it would be very good for journalism.

Gingrich is not a great Presidential candidate, but he’s quite a good political wordsmith. He’s especially fun to listen to when he’s feeling maligned by powerful forces—like the Romney campaign and its allies, who have buried Gingrich by about five to one in advertising spending here.

Here are nine of the best Newtisms from the Florida primary campaign.

1. “I’m a little bit tired of being lectured about respecting every … religion on the planet, I would like him [Romney] to respect our religion.”
2. “We nominated a moderate for president in 1996 and he lost, badly. We nominated a moderate for president in 2008 and he lost, badly. If we nominate a Massachusetts liberal, I don’t see how he defends ‘Romneycare’ as being different from ‘Obamacare.’ I don’t see how he defends his gun control as being different, his pro-abortion position as being different, or for that matter his tax increases being different.”
3. “I thought to myself, what a pathetic situation to be running for the president of the United States with nothing positive to say for yourself and nothing available, a big idea, a big vision, a big future, and all you’ve got is to tear your opponents down so they get to be smaller than you are.”
4. “The conservative movement is not going to sit back and say, ‘Oh yes, let’s let Wall Street and Mitt Romney buy the election.’ So you’re going to see a real grassroots fight. It will be people power vs. Goldman Sachs and Mitt Romney.”
5. “I’d like to have an American on the moon before the Chinese get there.”
6. “I want to see us move from one [space] launch occasionally to six or seven launches a day.”
7. “It will be an American campaign open to every American who prefers a paycheck to food stamps, who prefers the Declaration of Independence to Saul Alinsky and who prefers a strong national security to trying to appease our enemies.”
8. “As your nominee, I will not accept debates in the fall in which the reporters are the moderators. We don’t need to have a second Obama person at the debate.”
9. “Romney cut off kosher food to elderly Jews on Medicare.”

Original Article
Source: new yorker 
Author: Ryan Lizza 

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