Dov's Artist Blog

As it becomes increasingly
possible that Newt Gingrich can be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, you naturally have to wonder what a man who is patently morally bankrupt has to offer that could bring him to that point. Much of it can be explained in a single word:

Balls.

I’m rather fond of the song This Magic Moment. For Gingrich in the run up to his so-called victory in South Carolina, his “magic moment” was at the beginning of a debate when he was asked about his adulteries and he chewed a new anus for the questioner. How dare you ask a man who attacks gay marriage because he claims it is an assault on traditional marriage when he has just been exposed as someone who asked his wife for an open marriage? How dare you ask a man who persecuted President Clinton’s adultery through the national upheaval of an impeachment hearing when he himself has notoriously abandoned ill wives to have splashy adulterous affairs?

But attack he did. And it’s attacking he loves to do and it’s attacking that people love to see him do.

The presidency has been called “the bully pulpit.” But when Teddy Roosevelt applied that label to the presidency, he meant by bully “excellent” and not the sense we have of a coward who finds someone weaker to pick on. But to the bully pulpit now aspires Newt Gingrich who wants nothing more than to be the Bully In the Pulpit and indeed he has been the bully on the campaign trail.

I know a lawyer who has made a career of being aggressive. And people want their lawyer to be aggressive. But aggression is not a one size fits all solution for human relationships. When somebody does nothing but shout other people down, those people find ways to ignore the shouter or to write back to the shouter so they don’t have to treat him with ear plugs.

So, not only is unbridled aggression counter-productive because people simply stop listening, but it is simply not the appropriate tone to take with all situations. Consider the President addressing Congress. Should the image he presents be, “I don’t take prisoners ever. So just shut up and do what I tell you.”

Well, with an attitude like that, even his own party will jump ship. Need proof? Think Nixon. People in the other branches of government like to think that all three branches have power. They will not make a career of jumping to the President’s tune. There’s got to be more in it for them than being told, “Good boy. Now roll over and play dead.” After all, most Congresspeople want to be president themselves some day. So full submission is not a natural posture for them.

And foreign leaders.

It may be that we need to put a strong face in front of our adversaries: Iran, North Korea, China, maybe even Russian. But do you think Canada is really going to like be treated like a lapdog? George W. Bush made Tony Blair his lapdog and destroyed his career in the process. It was embarrassing and took one of our strongest allies and made it largely un-American. And that takes skill.

So, if Gingrich the campaigner is anything like what we could expect in a President, kiss your butt goodbye. He would be a nuclear war just waiting to happen.

I don’t believe he has a real chance at being elected, but if anybody wants to make the Mayan prophesy for the end of the world come true a few months later, Gingrich would definitely be your man.

He is one scary dude.