The Ideas and Beliefs of Newt Gingrich

The political career of Newt Gingrich is an important component of the structure and content of his thought. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in the 1970s, Gingrich was elected as Speaker of the House after the national election of 1994 transferred majority control of the House from the Democratic to the Republican party. It is as Speaker of the House that the book To Renew America was published under Gingrich's byline in 1995. The book is an elaboration of Gingrich's ideas about the nature and extent of issues and problems confronting the United States, as well as Gingrich's prescriptions for resolving these issues.

To Renew America can be said to be simply brimming over with ideas, but the thread that runs throughout the work is nothing short of concern to "reassert and renew American civilization" (Gingrich 7). By American civilization Gingrich means a set of commonly held cultural assumptions, principles, and values that give meaning to life in the United States and that made the country great. His understanding of the c

. . .
them a full opportunity to pursue happiness" (Gingrich 83). The implication is that rational incentives that lie outside the public school system can light a fire of learning under children who would ordinarily not be motivated to stay in school. Handler, on the other hand, cites evidence from a Wisconsin program called Learnfare in which students whose parents are recipients of state-sponsored Aid to Families with Dependent Children receive vouchers for attending school; reportedly, however, AFDC children miss on average only three days more of school than their non-AFDC counterparts (Handler 99-101). In other words, an education welfare program by itself will not guarantee improved attendance; other factors have to be taken into consideration. Gingrich advocates "a drastic overhaul of the present system" (83) to cure structural poverty; Handler says that overhauling the present system will not by itself solve anything. Other features of the culture need revision as well. Just as Gingrich's To Renew America owes something to Olasky's analysis of the culture of compassion, so it owes a good deal to the work of Alvin and Heidi Toffler in analyzing possible lines of the culture's development. Some might say, indeed, that To Renew Am
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Meanwhile Olasky, Renew America, Tofflers Gingrich, Toffler Toffler, Democrats Republicans, Third Wave, Nazi Wave, Information Age, Gingrich Tofflers, Indeed Gingrich, third wave, renew america, american culture, information age, welfare reform, republican party, poverty welfare, information technology, newt gingrich, tragedy american compassion, information revolution, politics third wave, consistent gingrich's view, civilization politics third, creating civilization politics,
Approximate Word count = 6366
Approximate Pages = 25 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Ideas and Beliefs of Newt Gingrich