Bill Wilson is a guest blogger
We the People can end the plague of money that is destroying our political system by embracing new media for our national discussions, according to former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Gingrich’s ideas are Jeffersonian in their wisdom and pragmatism.
On January 30, 2010, Newt Gingrich delivered a speech to the STEWARD (Save the Economy Without Accumulating Record Debt) conference on grassroots communication at Southern New Hampshire University. Newt gave an eloquent, highly intellectual lesson in how to advance the principals of the Constitution in modern day America.
His thesis was that the current system for electing officials in this country –raising as much money as possible, negative campaigning, simplistically using 30-second sound bites to address complex issues –is coming to an end. Candidates spend so much time raising money for their election and reelection that they don’t have time to focus on what they stand for. They are in affect good at getting elected though not good at the job we elect them to.
This Gingrich claims, has run its course, and that modern technology–the internet, U Tube, tweeting and texting– has become the new forum for the 18th century concept of true freedom of speech. Newt’s revolutionary thinking is right on, but for most American voters, he is way ahead of his time. As Americans, let’s be honest with ourselves. We can not stop this train in a day, or even a year. It may take a generation or more.
Two hundred years ago, another American intellectual helped shape the founding of our country. Thomas Jefferson is widely recognized by historians as being a shy, but brilliant man, who was instrumental in establishing and communicating the founding ideals and principals of our country. But today we debate how someone who could write the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” could, himself, be a slave owner. Historians who wish to be kind to Jefferson hypothesize that Jefferson’s thought process was one of pragmatism, rather than hypocrisy. Jefferson realized, these historians say, that slavery was, in the late 18th century, an institution that Americans would never agree to abolish. But he still thought it was wrong. Those words in the Declaration of Independence are Jefferson’s message to us that we should always have lofty goals to reach for in the future, even if those goals seem out of reach today.
The similarity between these 2 men is clear. Newt knows that our country’s electorate will not be able to readily transform itself over night from the current system to a system that elects its public officials based on the selflessness of bygone eras. Like Jefferson in the late 1700s, he knows that the goal is not ascertainable right now. But Newt is setting the goal for us nonetheless, and prompting us to at least start the movement to reform the thinking of our electorate, by utilizing modern technology, which will ultimately be the source of public opinion in the future.
Neither of these men could win an election today. Jefferson would be called a hypocrite even though he may have been merely a pragmatic idealist. Newt carries the baggage of a long political career, which, undoubtedly, would make a nice arsenal for opponents, even though he has, arguably, evolved, into an intellectual and well reasoned individual.
Too bad. They each might generate a level of intelligent debate around Constitutional principles that has been lost in the modern, mad dash for contributions.
