Mereja Forum

I have in the past counted Newt Gingrich among American thinkers who can read and understand democracy in the U.S. Constitution. Like David Gergen and as an armchair observer, I was critical of Mitt Romney back in 2012 for using his wealth to attack Newt Gingrich during the Republican Party's primary in order to win the Iowa Caucus; Mitt Romney won it.

I remember watching David Gergen call Newt Gingrich a wounded lion after he watched the latter's speech after losing the Iowa Caucus, if my memory serves me right.

I have been under the impression that after watching the January 6th, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, Newt Gingrich would be one of those to count on to rise as an American Statesman in defense of democracy. What a disappointment that he wouldn't and chooses to attack those who rose in defense of democracy.

He has Newton's namesake. That doesn't necessarily mean he can be a better student of Newton than I. Democracy may have made him or contributed to making him a public figure. That doesn't mean he can be a better defender of democracy than I. Even those who borrowed it from ancient Greece, who in turn may have borrowed it from ancient Egypt, may not be better defenders of democracy than those who have some level of organic understanding about it.

So, when Newt Gingrich can't read and understand democracy in the U.S. Constitution, much less defend it in the U.S., Thomas Jefferson, one of the borrowers of democracy if not the forerunner one to do so, must be turning in his grave.

I think he has PhD in History from Tulane university. He is not dumb. He knows about democracy. But the cadre Newt who wants to throw red meat to the Fox News audience had to do what he got to do : feed the beast with little or no regard for truth whatsoever.

I think that any thinker can easily slip into the wilderness when one is organically subconscious. I do not think that students of democracy, however smart or accomplished they might be, are as conscious as those who are organic about it. One can not at the same time teach about democracy and attack it in order to please his sectarian audience thinking that is what he feels to do.

Your last sentence is absolutely correct. But I am afraid in the current US politics that is to be the case.

I did not see Justice Stephen Breyer's thrilling speech about democracy coming today when I started this thread yesterday. What an American surprise! I better write under a separate thread what thrilled me in it.

Here is its recording that I found online.