If we reinstituted these philosophies, would America return to sustaining the law and improving our education?

Question

Can we return to a sound belief system and conquer the illegal invasion, in the process?




If Republicans are to retain control of Congress this year, they need to return to the winning formula Ronald Reagan used to win his 1980 campaign and Republicans used in the successful 1994 Contract with America campaign to take control of the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. This formula would require the Republicans to re-identify themselves with the values of the American people.

House Republicans can create a winning agenda for November with eleven issues. (The Senate’s constitutional design, its institutional rules, and the center-left coalition currently dominating its agenda make it too slow to take action on the eleven but could benefit from a successful House effort). I call them the “American Eleven” because each issue defines the right solution, which not coincidentally enjoys overwhelming support from the American people.

The American Eleven begins with our nation’s security.

As President Bush emphasized this week in his September 11 address to the nation, America’s war against Islamic fascists is a struggle for civilization. Republicans in Congress must effectively demonstrate that they are the party doing what it takes to defeat our enemies. Republicans must force those who would retreat and withdrawal to bear the burden of defending their proposals. The full responsibility of undermining our alliances and strengthening our enemies must be placed on those who would seek peace at the cost of defeat and who would advocate weakness in the face of hatred and tyranny.

First, it is impossible for the American people to believe that we are waging a serious campaign to defeat our enemies while our borders remain unprotected. Therefore, the House should pass a bill to secure our borders. Once passed, conservatives in the Senate should move everyday to bring it up for a vote, requiring its opponents to publicly explain why they are blocking efforts to keep terrorists from entering our country.

Second, Republicans in Congress should pass legislation to equip the president with increased powers for tracking terrorists and conducting military tribunals.

Third, Republicans must lift the nation’s national-security dialogue beyond Iraq and explain the reality that America is engaged in an emerging third world war which we are not yet winning. In this conflict, we face not only terrorist enemies like al Qaeda but terrorist states like Iran and North Korea. Iran actively supports terrorists and is seeking nuclear weapons. North Korea likely already has nuclear weapons. Both countries are developing their missile capabilities. With their words and deeds, the dictators of these two countries have been unambiguous in their enmity toward the United States. Americans should take very seriously the fact that North Korea deliberately ignored international warnings when on our Independence Day, it launched a ballistic missile that was developed to be capable of hitting the United States.

Congress should hold hearings on the scale of the threat posed by both Iran and North Korea and commit America to replace these regimes — the only strategy that will ensure that they will be unable to threaten the United States. Our efforts should be directed to bringing about this change about through peaceful means, in the model Ronald Reagan so brilliantly used in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. In this context, Republicans must force those who seek to cut and run in Iraq to explain why a dramatically weakened America would not further embolden a defiant Iran, as it most assuredly would.

Fourth, House Republicans should demonstrate that they have a “do-what-it-takes” attitude about energy independence. They should pass Rep. Jim Nussle’s (R., Iowa) bill on renewable fuels as well as a tax-incentives system toward the development of new automobile technologies that will help change the underlying nature of our energy economy.

Fifth, Republicans must remind Americans that they are the party that protects America’s unique civilization against those who would radically redefine America. A good first step in this effort would be to pass legislation to protect the right to say “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Our founding political document — the Declaration of Independence — asserts that we are “endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights.” It is an attribute fundamental to the cultural DNA of America. But since the 1963 Supreme Court decision outlawing school prayer, the courts have steadily waged a 43-year assault on the core values of American liberty. It is time to return to a balanced constitutional system in which there is no constitutional case for five appointed lawyers on the court to act as if in a permanent constitutional convention.

Sixth, while Americans have always respected and honored a diversity of languages throughout the country, we should embrace English as the language necessary for success in America. Congress should pass a bill making English the official language of government, abolishing multilingual ballots, and reaffirming that new citizens should be required to pass a test on American history in English. Despite what the elite media may report, there are no anti-English congressional districts.

Seventh, Congress should move a bill requiring voters to present a photo ID card in order to vote. We must make certain that only legal U.S. citizens are voting. The bill should provide a mechanism for those without a valid photo ID to obtain one from their state for free. A photo ID for voting would be a huge step toward ensuring honest elections, strengthening our democratic system, and upholding the value of American citizenship.

The final set of initiatives in the American Eleven reasserts that Republicans are the party of taxpayers instead of the party of tax spenders.

Eighth, the House should force the Senate to vote on repealing the death tax, for good. It should pass the bill every week attaching it to various Senate bills until the Senate adopts it. It is simply un-American to ask a grieving family to visit the tax collector and the undertaker in the same week. The death tax destroys family businesses that, in the long run, collectively produce far more tax dollars to the government than the death tax ever collects. The death tax is like killing the goose that is laying America’s economic golden eggs and we should abolish it.

Ninth, the Congress should take steps to restore the property rights that were undermined by the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision that weakened citizen protections against the federal government’s eminent-domain power. Expanding the power of local governments to seize private property simply invites corruption. This decision will almost certainly lead to abuse at the expense of the citizenry’s property rights, especially those of the poor. Congress should pass legislation that restores the constitutional law to pre-Kelo rules and blocks the Supreme Court from reviewing this new law in the future.

Tenth, Congress should pass legislation to control spending with a step-by-step plan for returning to a balanced budget in seven years (the length of time we gave ourselves after winning the majority in 1994). In the mid-1990s, we balanced the budget for the first time in a generation and we did it four years in a row. We were able to achieve a balanced budget while cutting taxes and increasing defense and intelligence spending. Balancing the budget is not just a political issue; it is a moral issue because it forces politicians to set priorities. If politicians continue to spend as if they had open-ended credit with no consequences, then “yes” is the answer to every special-interest request — which is how we ended up with the current absurdly bloated, undisciplined federal budget.

Finally, Congress should tie education funding to school accountability. The No Child Left Behind law is making it blaringly obvious just how many schools are crippling and destroying children. We should save the children. Congress should require school systems to institute metrics-based performance standards in order to receive federal funding to ensure that every child is getting the education that they deserve.

House Republicans have two months to change history. With the American Eleven, they have a chance not only to save their majority in Congress, but also to return the Republican party to the center-right populist values of Ronald Reagan and the Contract with America. They can bring back the Reagan-Contract formula of listening to the American people and identifying with their values.

The choice is theirs — and ours.

Author = Newt Gingrich

Answer 1

I went to Newt's site. He wants more illegals and amnesty.

Got it right off his site, send him a note no thank you, and moved on.

Answer 2

the values of the republican party do not reflect main stream values of Americans. While I think that your question is extremely well thought out it crystallizes some of the main reasons why people are so devided. Not every American believes that school prayer is an issue that the government should be conserned with. Many Americans feel that if the republican party embraces that fight, that we will be a step closer to a church state. This is why in the middle east people are so oppressed. What makes America so significantly different is that people have the right to choose. If we allow a state religion to dominate public space we would be accepting that as a standard and it would marginalize many people. I too believe that the illegal immigration is a huge issue in this country that the republicans and democrats had better work NOW! I don't think that a wall would suffice, I don't believe that punishing the immigrants that are here is fair either. I think the most appropriate track would be to give people south of the boarder an incentive to stay at home and develope the economy. This is a fair and realist approach that no politician has taken seriously. We don't need another Berlin Wall.

Accepting the fact that Republicans have had a very unhealthy stance on education ( you cannot lower property taxes and expect schools to be sustainable) You cannot expect that faith based initiatives have the resources to create a palitable education platform. Time and Time Again faith based initiatives are shot down by committee b/c they lack substantial education standards and are often baised against the current paradigm of sciences and math.

I believe that if Americans want to make America a better place for Americans they need to increase education spending and decrease the dependence on military. I believe that maybe if the military is fixated on a war of civilizations ie: Christianity vs Islam that maybe Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell should create a faith based initiative for that and leave the rest of us out of thier hate mongering.

I believe that the party in control (complete control) of the house, senate, presidency and now the supreme court threatens the fibers of democracy and has shown us in the past decade that they are in capable of managing with morality and and savy to the other 49%

Hopefully someone in governement steps forward with a plan contingent on the needs you described that don't pander to the far right or the far left, because truly most people (Americans) don't fit that bill.

I wrote this not to attack, but to answer from a more centrist position. That is I vote both Democrat & Republican. Lately I have been leaning more left b/c I disagree with the current direction that America is going.

Hope this helps you.

Answer 3

Yes indeed, and I don't know why Newt isn't President. He's a good man that loves America! I gave up on the public school system when my oldest son was in the 1st grade. I now home school, and my boys are way advanced plus they're taught morals, and values... We say prayers, and the pledge every day, and don't have to worry about it.

Answer 4

WHAT about Pearl Harbor and 9/11 seems like we havent protected our borders for a while, I think this should be our top priority. God knows who is coming/in our country/backyards.
I think we all need to join togeather in protecting ourselves.
My hubby thinks the national guard should guard our borders and let active military do there jobs over seas or wherever they need to go. I believe we all are at risk. God Bless

Answer 5

Yes, IF they would do it, IF they would follow through, IF all these things came true, what a great day it would be.

Answer 6

Wow! That was great. Thank you for posting that and reminding us of what really stand for.

Answer 7

I'll buy that for a dollar, but with some amendments and suggestions: Speaking as a heathen-american(can I get money for that?;) ), I feel that it's fitting to allow for people, such as myself, with no religious leanings,not being a catholic and all, (closest thing to it is that I did time in Lutheran services, and you should read about that guy sometime! LOL) to express OUR religious freedom by refraining from pledging allegiance to The Invisible Man. Also, I think it's an 'equal time' type thing for the people that believe in the Holy Billy Goat, Buddha, tree spirits, and all other various and sundry manifestations of the hypothetical supernatural, such as they might be(or not 'be', that is the question. Aye, there's the...nevermind) just make it "One Nation, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all" instead.

Other'n that, I generally like some of the ideas in the list,
still kind of vague in the 'sending Mexico home and helping them to rapidly fix their own country, thereby depriving them of anything to complain about in the future' department, and
the balanced budget business should be choked down to 2 years,
we should 'manhattan project' alternative energy by having national 'teach-ins' about it, brown-bag seminars etc.,have colleges sponsor it, run it on a shoestring/viral advertising basis, get lots n lots of people nationally certified to start ethanol production, tax break or something there maybe for the best idea to come forward on green-tech/conservation for the year, start having 'virtual schools' instead of overcrowded and dysfunctional school campuses, home schooling for the masses on the cheap, 'virtual k-12' would augment and then ultimately end up replacing classroom time, enabling parents to actively participate in getting their children employably educated. A blow to the school system as we know it, maybe, but this is the Digital Age, so let's get our digital on...instead of counting ON our digits while asia virtualizes.

The list also lacks any kind of 'other countries need to pull up their socks and solve their own problems, or face being cut off permanently from US trade'-type language. Debt-ridden though we may be, globally we got the best show going, so to speak.
Facing the spectre of not being able to hold commerce with our country is a HUGE anti-screwing up disincentive.

The death tax business is kind of shaky. Personally, I advocate dying broke, thereby eliminating any confusion. I don't think you should be taxed for expiring, but if someone sold you the legal deed and title to the south american continent for a dollar, in hopes that they could buy it back from one of your descendants for 'a certain sum', and thereby avoid the tax man, or other equivalent scams(don't think for a second that people are above using soon-to-expire relatives for that type of thing), then in such instances there should be a keen eye applied to any such goings-on, and tax revenue lawfully extracted as necessary. One look at debacles like Enron is as good an example as any about people's ethics, in that regard...the second item in there kind of bothers me. Secret courts etc. have a distinct odor normally associated with the now-defunct soviet union. We should strive for public openness and sunshine laws wherever humanly possible. Power corrupts...checks and balances curb unscrupulous politicians...keep all public business in plain view on the table where everyone can see it, please...

First item is about the border...this isn't 1900 anymore. Terrorist or otherwise, the effect is the same by importing millions or tens of millions of people without means, done to sufficient degree, it will short-circuit our economy and bankrupt our country. 21st century solutions to 21st century problems...other countries need to work with the UN to solve their socioeconomic problems.
6.6 billion people walk the earth today. It was only 1.5 billion or so in 1900. It bears mentioning that our economy cannot support them all, and one of the reasons we have something like an economy is through good parental responsibility concepts, which are not to be found in many countries, including Mexico.

I also think there should be a 'dollar for dollar' foreign aid program, a re-work of the UN business, I don't think that works well anymore. We should strive to match other nations, dollar for dollar, in helping one destitute foreign country per month with the basics, food, housing, roads, schools, birth control/medicine etc., but by spending not more than 80 billion dollars to do so in a given year. Let no country have aid from such a program more than once in a given 3-year period.

If there are 200,000,000 wage earners in america, that's 400 bucks a head once a year to help godforsaken no-hope 3rd world countries in a gainful and publicly accountable fashion. I could think of much worse uses for our tax dollar. And, using our money that way just might save us a heap o trouble down the road, good investment as it were, and no more people banging on our door for handouts. Well, less, anyway. It'd still put the help where it's directly needed, and by making it dollar-for-dollar, we'd be contributing to a global aid fund that'd really do the poorest countries in the world today some good. It would also give other countries an incentive to donate, if they knew that when all countries contribute to the idea, the united states would also contribute a matching amount. Example: 5 dollar for dollar participating countries put in a buck, including the united states. That's 5 bucks. All 5 countries put in 10 grand, including the united states. 50 grand. So forth, and so on, eventually there wouldn't be one corner of the planet that couldn't say 'condom', dentist', or 'food poisoning'. Oh, happy day. Republicans could really push for that in the context of neighbor helping neighbor. Dollar for dollar would also be a good 'sell' to the voting public, because it would be a concept meant to benefit the worst off around the world, but not exclusively at america's expense.

Other than that, it's fine! LOL