Politics “is a War for Power”
Newt Gingrich was in the midst of his third campaign for Congress – and first successful one – when he made one of the defining speeches of his young career. Speaking to a group of college Republicans, he made it clear that there was little room in politics for being “nice”. In his speech, Gingrich explained what he saw as a new paradigm for the party. Civility in politics was a dead end, in his view. Instead, he urged his audience of young conservatives to be tough and nasty, declaring that politics is “a war for power”. They had better be ready for battle.
Gingrich presented the speech as a reality check for the students and for conservatism in general. He told them one of the major problems with the Republican Party was that the current crop of Republican leaders was too meek and middle class. They didn’t shout and weren’t nasty enough and respected their elders too much. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, he said, did “a pathetic job. In my lifetime … we have not had a competent national Republican leader.”
His assessment of their competency had little to do with how they governed and all to do with whether they had contributed to building “a majority capable of sustaining itself”. He let the students know he was not speaking to them as voters but because he believed some of them might become leaders. He implored them to do three things:
“Take risks. Do things that may be wrong, but do something.” Leaders, he told them, take risks and “stand the heat” when they fail. In effect, mistakes are a badge of leadership.
“Take yourself seriously.” He urged them to believe in what they were doing and defend it with arrogance, particularly when confronted by those with more experience. This is when he cautioned them that politics was not a game but “a war for power”.
“Build a majority capable of sustaining itself.” That, he told them, is the primary purpose of a political leader. He then excoriated the Republican Party for its lack of leadership during his lifetime.
In another 10 years, Gingrich would be in a position to greatly expand his education of the next generation of Republican leaders.
