A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich

Dear Newt,

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protestors of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O'Reilly on FOX News. I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, "There you go, again."

However, I realize that you may have been a little preoccupied lately with planning your resurrection as the savior of your party, so I thought I would fill you in on a few important developments you might have overlooked.

The truth is that you're living in a world that no longer exists. I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as -- and we embrace what it can be. You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past.

Welcome to the 21st century, big bro. I can understand why you're so afraid of the energy that has been unleashed after gay and lesbian couples had their rights stripped away from them by a hateful campaign. I can see why you're sounding the alarm against the activists who use all the latest tech tools to build these rallies from the ground up in cities across the country.

This unstoppable progress has at its core a group we at HRC call Generation Equality. They are the most supportive of full LGBT equality than any American generation ever -- and when it comes to the politics of division, well, they don't roll that way. 18-24 year olds voted overwhelmingly against Prop 8 and overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. And the numbers of young progressive voters will only continue to grow. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning, about 23 million 18-29 year olds voted on Nov. 4, 2008 -- the most young voters ever to cast a ballot in a presidential election. That's an increase of 3 million more voters compared to 2004.

These are the same people who helped elect Barack Obama and sent a decisive message to your party. These young people are the future and their energy will continue to drive our country forward. Even older Americans are turning their backs on the politics of fear and demagoguery that you and your cronies have perfected over the years.

This is a movement of the people that you most fear. It's a movement of progress -- and your words on FOX News only show how truly desperate you are to maintain control of a world that is changing before your very eyes.

Then again, we've seen these tactics before. We know how much the right likes to play political and cultural hardball, and then turn around and accuse us of lashing out first. You give a pass to a religious group -- one that looks down upon minorities and women -- when they use their money and membership roles to roll back the rights of others, and then you label us "fascists" when we fight back. You belittle the relationships of gay and lesbian couples, and yet somehow neglect to explain who anointed you the protector of "traditional" marriage. And, of course, you've also mastered taking the foolish actions of a few people and then indicting an entire population based on those mistakes. I fail to see how any of these patterns coincide with the values of "historic Christianity" you claim to champion.

Again, nothing new here. This is just more of the blatant hypocrisy we're used to hearing.

What really worries me is that you are always willing to use LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions. That's really so '90s, Newt. In this day and age, it's embarrassing to watch you talk like that. You should be more afraid of the new political climate in America, because, there is no place for you in it.

In other words, stop being a hater, big bro.

Comments

[johnb3950]

Dear Candace, I send you my sympathy, because it must be a wound in the heart to have a brother who has gone so far wrong. What happened to him? Anyway, you redeem the family name.

[dlo2]

Beautifully and intelligently stated, Candace. You have my vote should you ever replace brother Newt. Could you gently coerce him to retire? Might really help if every Republican would have a family member with this kind of humanity to wake him or her up from some pretty bad behavior that only serves to create social and political harm.

[kevvone]

This is an excellent letter! Way to go Candace! I'm glad that the people are fighting back and making sure it's known that this Proposition 8 thing was absolutely unacceptable. It will go down in history as one of the most embarrassing moments of our time.

[kepary]

Newt Gingrich is one of the most intelligent people in Washington .. i find his position on prop 8 unreal

[ABCD]

nice!

[mattwion]

Dear Ms. Gingrich.
Well said! Your appearance with Olbermann last night was nicely done as well. I find Newt and his brood so troubling. But it helps me to remember - as you so Eloquently pointed out - that their vocal slanders and rude and hateful commentary is a reaction of fear; fear of the changes they see coming and can do nothing to stop!

Keep up the good fight for human rights and justice!

Matt
http://mattwion.blogspot.com/

[gboesky]

Newt is so much more than a gay basher. He is a person who will use anything and say anything for political purposes. The beginning of the end of the Republicans' hope to become the permanent majority was when Newt became Speaker of the House. Afterall Newt got them the majority. It's how he did it that is the problem. If Bob Michels had been Speaker, the Republicans would probably still be in the majority.

I do not, for one minute, believe that Newt cares who people sleep with. I"m certain that he had gay staff members when he was in the House and that he knew were gay. Newt is using gay people as scapegoats again because the Republican Party"s scapegoating of immigrants has failed miserably. When the recent election results showed that Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, Newt knew another scapegoat had to be used. His former targets, the federal government, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, the Democrats had all withstood his attacks especially when the voters discovered how extreme and dishonest his attacks were. Using gays, he can still get the religious conservative leadership riled up.

Newt"s has always used "fear of other" to gain power. He is a master of it because he has no shame. Fortunately because he thinks we"re stupid and underestimates us, he always goes too far. I bet he blames his fall from power on the media. It would be incomprehensible to him that we figured him out for the demagogue he is.

[wembles]

fantastic letter and great appearance on countdown last night!

[Izadora]

Candace, you wrote an intelligent letter to your annoying brother. Congratulations to you.

[Scottso]

Newt Gingrich is just making noise in order to try to regain an appearance of relevance. He's eying a run in 2012 and is taking every opportunity to come on TV and appear as though his opinion means something, even though he holds no public office and can affect no policy-making.

That was the same problem John Edwards had in the primaries this year. He was up on stage in debates with senators and governors who are actively engaged in the issues of the campaign. We hadn't seen him since he left the Senate. As far as the audience knew, he'd been at home sitting on the couch for the past three years.

Expect to see plenty of Newt over the next few years. He wants people to think he matters again. The best thing we can do is ignore him.

[Giada]

Dear Huff Po ... Keith's interview with Candace is worthy of posting, his comments on Prop 8, reversal of thought, and an overturn on gay adoption denial in Florida.

[ChristianEcon.com]

To me, Newt Gingrinch is the original neocon, using Christians and social issues to advance his anti-worker, free-market gravy-train-for-the-rich passions. No one should forget he supported Bush-Cheney every step of the way. Thanks for The Disaster your ideology brought us, Newt Gingrinch.

Hopefully we're beginning to see Christians read the actual Bible; Jesus was not a greedy, materialistic, "Virtue of Selfishness" capitalist. He and His Disciples advocated just the opposite:
http://www.christianecon.com/2008/10/do-americans-understand-what-socialism.html

http://www.christianecon.com/2008/08/this-should-speak-for-itself-32-all.html

[DeeW]

Well written and all good points! The reality is that marriage has changed over the years, from polyigamy to not being able t marry someone of a different skin colour. Society evolves. Unfortunately a few in society refuse to.

[ctekin]

Remember, Republicans don't believe in evolution :)

[NeverADullMoment]

Wow, sex is such an UNIMPORTANT topic. You'd think we're all little children, just too naive to comprehend what people do in their bedrooms, and in need of guidance on the topic.

It's such an unimportant topic, relatively speaking, when there are far more serious problems that people are facing.

Really, it's all a big distraction from scrutiny of more important issues in this country.

[audacity17]

This is so the point. I don't care who consenting adults are sleeping with. Let's focus on how adults can have access to J-O-B-S and retirement and medical coverage and .....

[CAMBEL]

Spoken like a true employee of HRC, "Lets not worry about your basic civl rights, because if you get them then we at HRC are irrelevent", lets only worry about baby steps so we can keep our jobs for years and years.

[Balancement]

Come back and say that when someone has taken away your rights.

[JustMyWords]

And sex is NOT the point. It's about the right to have a committed relationship recognized in exactly the same way as other relationships in this country are recognized, with exactly the same benefits and privileges to go with that recognition.

And if it's such an unimportant topic, then why keep fighting against those rights?

[etherean]

Not to detract from the other replies to this comment, but I took it to mean that NeverADullMoment was in support of equality, saying that we're wasting time on something which takes away from the real issues. Give marriage equality so we can focus on more important things.

[Zofomofo]

Awesome! These "religious" people need to be put in their place. They continue to delude themselves and/or lie about their being somehow superior to the rest of us. (I Know, "not superior, just saved.)
But you know what, they are the un-evolved ones who cling to what may have helped or worked in the past. And that is being nice.