The Dartmouth Review: Recontracting with America

BOOK REVIEW

Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America
Newt Gingrich
Regnery Publishing, 2005

Newt Gingrich's Winning the Future, as the title implies, is focused on keeping America preeminent in a changing world. Besides advocating run-of-the-mill conservative policies like shedding the costly social benefits programs and environmental restrictions, the author posits religion as the key to fulfilling America's potential in the twenty-first century. In fact, one might go so far as to say that the real theme of this work is this: there is a very drastic and very real decline occurring in American civilization, and it is due to the waning of both traditional values and the centrality of God in public life.

Michael Audet

— "How much will it cost to transform health care? This much."—

The weakness of Winning the Future is that it is a manifesto. Though this may be obligatory for political books these days, this work is a statement, not a discussion or even an argument. It utterly avoids engaging opposing points of view. Gingrich actually encourages those who disagree with his presuppositions and assumptions to abandon reading the book and writes as though the preponderance of Americans already agree with him. As such, the book presents its assertions as if reasonable people do not entertain other points of view, or, more shrilly, as if those other points of view do not even exist. This is perhaps what its intended audience would like to believe.

"Where do you stand on the great and growing gap between traditional American values and the secular liberalism of the Left?" So asks the former Speaker of the House in his introduction. Readers are encouraged to score themselves on ten issues ranging from "Proud to be an American" to "Everyone should learn English." The higher the score, according to the author, the more you lean towards "traditional American values," and, apparently, only those with sufficiently high scores should continue reading.

Gingrich continues with an urgent call to arms: it is time for this generation's "Rendezvous with Destiny," much like that of previous generations in World War II, the Great Depression, and the Cold War. America does have many opponents (foreign and domestic) throughout the world, perhaps the most dangerous enemies our nation has ever faced. He compiles the threats he sees into five categories:

— That Islamic terrorists and rogue dictatorships will acquire and launch nuclear or biological weapons.

— That God will be driven from American public life and reduce us to the post-civilization ennui that now characterizes a declining Europe.

— That America will lose the patriotic sense of itself as a unique civilization.

— That America's economic supremacy will fail, leading to a concomitant rise of China and India.

— The demands of an aging America on Social Security, Medicaid, and related government programs will lead to financial collapse.

This is certainly a bleak vision. But Gingrich concludes, "We have risen to the challenge before and we can do so again."

His solutions for "survival" constitute the bulk of Winning the Future. He proposes a "21st Century Contract with America." His first Contract with America was responsible for the Republican take-over of both houses of Congress in 1994; this time, Mr. Gingrich is taking on China, India, immigrants, atheists, and Islamic terrorists—somehow, it manages to fit quite nicely into 272 pages. Whereas the original Contract was primarily concerned with economic issues like tax cuts, Medicare, and welfare reform, the 21st Century Contract seeks to defeat global terrorists and dictators, bring religion back into American public life, reform civic education, improve domestic science and technology, and to establish personal savings accounts for Social Security.

Gingrich, now the CEO of the Gingrich Group, the communications and consulting firm, writes with the same clarity and bluntness that punctuated the campaigns of the 1994 Republican House candidates. For example, when discussing Iraq, rogue dictatorships, and terrorist states, Gingrich explains why the United States cannot rely on the United Nations or the World Court, why we have been having so much trouble securing Iraq, and why there are fissures in our intelligence system. He believes that the United Nations is timid and offers inaction in East Timor and the Iraq contretemps. Making the typical conservative case against the World Court, he strongly denounces the organization as hypocritical and totalitarian. He concludes that America must improve military technology, win the "propaganda war" against Arab governments and media, and build up our military with renewed zeal.

A major component of the 21st Century Contract is the reform of the health-care system as we know it. However, it cannot be reformed as it stands, according to Gingrich, because it relies on treatment and care in place of a focus on wellness and prevention. Less important is the health-care industry's dependence on paper in place of modernization and information technology, as well as the prevalence of third-party payment plans that remove responsibility and control from the patient. Mr. Gingrich's plan emphasizes improvement through technology (just like his plan for the military and other sciences) and mandates the transfer of knowledge from doctor to the informed individual to make choices for a healthy, more active life. Though his ideas are innovative and attractive, Gingrich neglects to mention how exactly this shift will be accomplished other than through brief mentions of information technology, management procedures, and "Health Savings Accounts" to reduce costs.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Mr. Gingrich's plan is the least-covered: balancing the federal budget. It is a necessary component to the 21st Century Contract, and yet it receives only a few pages. Mr. Gingrich claims "our goals should be a balanced budget, declining federal debt, lower taxes, low interest rates with stable money, and a rapidly growing economy." That's all well and good, but he offers reforms in health-care (including cutting costs therein by twenty percent through "waste reduction") as the major player in some grand scheme to balance the budget. After explaining how to redefine our priorities in health care and Medicare, Mr. Gingrich mentions the need to privatize "airports, Amtrak, the Post Office, and the Tennessee Valley Authority." Establishing a cap on domestic discretionary spending is allowed three-quarters of a line.

Gingrich, rather than getting in-depth on policy, bases his entire 21st Century Contract on drastic improvements in information technology and other ground-breaking innovations. The electioneering problem can be cured with the Internet, and so can money and free speech in elections. American success in the 21st Century can be achieved through putting the power of information and knowledge in the American people's hands. But beyond vague platitudes, readers are left looking for Mr. Gingrich to substantiate his plans. Perhaps those discontented readers can surely hope for a 2008 Newt Gingrich presidential run. Is this book a precursor to a campaign, or is the campaign chatter a ploy to move more books? It's difficult to tell.

He does break some new ground, reflecting the changing demographics of Republican voters. For those who remember Gingrich as a dedicated tax-cutter and Republican reformer, add spiritual leader. Perhaps what best defines the role of God in Winning the Future is a section called "Our Creator in the Capital: A Walking Tour of God in Washington, D.C." Gingrich states, "Every American who visits the national capital should take some time to witness the power and centrality of God in American history." He lays out each destination in detail, including the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, the cornerstone of the Washington Monument (it holds a Holy Bible), and the statues of Mohammed and Charlemagne along the walls of the Supreme Court.

The chapter "The Centrality of Our Creator in Defining America" is on the mark. From the first American Continental Congress to the annual Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations, dating from 1789, Gingrich dissects America's religious foundations with alacrity. Linking the moral quandries facing America to the decline of religion in American political life, he predicts that if the judiciary returns to following the original religious values in the Constitution and we insist on "Patriotic education" for immigrants and young children, "we will rebuild the cultural bond of historic memory that has made America the most exceptional nation in history."

It is a shame that Newt Gingrich writes using assertions rather than arguments. Whatever your position on the conflation of religion and politics, this is hardly a policy one can breeze through without reflection or analysis. Winning the Future would be far more valuable were it less strident and more thoughtful. Gingrich, and our politicians, can do better.