Newt Gingrich — The Victory NH Interview
Part II

Never one to settle for just talk, this week Newt spells out not just the importance of getting involved, but what citizen-activists can specifically do to help win the future.

We hope you enjoy the interview, but be sure not to miss the links sprinkled throughout to some of our favorite sites on the web.

VNH: Last time, we talked about the ideas, policies, and principals you lay out in Winning the Future, so let’s change gears and talk specifically about what Victory NH can do to turn these ideas into action.

First off, what we often hear from activists when they try and get their friends involved is that their friends don’t believe that phone calls, faxes, and emails to elected officials matter, or that writing letters to the editor really makes a difference. As someone who, I’m guessing, has been on the receiving end of these efforts as much as anyone, what would you say to them?

Gingrich: What I’d really say to them is that this is not easy. We have 300 million people, on a continent-wide society, trying to govern themselves, and it’s very hard. But, over time, you can make an enormous difference.

The young women, many of whom are now retired, who were Goldwater Girls in the 1960’s, changed the entire nature of the Republican Party. The people who went out and worked from 1964 to 1980 for Ronald Reagan changed the nature of America and eliminated the Soviet Union — it disappeared, it’s gone, it doesn’t exist any more. I mean, how much more proof do you need that people can make a difference than to look at the fact that everybody knew the Soviet Union was permanent, except Ronald Reagan and the Citizen Army that elected him; and Ronald Reagan and the citizen army won. I’d just point to a map and say, show me where the Soviet Union is today — that’s how big a deal citizen activists are.

Look at the 1994 election. The country wanted to reform welfare and the elite didn’t. And because thousands and thousands of people got involved, they called in to talk radio, they talked to their neighbors, they made phone calls, wrote letters to the editor, and went to town hall meetings. By the time we were done with that argument, according to The New York Times, 92% of the country wanted Welfare Reform — including 88% of the people who were on welfare.

VNH: Incredible. Now, I’ve heard you say that the kind of transformational changes that you’re talking about only happen when citizen activists bring pressure to bare on their elected officials, and that what is needed is a grassroots movement that is large enough to do so. Take us through some of the steps that have to happen to build that kind of movement.

Gingrich: Well, I think the first phase is that people have to decide that the ideas are the right ideas. One of the great strengths of Goldwater and Reagan was that they clarified a set of ideas: lower taxes; smaller government; stronger national defense; defeating the Soviet Union, not just placating it; and early on, people thought they sounded very radical, almost nutty. And then gradually, people began to nod yes and say, “You know, that’s right.” And then you got The Conservative Book Club, and Human Events, and National Review, and eventually talk radio. And the net effect, over time, has been remarkable.

The easiest way I can describe it to you is, if you Xerox the two pages in the very beginning of Winning the Future (in which I list a set of 10 questions) and you go to any group in New Hampshire and you hand those questions out, you will find even some of your liberal friends startled. I had a Liberal reporter say to me the other day, she was shocked to discover how moderate she was, and no, she wouldn’t tell me her score. But I thought that sort of captured something, just in that conversation.

What I tried to do with this “test” is basically pick up on what Reagan had done in finding ways to frame issues with simple common sense. I’ll give you an example: Should we be allowed to say, “one nation, under God” as part of our Pledge of Allegiance? 91% of the country thinks we should. So I say, okay, if that’s true, why do we have these judges on the 9th Circuit Court who said it was unconstitutional? And I outline how Jefferson dealt with the judges, and I talk about what we ought to do. When people say we’re not helpless, we don’t have a judicial dictatorship, the legislative and executive branch have every right to have a balance of power — which the Constitution and The Federalist Papers talks about — maybe the time has come to balance the power again.

VNH: Building on that, I’ve heard you say that, “America is the most idea-based civilization in history." Now I think it’s fair to say that the Right has done a far better job of developing ideas through think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, and magazines like National Review and Human Events — but the Left controlled all of the major distribution mechanisms. The “new media” has changed all that. The Right now has its own distribution channels, from Rush Limbaugh to Drudge to Fox News, so the question is how best to use them. How do you think activists can use these growing distribution channels to take the ideas you’re talking about to the next level of influence?

Gingrich: I think you do it in 3 ways: you do it by making sure that people know when an outrage occurs, because outrages are part of how you build energy. If you get a copy of Reagan In His Own Hand, and you read his various radio addresses, he spent a fair amount of time pointing out the dumbest, and weirdest, and least defensible things that the Left was doing. And that helps build energy, because people say, “Boy if that’s the other side, I don’t want to be with them.” Second, you find ways to knit together people who are genuine activists — and by that I mean the kind of people who don't just want to talk about ideas, but actually do something about them. Because if you connected those people on a regular basis, together with the power of the Internet, and we had a center-right "George Soros" type to fuel their efforts, they would be practically unbeatable. And I think, third, you look for Action Opportunities:

An Action Opportunity could be to try and get the rest of the
New Hampshire Delegation to sign on to the Ryan-Sununu bill.

An Action Opportunity could be to go to your local school board, and make sure that they have American History being taught with a sound textbook.

An Action Opportunity could be finding something for the State Legislature to adopt, including things as simple as a resolution calling on the Congress to replace the 2 judges on the 9th Circuit Court.

At each level, you want to combine ideas, arguments, and action into a seamless pattern. And then you want to use everything from CD’s to DVDs to IPODS to Blackberries to email, to Blogger sites, to your new website to get people the truth about these issues that effect every aspect of their life.

In the 1980’s, we had a tremendous impact with our taping program because candidates and activists are in the car a lot. And they get bored, and it’s late at night, and they want to stay awake; so all sorts of people would listen to these tapes because they liked these ideas, and we made it convenient and accessible for them. And that’s a key part. The ideas have to be worth listening to, but then we have to package it in such a way that you have the time to listen to it when you’re doing something else. People truly are into multi-tasking, and nobody quite yet has invented the multi-tasking volunteer. But that’s part of the future.

VNH: Fabulous idea! Take us through how it worked.

Gingrich: We had a GOPAC training program for candidates that developed ideas, and sent out a 2 hour tape about every month. At its peak, we sent it to 53,000 incumbents, candidates, staff, and activists around the country. There are Governors and US Senators who listened to 20 or 30 or 40 hours of these tapes when they were state legislators.

VNH: Was the focus on particular issues? Were they structured as talking points?

Gingrich: Usually they were on: “here’s how to deal with this particular topic,” “here’s how to win the debate,” and “here’s how to do a radio interview”— but also, real education. Here’s 40 minutes on what this means and what the history of it is, so you know enough to get through an editorial board, or you can get through a town hall meeting, or you can get through a debate; but by the way, here are 7 ways you can use it in your campaign. So it was a combination of the educational and the practical, all in the same thing.

VNH: Before we wrap up, I’ve got a couple of quick questions for activists:

First, if there was one thing that activists could do more of, that would have the greatest impact, what would it be?

Gingrich: Make sure that everybody they know, that favors their belief system is registered to vote and actually votes. If everybody on your side is registered and turns out, you will almost certainly win.

VNH: Second, are there activities that you’ve seen activists focus their time and energy on that could be better channeled into other efforts?

Gingrich: The biggest is infighting. People get to the point where they love gossiping, fighting each other, and finding some excuse to split hairs over something in the State Party platform (or some reason to be in a big fight) when in fact, the real opponent is the other side.

VNH: Finally, how do you think Victory NH, as an activist network, can best use Winning the Future to both get people engaged, and more importantly, keep them engaged?

Gingrich: First of all, you should encourage anybody from New Hampshire who is going to go to the Capitol to take the walking tour, because I think that has a huge impact, culturally, in the long run. In fact, you can post it on your website, so they can download it for free. Second, make sure that it’s in their local public library and in their school libraries. These are practical, simple little things, but they do really add up.

And then third, they ought to read it and understand it themselves, and be prepared to debate their Liberal friends with it. I think they’ll be amazed at how rapidly they start winning the debates.

VNH: On behalf of the Ambassador, Augusta, and the members of Victory NH, I want to thank you very much for your time, Mr. Speaker. We know how busy you must be and both you and your team have really given us something truly special to kick off the next phase of Victory NH.

Gingrich: Glad to do it.

VNH: I also want to leave you, unlike most media outlets, with the last word. Is there something in particular you’d like to leave our readers with?

Gingrich: I think what you are doing is tremendously important, and I think they should not underestimate, in any way, how big an impact they can have on both the State of New Hampshire and their own community, but also on the country at large.

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