So at the core of Gingrich’s campaign is the most regressive, fiscally irresponsible tax cut proposed by any Republican candidate. And yet he gets to wander around telling people how much more intellectual and substantive he is than his competitors.
Another idea on Gingrich’s Web site would radically upend the role of the judicial system. Gingrich argues that the prevailing view that the Supreme Court is the final word on constitutionality is wrong, and that Congress and the executive branch should begin ignoring the Supreme Court’s rulings when they disagree with them.
As an example, Gingrich imagines Americans “ask that Congress pass a law insisting on the centrality of ‘our Creator’ in defining American rights, the legitimacy of appeals to God ‘in public places,’ and the absolute rejection of judicial supremacy as a violation of the Constitution’s balance of powers.” When the Supreme Court objects, he says, Congress should pass, and the president should sign, a second law affirming their power “to define the court’s jurisdiction.”
The law could also “include a specific provision that barred the lower federal courts from reviewing it.” And if any lower courts disobeyed? Those federal judges “would be subject to impeachment and removal from office.”
Overruling the Supreme Court and impeaching any judges who refuse to hew to President Gingrich’s interpretation of the proper relationship between church and state is, again, a big idea. But good policy in a deeply divided polity? Probably not.
Continuing with the theme of politicizing America’s least-political institutions, during his victory speech in South Carolina, Gingrich said that “on the issue of money and the Federal Reserve,” Ron Paul “has been right for 25 years.” Paul, of course, believes we should “end the Fed” and return to a gold-backed currency. Gingrich, apparently, agrees with him. Economists don’t. The University of Chicago recently asked 40 prominent economists whether a gold standard would be “better for the average American.” Every one said no. “Why tie to gold?” asked Chicago’s Richard Thaler. “Why not 1982 Bordeaux?”
And these are just Gingrich’s campaign ideas. That is to say, these are the ideas that Gingrich considered most likely to get him elected. In the past, Gingrich’s policy thinking has been both wackier and more sinister. In 1996, he wrote legislation prescribing the death penalty for anyone who brings more than two ounces of marijuana into the country. In 1984, he suggested that “a mirror system in space could provide the light equivalent of many full moons so that there would be no need for nighttime lighting of the highways.” In 2009, he proposed blasting North Korea’s nuclear arsenal with a laser.
Ideas like these led to one of the more amusing Web sites of the campaign — “Supervillain or Newt?” — which asks you to guess whether a given idea came from Gingrich or a fictional supervillain. I got eight out of 10 right, but then I read a lot of comic books growing up.
When Gingrich was speaker of the House, Bob Dole was the Senate majority leader. And so Dole spent a lot of time listening to the speaker’s proposals. “Gingrich’s staff has these five file cabinets, four big ones and this little tiny one,” he told the New York Times. “Number one is ‘Newt’s ideas.’ Number two, ‘Newt’s ideas.’ Number three, number four, ‘Newt’s ideas.’ The little one is ‘Newt’s Good Ideas.’ ”
Which clarifies matters considerably. Being interested in ideas might be a virtue. Being interested mainly in bad ideas isn’t. And too often, bad ideas seem to catch Gingrich’s fancy.
For more columns by Ezra Klein, go to postbusiness.com.
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