[By GuanchaNet columnist Zhou Deyu]
Trump is a problem in American politics today, but the various problems facing American politics have been around far longer than Trump's entry into the political arena. Just as America's socioeconomic issues have been sown decades ago, American politics has not begun to折腾 (chaos) only since Trump took office.
If you want to understand how American politics has evolved to this day, there is one person worth mentioning, and that is former Republican leader and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Newt Gingrich).
If you search for comments about Gingrich today, many mainstream media outlets and scholars in the U.S. will view him as the chief culprit who has poisoned American politics to this day—for example, this Washington Post article, whose title reads "Gingrich Brought Us to the Brink of Destruction, Now He’s Back to Finish the Job":
Just as we cannot attribute all of America's problems solely to Trump, Gingrich cannot bear the entire blame for the destruction of American politics. However, on the flip side, Gingrich is indeed a microcosm of American politics. By understanding him, we can see the polarization and toxicity of American politics over the past few decades.
Gingrich, in a sense, was once my colleague. Before entering politics, he was a history teacher at West Georgia College. Gingrich's doctoral dissertation focused on Belgium's educational policies in Congo from 1945 to 1960, while my doctoral dissertation explored the connections between contemporary Belgian far-right parties and fascist parties before World War II—both were obscure topics.
Gingrich never intended to settle down as an academic historian. Since he was young, he aspired to be a politician and got involved in local political activities early on. Even after joining the university, his main focus remained on running for office.
In 1974 and 1976, Gingrich ran twice as the Republican candidate for Congress in Georgia's 6th district. Suffering from the general decline of the Republican Party following the Watergate scandal, he narrowly lost both times to Democratic veteran congressman Jack Flynt. Although he failed twice, Gingrich had already demonstrated his strength as a political newcomer. Thus, he did not become discouraged by failure and always managed to find enough support. Finally, in 1978 when Jack Flynt retired, Gingrich successfully won the seat in Congress, embarking on his career in Congress.
In his younger years, Gingrich's ideas were actually more liberal-leaning. He supported civil rights movements and environmental protection, and had many futuristic aspirations, somewhat resembling the current Democrats.
Of course, during that era, the ideological differences between the Democrats and Republicans were not as pronounced as they are today. The Republicans also had their fair share of liberals, and the Democrats had their conservative factions.
However, as a politician, Gingrich keenly sensed the changes in the political climate. After years of chaos, people harbored severe dissatisfaction with corrupt elites and yearned to return to conservative values. This combination of a destructive impulse to overthrow the establishment and a constructive mindset to restore tradition and order formed the current tide of radical conservatism.
Thus, attacking the "corrupt liberal welfare state" became Gingrich's key to winning seats in Congress. Even though Gingrich himself was never devout or particularly traditional in morality, he knew how to leverage conservative sentiment. Like any ordinary person, his thoughts contained certain elements of conservatism.
In 1978, during a speech to a group of college Republicans in Atlanta, Gingrich delivered an interesting talk that provided a fascinating analysis of the American political scene at the time and outlined his political blueprint.
In 1978, Gingrich harbored considerable grievances against the Republican establishment. In his view, Nixon and Ford were burdensome to the national Republican Party and were responsible for his two electoral defeats, while the Republican establishment's lack of political strategy also deserved blame.
So, in 1978, Gingrich told those college students:
"The greatest weakness of our party now is that we recruit middle-class individuals. As a group, the middle class has been taught not to shout at the table, to be polite and friendly, and to respect others—usually meaning giving way to others. If you want to go to the beach and they want to go to the movies, then you should go to the movies, otherwise they'll get angry. So what do you do? We ended up with Watergate because we didn't want to offend Nixon. We allowed Ford to do some incredibly foolish things... Our party does not need another generation of mild, half-hearted leaders who are benevolent, frugal, and humble; we need tough, hardworking, dynamic individuals who are willing to take risks and stand up to political opponents..."
To those familiar with contemporary American politics, Gingrich's disdain for compromise and call for confrontation was nothing new. Both parties now practice such concepts.
By the way, Gingrich actually quoted Chairman Mao Zedong's phrase several times: "War is politics with blood; politics is war without blood."
After winning a seat in Congress in 1978, Gingrich brought his confrontational philosophy to Congress and gathered a group of young followers. However, for a long time, Gingrich remained a minority within his party. Most senior Republicans still felt it unnecessary to be so extreme. After all, they would meet again in the future, so why provoke a rift with the Democrats?
In a 1985 Washington Post report, they described Gingrich this way:
"Newt Gingrich may be the most disliked member of Congress. Many interviewees expressed discomfort when talking about Gingrich and refused to associate with him. Many of his Republican colleagues insisted that he was unimportant, insignificant, and naive. Gingrich is a noisy and sharp-tongued Republican. When he enraged the Speaker of the House one spring day in 1984, causing the Speaker to curse him as 'the lowest thing I've seen in thirty-two years in the House,' he made a name for himself."
What was it that Speaker Tip O'Neill hadn't seen in thirty-two years in the House? It was Gingrich's accusation of Democratic members of Congress for being "communist sympathizers" in 1984.
Just that? Yes, just that.
Given the current prevalence of "Russia collusion" and "China collusion" accusations, these words may seem harmless today. But back in 1984, many members of Congress had never witnessed such tactics. It wasn't that previous congressmen hadn't exchanged harsh words, but quantity turned into quality. Gingrich's systematic and comprehensive methods of attacking political opponents indeed escalated congressional conflicts to a new level.
Through the emerging C-SPAN television broadcasts, Gingrich found a new stage for his political performances. Not only did he use his linguistic skills to attack political opponents during live broadcasts of congressional debates, but he also utilized a Congressional session called "Special Order" to promote himself.
The so-called "Special Order" is a session after the day's agenda where members of Congress can freely deliver speeches. Since Congress has finished its business by then, usually no one is present, allowing Gingrich to speak freely and attack Democrats without being rebutted.
On television, viewers would see Gingrich speaking eloquently, while the non-existent Democrats were portrayed as speechless.
Sometimes, the Speaker of the House would instruct the camera to focus on empty seats.
For instance, during Gingrich's Special Order speech on January 30, 1986, you might see him delivering a lengthy discourse in front of the camera, as if he controlled the entire House:
But the next second, the camera turns, and you see Gingrich hilariously talking to thin air:
Even so, Gingrich still gained an audience. Those listeners were not in the halls of Congress but in millions of American households watching TV.
In a speech in 1984, Gingrich explained his strategy to conservative activists this way:
"The primary fact about the news media is that they love conflict. For months, I have been conducting systematic hour-long speeches. Did CBS come to record my speech? No. But once Tip O'Neill attacked me, my and his presence on the three major news media earned us 90 seconds of exposure. You need to give them conflict; with conflict, they will pay attention. And when you gain attention, you can educate them."
Focus on traffic, black-and-white publicity is still publicity—there is no fundamental difference between politics and fandom.
Gingrich's breakout battle came in 1989 when he forced the resignation of newly elected House Speaker, Democrat Jim Wright. Gingrich's method was very simple: he started from moral issues, collected dirt on Wright through every possible means, and then continuously attacked him with this dirt in all occasions, especially in the media. And since Wright was strong-willed and didn't get along well with the Republicans, Republican members fully supported Gingrich's campaign to weaken Wright's political reputation.
Finally, in 1988, Wright faced an ethics committee investigation, with his political life hanging by a thread. In 1989, Wright eventually resigned and left the House of Representatives, becoming the first Speaker in American history to resign.
Regardless of the time or now, the dirt Gingrich dug up seemed trivial. Wright's extra political contributions through book sales were unethical but not illegal. Everyone has done it, including Gingrich himself. But once these things were repeatedly packaged by Gingrich, Wright was labeled as the "most corrupt member of Congress," ending his political career.
And after ousting Wright, Gingrich successfully proved himself among congressional Republicans and naturally became the Minority Whip in 1989.
Not only did Gingrich gain the Republicans' recognition for his confrontational political strategies, but he also trained and transformed the next generations of Republicans.
In 1988, Gingrich took over a local Republican fundraising organization called GOPAC, transforming it into a political action committee providing education and political blueprints for Republicans. GOPAC provided a wealth of learning materials, especially tapes and brochures, educating Republicans on how to apply Gingrich's political philosophies and debating techniques to challenge Democrats in elections. GOPAC recruited and trained numerous Republicans, developing many political strategies applied in campaigns, which Gingrich called the "Bell Labs of Politics."
One famous GOPAC brochure looked like this:
This four-page brochure emphasized the importance of language, providing a cheat sheet for aspiring Republicans hoping to emulate Gingrich's eloquence. It listed "Optimistic Positive Governing Words" for self-praise and "Contrasting Words" for attacking opponents.
Of course, from today's perspective, these positive and negative terms seem simplistic compared to Trump's vivid daily speeches. But from this brochure, we can see that language in the American political arena was relatively straightforward back then. Calling someone "sick," "decayed," "pathetic," or even a "traitor" required a special booklet to teach you, and this booklet was quite popular.
Of course, some of the negative words in this brochure, while not necessarily direct insults, carried implicit negativity in American politics, such as "welfare," "liberal," "taxes," "spending," "criminal rights," and "status quo"... Gingrich knew what words resonated with voters and what words they didn't.
In the lead-up to the midterm elections in 1994, Gingrich devised a revolutionary campaign strategy. On one hand, he adopted confrontational tactics in Congress to obstruct the Democratic administration, thereby making the public blame the Democrats. On the other hand, he introduced the "Contract With America," a political platform tailored specifically for American voters at the time, transforming congressional elections focused on local issues into national issue-based elections for the public.
Under Gingrich's leadership, the Republicans won the midterm elections in 1994, breaking the Democrats' forty-year monopoly in Congress, achieving what became known as the "Gingrich Revolution." Gingrich also ascended to become the Speaker of the House, reaching the pinnacle of his political career.
Why did Gingrich's "Contract With America" succeed? Because he studied the issues Americans cared about most—from family to finance to employment to crime... The concerns of Americans back then and the concerns of Americans today are not much different. Or, in other words, the problems back then remain unresolved today. The promises Gingrich made to the American people were, like any politician's promises, reduced to waste paper after the election.
However, Gingrich's political career was soon on the decline. His confrontational strategy worked when he was in the minority, but when he became the majority in Congress, it seemed less effective.
During the Clinton era, the United States began to truly reap the benefits of the Cold War victory, a rare period of economic prosperity and social stability. At this time, the public had considerable support for the Clinton administration. Nevertheless, Gingrich still intended to replicate his old tactics, obstructing the Democratic administration and even attempting to impeach the president, inevitably leading to setbacks. Moreover, when Gingrich was in the spotlight, the same tactics used against others could now be used against him.
Gingrich once accused Wright of unethical behavior regarding political contributions, but in 1997, Gingrich himself faced condemnation and fines from the House due to political contribution issues. In 1998, when Gingrich attempted to impeach Clinton over his extramarital affair, it was later revealed that Gingrich himself had an extramarital affair with a congressional aide.
Following the failure of the impeachment attempt in 1998 and the Democratic Party's overwhelming victory in the midterm elections, Gingrich, like Wright, resigned in disgrace, ending his days in Congress.
However, although Gingrich is no longer in Congress, his influence remains. The generation of Republican politicians he trained all learned to speak like him and attack political opponents in the same manner. Even the Democratic politicians he opposed learned the strategies of political struggle—this is why many Americans attribute political polarization to him.
However, political polarization was the cause rather than the result of Gingrich's rise. He was merely a politician. He lacked the ability to stir up American society but could only capture and exploit existing polarization.
As I wrote in other articles, the 1970s was an era of significant political, social, and economic changes in the United States. With the rise of the civil rights movement, the two major parties began to reorganize around race and ideology since the 1960s. The Democrats gradually became the party of liberals and minorities, while the Republicans became the party of conservatives and whites. The ideological gap between the two parties widened. Behind this were the gradual diversification of the U.S. population and the gradual hollowing out of the economy. These changes ultimately led to the decline of the white working class and the division in the public's definition of American identity, resulting in the ongoing political polarization.
Thus, we see that although Gingrich has left, the Tea Party has taken over, becoming even more extreme and skilled at using conspiracy theories to attack opponents. After the Tea Party, we now see the "MAGA" movement, which can be considered an upgraded version of its predecessors.
During this process, Gingrich hasn't been idle either. Although he failed in his 2012 presidential bid, he has maintained some influence within the Republican Party. In Trump's 2016 campaign, Gingrich provided substantial advice and assistance. In return, Trump appointed Gingrich's third wife, the congressional aide involved in the extramarital affair, as the Vatican ambassador after his victory. Although appointing someone who committed adultery to serve as an ambassador to the Vatican caused controversy at the time, the Vatican eventually accepted the arrangement.
Gingrich and Trump's partnership continues to this day. So, after Trump's victory in 2024, he arranged for Gingrich's wife to become the Swiss ambassador.
Looking back at Gingrich's political career, you can see that he indeed has his own understanding of American society and politics. Even though he lacks firm political beliefs and moral principles, he knows how to win. Personally, I feel that Gingrich doesn't really believe in many of the conspiracy theories supported by conservatives, yet he stands by them. Therefore, he differs from Trump, who genuinely believes in certain things and acts accordingly, whereas Gingrich can act without believing in anything.
Although Gingrich's ideology is highly utilitarian and pragmatic, he aligned himself with the conservatives because he harbors a personal sense of crisis regarding the continuation of civilization.
Why did Gingrich want to enter politics? In interviews after becoming a congressman, he often mentioned that he visited Verdun with his stepfather as a child and saw the tragic consequences of war. Only by entering politics could he save the country...
However, according to Gingrich's friends from his youth, he apparently never mentioned this incident before. It's unclear whether Gingrich's motivation for politics truly stemmed from Verdun or if he later found the story useful and repeated it frequently.
Nevertheless, Gingrich is indeed a person who likes to preach apocalyptic views. While in politics, he constantly tells voters how the nation will be destroyed by the corrupt establishment (mostly Democrats), and only people like him can save the nation and civilization.
For instance, in an interview in 1994, he said:
"People like me are the ones preventing us from heading towards Auschwitz. I see evil growing every day. We're about to lose civilization. If we continue like this for another twenty years, we're going to have big trouble... I don't want my country to collapse, I don't want my daughter and wife to be raped and killed, I don't want my neighbors to be destroyed..."
You can sense many of the narrative styles that Trump likes to adopt in these words. Sometimes it's hard to tell if they genuinely believe this or if it's because their audience wants to hear it, aiming to stimulate voters' awareness of crisis. However, I think they genuinely believe some of these alarmist statements. Especially Gingrich, given his background as a historian, if you read enough history, you realize that the stability and peace of human society are only temporary moments in history. That's why you might harbor similar anxieties.
And look at today's America; Gingrich's words in 1994 weren't entirely alarmist. Rome was destined to decline, and Gingrich, familiar with history, saw signs of Rome's decline back then. But were these signs all caused by the Democrats, liberals, immigrants, Muslims, or Iran, Cuba, and North Korea that Gingrich liked to attack? Or did Gingrich himself contribute slightly to the decline of his own country?
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