Zelizer says a lot of today’s partisan politics can be directly drawn from what Gingrich did back in the ‘80s. “He thought a lot about confrontation and saying things that were explosive,” Zelizer says, “because he believed that the more confrontational, the more outlandish you were, the more the media would cover you and the more the media would replicate what you said about your opponent - whether it was true or not true.” Gringrich was able to use rhetorical words to make his point, capture the attention of the media and make it stick with the American people. “They didn't really see how far Gingrich was willing to go,” he explains. To do so, the Georgia congressman “used all the language that he could imagine for his partisan arsenal” in order to bring down the Democratic establishment, Zelizer says.ĭemocrats were caught off guard by Gingrich’s attacks, he says. He was determined to regain power from the Democrats in both the House and the Senate. When Gingrich was elected to the House of Representatives in 1978, he became a part of the new generation of Republicans staunchly committed to the party, Zelizer says.
Historian Julian Zelizer makes that case in his new book, "Burning Down The House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall Of A Speaker, And The Rise Of The New Republican Party,” which chronicles Gingrich's rise as a young and unknown congressman who utilized cable television to shape the Republican Party in ways still seen today. The hyperbolic descriptions President Trump has used to describe his political opponents - “the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists” - come straight out of the playbook of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
(Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty Images) This article is more than 2 years old. Newt Gingrich, former US Speaker of the House.
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