Bizarre, International, Politics

Gingrich Pledges To Kill Enemies Of The United States

I have previously questioned the historical and legal views of Newt Gingrich. However, we may agree on one recent historical claim: that Andrew Jackson tended to address enemies by killing them. As shown in the video below, Gingrich embraced this approach as a campaign pledge — eclipsing prior campaign pledges in the primary to bomb countries or torture detainees.


Gingrich thrilled the crowd by proclaiming that Jackson “had a pretty clear-cut idea about America’s enemies: Kill them.”

Putting aside a tendency to shoot enemies in duels, Jackson was infamous for his treatment of Native Americans. This included the disgraceful treatment of the Cherokee nation where they were forced to walk from lands east of the Mississippi River to present-day Oklahoma. The “Trail of Tears” led to the death of thousands of men, women, and children — an act that bears striking resemblance to acts of alleged genocide. Jackson was unwilling to live by a ruling of the Supreme Court in 1832 in favor of the Cherokee (Worcester v. Georgia). Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, making the removal laws invalid. Jackson nevertheless pushed the tribe from its land through federal agents — the very type of disregard for Supreme Court authority that Gingrich previously embraced. For Native Americans, this is akin to citing the man behind the Bataan Death March as a model for leadership. Jackson also imposed military rule — and authoritarian measures — before the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson was a remarkable man in many respects but he is also responsible for outrageous acts, particularly against Native American tribes.

Gingrich avoided the specific question raised over his willingness to violate international law and national borders to kill enemies. However, he proudly associated himself with the right of presidents to kill people who they deem to be enemies of the United States — a position not too far removed from the policy of President Obama. While Obama insists that he will only kill U.S. citizens and others based on his view that they are terrorists, his Administration has carried out a broader use of drone attacks than any prior president. Moreover, both Gingrich and Obama base their policies on the same unlimited notions of presidential power.

With presidential candidates pledging to kill enemies, torture detainees, and bomb countries, our political system appears to be de-evolving into a type of paleolithic politics.

57 thoughts on “Gingrich Pledges To Kill Enemies Of The United States”

  1. Newt appeals to ‘teh crazy’ in all races and creeds:

    The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the super-conservative African American Republican who has campaigned vigorously against Kwanzaa (“The Racist Holiday From Hell” he has called it), the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. and President Barack Obama, said he has a simple solution to black America’s employment woes: hard labor.

    “One of the things that I would do is take all black people back to the South and put them on the plantation so they would understand the ethic of working,” Peterson told The Huffington Post’s Black Voices on Tuesday afternoon. “I’m going to put them all on the plantation. They need a good hard education on what it is to work.”

    Peterson made the remarks after he was asked to comment on Monday night’s sparring between moderator Juan Williams and Newt Gingrich, during the Republican presidential debate after Williams asked Gingrich whether he thought his recent statements suggesting a lack of work ethic among poor black kids could be viewed as insulting.

    “People don’t want to hear the truth,” said Peterson, the founder of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, or BOND. “Newt was 100 percent correct,” Peterson said. “Newt said that he would have black children, minority children work as janitors at school. Working as a janitor would build character, more so than the handouts so many of them like.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/rev-jesse-lee-peterson-agrees-with-gingrich_n_1211651.html

  3. Way back in 2000, I was listening to Rush as i drove to the local Comm. college to teach a class. The lovely Rush referred to Al Gore as the enemy. I told my class about this and asked them to define enemy. “Anyone who does not agree with you,” seemed to be the popular answer of these 20 somethings. What it the Newter’s definition?

  10. He is not backed by all conservatives:

    By 1990, the value of the weapons, equipment, and factories devoted to the military was 83% of the value of all plants and equipment in American Manufacturing … the US military is now spending over $1 trillion per year … which is more than the entire rest of the world combined … Devotion to military Keynesianism is, in fact, a form of slow economic suicide …

    (Chalmers Johnson). Mr. Johnson was a staunch republican conservative which Newt also claims to be.

  11. Never been a Gingrich fan or a Jackson fan, punk works perfectly for Newt and hits the mark for Jackson too IMO. Raf got a twofer!

  13. Scary punk indeed. Giving this arrogant (insert expletive of choice) the powers of the President of the USA (especially after the recent expansion of said powers in violation of our constitution) is crazy, and downright disturbing. Of course the only one who doesn’t scare me that way is Ron Paul, or Gary Johnson.

    All the others make you really happy not to fit some profile that makes you much more likely to come into their crosshairs, or justifiably scared if you do.

  14. Glad I wasn’t the only one who found him comparing himself to my least favorite of our presidents, Andrew Jackson, disturbing at best. Many don’t realize, but he’s on our $20 bill as a slight to him, as he was against the printing of any bills $20 and up. GIven that it’s more economical to print $1 coins than bills due to their longevity, and that the half cent was eliminated at a time when it was worth about as much as our dime, I think its some of the smaller values that should be eliminated now (and Lincoln is still on the $5 bill in case you’re worried about not seeing him on the penny. Though It’d be nice not to have to suffer still seeing so much of Gingrich in 2012.)

  15. I love your tag line…..Now would that also include the enemy within? The killings would be endless…..

  16. The Raffaw comment : scary punk of a politition. Right On! He is a punk. When he pledged to get the Capital Police and U.S. Marshals to arrest the judges from the Ninth Circuit he became a criminal. Google The Judges Trial at Nuremberg in 1947 where the United States prosecuted Germans for just this sort of action.

  18. So the net of this diatribe is that Cheeeeney wrote Newt a note to read in all his appearances and he’s doing it….. Doesn’t sound any different than what Newt would hear if Lizy were whispering in his ear in the mornings?? Maybe She IS ??? HHuummm…. New rumor, heard hear first… Newt and Lizbo Cheeeeney are an item??? Wouldn’t be inconsistent with the past.

  19. Gingrich is one scary punk of a politician. He will stop at nothing to try to get where he is going and will take money from anyone and serve their wishes. If he is a fan of the guy who gave us the Trail of Tears, then maybe he should be forced to walk that trail without the ability to stop at Tiffanys.

  20. Paleolithic politics would be preferable. In the Old Stone Age, one couldn’t kill anyone more than a stone’s throw away.

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