http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/08/03/gingrich-russia-nato-trump-novel-eu-cold-war-republican-contract-nafta-column/87912876/Gingrich plays Neville Chamberlain to please Trump: Jonah GoldbergJonah Goldberg
August 3, 2016
This is the time of year for beach reading. So imagine you picked up a spy thriller by Newt Gingrich. You may not know it, but the former speaker of the House has written or co-written a whole bookshelf of novels. He’s even got a new one coming out this fall called Treason.
Anyway, here’s some hypothetical jacket copy of a Gingrichery roman à clef about post-Cold War intrigue. The Russians, ruled by a brutal ex-KGB operative turned nationalist demagogue, want the old empire of the Soviets and the czars back. Given Russia’s problems, that’s impossible without first unraveling NATO and gutting Western resolve.
The key to their plan: a sinister American political operative who spent time advising the former president of Ukraine, a loyal vassal of Moscow. This would-be Rasputin has the ear of an eccentric and mercurial American celebrity billionaire who has managed to wrest control of one of America’s political parties. The tycoon routinely says things that are music to the Russians’ ears. He says NATO is outdated, that some of our allies are probably not worth defending, that the European Union is our adversary, and the Russians should probably get to keep the territories they’ve already stolen. He insists the Russian dictator is a great leader, largely because the dictator had allegedly complimented the billionaire once.
Unsure whether the American real-estate baron is a buffoon or a kind of genius, the Russian ruler nonetheless is certain the somewhat-golden-haired American demagogue represents an even more golden opportunity. From inside the Kremlin, he orders his propagandists to start touting the tycoon as a mixture of Henry Ford and Joseph Stalin on the internet and on its agitprop English-language cable network. He uses cut-outs and middle-men to order the hacking of his useful idiot’s opponents.
Meanwhile, the Russians press their long-term strategic goals in Europe and the Middle East, knowing that the American media will be too distracted by the endless stream of controversies launched by the American tycoon.
Is the billionaire a genius or a kind of savant? For now the Russians can’t tell, but they do know he’s great for business — their business.
That kind of “ripped from the headlines” tale might make for a good read. There’s only one problem. It’s the kind of story that needs a hero. And right now there are no real-life heroes to be ripped from the headlines, starting with Gingrich himself.
The former speaker of the House is now a major surrogate for Donald Trump and, reportedly, one of the few grown-ups charged with explaining conservative policy to Trump and explaining Trump to conservatives. (Full disclosure: I’ve had my criticisms of Gingrich, but I’ve always generally been a fan. Also, my wife worked for him for a few years).
Gingrich has always had a bit of a Churchill fixation, so it’s particularly sad that he’s all-too happy to play Neville Chamberlain if Mr. Trump requires it. Gingrich became a historic figure by wresting control of Congress in 1994 with the Contract with America. It was that document that made expanding NATO a cornerstone of Republican and American foreign policy. Now, like another of his historic accomplishments, passing NAFTA, Gingrich is throwing it all on the garbage fire to make room for Trump’s agenda.
Gingrich recently told CBS News that our NATO ally, Estonia, is probably not worth defending. “I’m not sure I would risk a nuclear war over some place which is the suburbs of St. Petersburg.”
Before Trump’s rise, Gingrich was calling for greater Western resolve in the face of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. “After America’s weakness there in the last few weeks,” Gingrich wrote in a 2014 Newsletter, “we’ll just have to hope Putin doesn’t set his sights on a country like Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia — NATO members that we have an absolute binding obligation to protect with military force.”
Now Gingrich just doesn’t care if Putin sets his sights on our NATO allies. As for Ukraine, as of this weekend, Trump didn’t know — or wouldn’t say — that the Russians were even in Ukraine at all. The Trump campaign meddled with the platform writing at the Republican convention only once: To saw off a plank supporting the sort of military aid for the Ukrainians that Gingrich once advocated.
Gingrich could still write the novel, but it would be more of a tragic comedy than a thriller.
