You're a Mean One, Mr. Gingrich: The Inbuilt, Ruinous Incivility of Newt

In: American behavioral scientist: ABS, Band 57, Heft 1, S. 46-69

Abstract

Newt Gingrich's unexpected and fleeting political resurgence in late 2011 and early 2012 provides a perfect opportunity to take stock of Gingrich's role in bringing about the current dysfunction in American politics. This article focuses on five aspects of Gingrich's approach to politics that have contributed significantly to the ongoing crisis of confidence in U.S. political institutions and the dearth of civility in American political life: (a) treating people as a means to an end, (b) attacking the character of opponents, (c) investigating opponents as a political ploy, (d) holding others to higher standards of behavior, and (e) divorcing the cultivation of extremism to obtain power from the preconditions for governing.