Conservatives Without Conscience

Congressional conservatives first displayed their authoritarian colors when they reorganized the U.S. House of Representatives in 1995 to make it a monocratic operation. The House is being “run like a plantation,” Senator Hillary Clinton recently observed, explaining that “nobody with a contrary point of view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument.”[1] Authoritarians, under the leadership of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, have successfully concluded a conservative revolution on the House side of Capitol Hill. With the possible exception of the hosts of right-wing talk radio, it is difficult to think of anyone who has done more to poison national politics—as part of that process—than Gingrich and DeLay. Both men are textbook examples of authoritarians, and their behavior and its consequences represent conservative authoritarianism at its most ruthlessly efficient. While Gingrich and DeLay are gone, the house they built remains.

Gingrich’s Authoritarian House

Newt Gingrich’s life story is well known. After earning his doctorate in modern European history from Tulane University, Gingrich—who had grown up on military bases around the world as the adopted son of a career soldier—began an undistinguished career teaching history and environmental studies at West Georgia College. His years as an academic were interrupted by unsuccessful bids for Congress in 1974 and 1976. His first wife, Jackie, raised their two daughters while putting her husband through graduate school. During his third run for Congress in 1978, Jackie traveled hundreds of miles campaigning for Gingrich; at his request, when it became an issue during the campaign, she announced that, unlike her husband’s opponent, they would keep their family together if he won by moving to Washington rather than staying behind in Georgia. Members of Gingrich’s staff knew what Jackie did not, and were betting one another on how long the marriage would last. Eighteen months after winning his seat in Congress, the man who had campaigned on keeping his family united asked for a divorce. Jackie, who was in the hospital recovering from a second cancer operation, was confronted by her husband carrying a yellow legal pad filled with a list of his wishes regarding how the divorce should be handled. He wanted her to sign it, then and there, even though she was still groggy from surgery. When Gingrich abandoned his family he left them near destitute, and it was Jackie’s friends at her church who raised money to help her and her daughters survive.

Gingrich arrived in Washington just as Phyllis Schlafly’s STOP ERA fight was revealing the power of social conservatives, for she had all but defeated the proposed amendment by this time. Paul Weyrich was simultaneously organizing Christian conservatives through the Moral Majority, and anyone as politically astute as Gingrich recognized the potential of the Christian right. In 1974 Republicans had experienced a post-Watergate wipeout in the Congressional elections, and in 1976 Carter’s victory had cost Gingrich his race. But by 1978 Republicans were starting to regain some strength in Congress with the help of Schlafly’s volunteers, who assisted in countless congressional contests. Abortion proved a successful wedge issue in 1978, separating liberal Democrats from conservative Democrats in the same way the issue of “family values” had in Gingrich’s own election. In addition, conservatives had figured out how to get around post-Watergate election reform laws by establishing political action committees (PACs). By the time Gingrich arrived in the House, Republicans had gained thirty-three seats, narrowing the margin to 292 Democrats versus 277 Republicans. Gingrich, a person who sees himself as a visionary with endless ideas, began thinking about how Republicans could win control of the House, and how he could make his own mark on history. David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf write that “during his freshman term in Congress, Gingrich had pestered the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) brass into letting him run their long-range planning committee.” Once given the job he “visited the NRCC offices day and night, proposing one grand idea after another…filing cabinets loaded down with ‘Newt’s Ideas.’ One lonely cabinet in the corner was labeled ‘Newt’s Good Ideas.’”[2]