Trump and the American Future, by Newt Gingrich

The more I hear from Newt Gingrich, the more I appreciate him.  Like me, you may vaguely recall that he actually ran for president in 2012, losing in the primaries to the empty suit Mitt Romney.  Romney's incompetent campaign closed the gap a little, losing to Obama by less than McCain had lost in 2012, but one can't help but wonder if Gingrich, with his political smarts and policy chops could have fared better.  Post-2012, Gingrich has remained very active in the political world as a consultant, media and podcast commentator, and writer.  Since Trump was elected, he has written or co-written four policy books as well as a couple of novels.  His latest, Trump and the American Future: Solving the Great Problems of Our Time, should serve as a policy guide for 2020 and beyond. 

I don't know how large a role Gingrich has in the Trump administration.  I suspect it's larger than we know, as he has no official title, but it's probably not as large as it should be.  Trump and the American Future does, to a certain extent, discuss Trump's positions on a wide variety of issues.  But what Gingrich is really doing is laying out what Trump's positions should be.  Looking toward the 2020 election and beyond, Gingrich has policy recommendations that Trump would be wise to implement.  If you know Gingrich at all, you won't be surprised to her that the book is wonky--really wonky.  He gets into a lot of technical details on economy, health care (probably 1/4 of the book is on health care and related topics), the environment, foreign policy, and crime.  He's a smart guy (PhD) but there's no question he made extensive use of his co-author and a team of researchers to come up with some quality analysis and workable proposals.

By the way, it's really impressive how timely and relevant the book is, given the fact that it was submitted for publication in March, when Covid 19 had just hit our shores.  Gingrich may have been a tad optimistic about the implications of the virus, but for the most part his early analysis and evaluations are spot-on.

Gingrich is the conservative's conservative.  His support of Trump has perhaps pushed the limits on that, as President Trump himself has not always read from the conservative playbook.  But to the extent that Trump does listen to Gingrich, I'd say more power to you, Newt!  As he says to start the book, 2020 is vital.  We need more solutions like Newt's, not Biden's left-wing puppet masters.