Gingrich and Huckabee

So I'm pretty content at the moment. I've done nothing but sleep, watch movies and read books for the past five days. Spring break is awesome. But, while flipping through the channels, I caught a lot of fragmented conversations about Newt Gingrich as a 2012 GOP candidate and Mike Huckabee sounding off about Natalie Portman's pregnancy.

edit 3/ 15: According to Rachel Maddow (video at the bottom of the page), Gingrich probably isn't even running, he just wants to make it appear as though he's running to get money.

Gingrich has said he's running for president in 2012. He's is one of those people that believes in a very narrow definition of patriotism, and he throws the word around a lot. The following quote, from http://www.ontheissues.org/newt_gingrich.htm, infuriates me:

Replace multiculturalism with patriotic education. (Dec 2006):

In the classroom, the very concept of America is under assault. The traditional notion of our country as a union of one people, the American people, has been assaulted by multiculturalism, situational ethics, and a values-neutral model in which Western values and American history are ignored or ridiculed. Unless we act to reverse this trend, our next generation will grow up with no understanding of core American values. This will destroy America as we know it, as surely as if a foreign conqueror had overwhelmed us.

It is absolutely necessary to establish a firm foundation of patriotic education upon which further knowledge can be built; otherwise, Americans will lack understanding of American values & how important & great it is to be an American.

It is important to understand what makes America so unique and why generations of diverse people immigrated to this great land for freedom and opportunity. If Americans do not appreciate America, then how can they be ready and willing to defend her?

Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.133-134 Dec 31, 2006

I don't understand why being worldly and learning about many different cultures and beliefs is frowned upon in this country. How can we know ourselves if we don't know anyone else? Why do you think Americans are told to pretend to be Canadians while abroad? Because we don't care to know about the rest of the world, but we expect everyone to look at us and tell us we've done right.

Ugh...

People like Newt throw around this expression of "American values," but I just don't understand what is meant by it. Other than a notion of individualism, I'm really not sure what else could be considered an American value. We profess to be humanitarians, to be morally responsible, the land of plenty, etc. but we are forever doing things to negate these.

Gingrich wants to eliminate the EPA, he's against gay marriage and he's anti-abortion. Oh, and also, Gingrich was the one who helped to impeach Clinton based on his sex scandal, while Gingrich himself was cheating on his wife. Awesome. I totally want this maniac running my country.

Here's one of his more famous speeches:



yuck. I think he has some intelligent moments, but he reeks of that narrow-minded republican conservative dogma.




Now onto Huckabee. He spoke out against Natalie Portman for being pregnant but not married, saying that she's a poor role model for young girls. This same guy praised Bristol Palin while she was pregnant, saying he was happy that her family is supporting her.

Why Portman? I'm not sure but I think that the fact that she campaigned for Obama has something to do with it.

I don't know enough about Portman to say whether she could be a role model for young girls. I just know I loved her in V for Vendetta, The Other Boleyn Girl, Garden State and her SNL video (<- lots of bleeped-out swearing. but it's funny and you should watch it if you haven't). She's a great actress, an activist, and she seems like a pretty cool person. I really liked this video of her from Time:




So why is Huckabee picking on her? He doesn't like that she's supposedly glamorizing single motherhood. Yeah, it's true that most single mothers aren't going to be making millions of dollars like Natalie. Duh. We know this. I think it's ridiculous for Huckabee to pick on Natalie. And it already looks like most of America is on her side.




Also, I'm excited to be leaving for Washington D.C. on Friday for the Feminist Leadership Conference!!


Edit 3/15: lol @ Newt Gingrich even more. Here's the episode of Maddow that I mentioned in the beginning of this post:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy