Collegiate Times

With nearly a year and a half to go until the 2012 presidential election, the race for the Republican nomination is already in hot pursuit.

Though President Obama pre-maturely announced his intent for a re-election campaign in order to begin his acquisition of finances, the GOP candidates have been trickling into the race intermittently.

With the announcements of Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty, however, the race is beginning to acquire more fuel.

Reflecting upon this list of names and the ones that are expected to be added to it in the coming months, it is difficult not to be struck by the undeniable impression of complete and absolute absurdity.

The path toward presidential nomination is always a comical process in which ridiculous candidates are slowly weeded out until the supposed most serious one is finally coronated on the convention floor.

But this year’s primary race for the GOP is surprisingly amusing. With the rise of the vehement anti-Obama sentiment sweeping the country, all of the worst elements the Republican Party has to offer are now being considered as at least somewhat serious forces. There are no better examples of this than Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.

Political candidates are known by few other attributes than their consistent hypocrisy and moral immaturity, but no other recent candidate has so proudly and overtly shown themselves as such than New Gingrich.

There is, of course, the rather comical point that he was having an affair with his second wife while he was championing the impeachment of Bill Clinton for taking part in immorally sexual behavior. But this is something I feel should not be stressed. What is far more alarming is the blatant and arrogant hypocrisy and obscene connotations his remarks entail.

For instance, he has famously called President Obama the “food stamp president” while he himself disregards the fact that he supported the expansion of food stamps in 2002.

This may be an absurd yet hilarious contradiction in views, but going beyond this is his support of protecting the civil liberties and constitutional rights of Americans, while allowing for the suspension of both in cases of terrorism.

Interestingly enough is his view of terrorism which seems to only apply when dealing with Islamic extremists.

Case in point, following the horrifying attacks at Columbine High School, Gingrich stated that he blamed these attacks on the ‘liberal elite’ for not allowing discussion of God and religion in the public sphere.

I am still unable to understand how he personally connects these issues, but I have come to the conclusion that he simply does not given the evidence of his remarkably perverted mode of thinking when he reiterated the same point with regards to the attacks at Virginia Tech.

But of course there is on top of all of this the basic fact that Gingrich is a proven failure in his endeavors. 

Not only the failings of two marriages due to his moral immaturity but also his failure to reach a budget compromise with President Clinton leading to a government shutdown as well as his failure to complete his ‘Contract with America’ leading to his resignation as House Speaker under possible criminal charges.

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A version of this article appeared in the May 26 issue of the Collegiate Times.