Gingrich and Cuccinelli At Heritage Foundation

At Heritage's President’s Club, Gingrich Calls for New Conservative Revolution

The keynote speaker at Heritage's annual President’s Club dinner in Washington on Dec. 9 and 10, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, did not disappoint.

Gingrich outlined his plan for a new conservative revolution, suggesting 2021 as a date by which America will be re-oriented towards conservative principles. And, the former Georgia Congressman added, “there is no better place than The Heritage Foundation to create a new outline of the conservative movement.”

Speaking to the unique nature of power, Gingrich explored the differences between how liberals and conservatives view the source of power. In the conservative view—the view of the Founders, the view that makes America exceptional—”power comes from God to each one of you personally. You loan power to the state. The state never loans power to you.”

Gingrich explained a plan to teach American exceptionalism to future generations. He demanded that “every student in a school: elementary, high school, and college, if funded by tax dollars, should encounter the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Addressing the controversy over TSA screenings, Gingrich said what should be obvious: “We have to tell the truth about who is trying to kill us and act on that truth… Checking out an 83-year-old nun from Des Moines is not national security. It’s stupidity.”

To watch Gingrich's full remarks, go to myHeritage.org.

Read more coverage of this year's President's Club meeting, including speeches by Sen. Jim DeMint, Erick Erickson, Heritage President Ed Feulner, and more.


Cuccinelli Calls for 'Federalism in Action' at President’s Club

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made a rousing case for “federalism in action” and for reading the Constitution as it was written during an address last week to The Heritage Foundation’s annual President’s Club meeting in Washington.

Cuccinelli, who has led the legal charge against Obamacare, said it’s encouraging that states are starting to check federal power–”and that’s exactly what the Founders intended.”

Cuccinelli's legal case against Obamacare, stating that the individual mandate is in violation of the Commerce clause of the Constitution, was recently upheld by a federal judge.

“This is supposed to be a government of limited, enumerated powers,” he said. “It would no longer be such if we lose this case” and overreaches of federal power like individual mandate are allowed to stand.

“The health care fight is not about health care,” he added. “It is about liberty.”

But Obamacare is hardly the only threat to constitutional government and liberty, Cuccinelli argued. Government agencies like the EPA and NLRB are “smothering liberty” with their regulations that micromanage Americans’ lives and overstep the federal government’s authority.

Defeating these assaults on liberty will require conservatives to return again and again to America’s first principles. Cuccinelli cited the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which held "that no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."

To ensure these principles endure, he argued that conservatives must educate the American people about why the Founders’ principles matter. And, he said, “Heritage is a key player in this.”

“We can fight back,” he concluded. “We can win this battle.”