Suprise Post on mikehuckabee.com from Newt Gingrich

How You Can Help Achieve “Real Change”

I’d like to thank Governor Huckabee for having me here as a guest today. Over the past few months I’ve been very impressed with the Governor’s openness to new ideas and solutions for improving our country. He showed genuine leadership a few weeks ago by being the first candidate to sign the Nine Nineties in Nine debate pledge. By committing to a much more in-depth, solution-oriented political dialogue in our country, Governor Huckabee showed that he’s truly interested in real change.

But it’s not just candidates for President that have the ability to bring about real change. Real Change is powered by citizen movements and you have the opportunity to take part. More on that below, but let’s focus first on that phrase – real change. In Washington, we hear a lot of talk about change but too often we see too few results. That’s because even as elections are won and lost by different candidates of different parties, the underlying idea framework and lexicon of our politics and government changes at a much slower pace. Control over Congress and the White House may change parties, leading to new laws and programs influenced by different governing philosophies, but it is still the same cadre of permanent government officials and Washington lobbyists controlling the machinery of government. The result is that even if the American people vote for real change, we end up with change at the margins. However, there are moments in American history when real change has been imposed on Washington by the American people. The Jeffersonians and the Teddy Roosevelt progressives represented real change. So did the Reagan revolution. Recently, using the Contract with America, House Republicans were able to ride a wave of grassroots energy into Washington to achieve real change, including: a balanced budget while cutting taxes; welfare reform; term-limiting committee chairs, and more.

However, we too quickly reverted to Washington business-as-usual. Instead of moving forward by replacing the New Deal-Great Society, bureaucratic welfare state with a conservative, free market oriented model of government, our party became content with presiding over a government apparatus created by liberals. It settled for the illusion of being in charge because it was easier than inventing the future. It’s now become clear. To truly achieve real change, America needs more than another election; we need another wave of invention. We need a movement that will reach across all 513,000 elected officials in America – Republicans and Democrats – to radically transform the failing bureaucratic welfare state into a government that works for the American people. And we need the energy, enthusiasm, and creativity of the American people to sustain it that movement. That’s where you come in.

I am inviting you to be a founding member of this movement. American Solutions for Winning the Future is a unique, non-partisan organization dedicated to empowering the American people to develop and sustain this movement for real change. As Chairman of American Solutions, I am asking you to join me on the evening of September 27th from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. ET when we will kick off the inaugural Solutions Day live from the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia, broadcast on DirecTV (channel 577), the Dish Satellite Network (channel 219), and on www.AmericanSolutions.com. (Don’t worry, that leaves enough time to watch Gov. Huckabee participate in the All American Presidential Forum on PBS at 9:00 p.m. ET). Then on September 29th, you can join your fellow citizens at sites across the country for free online workshops, including one by Gov. Huckabee designed to tap into the energy and creativity of the American people. Together, we will begin to develop solutions for every level of government for the most pressing challenges facing the country. Sign up for Solutions Day here. Workshop topics include: controlling the border; the flat tax; the fair tax; developing a free-market approach to protecting the environment; using metrics to improve government performance; innovative ways to breathe life into our nation’s space program; and more. Workshop presenters include Dick Armey, Dr. Elaine Kamarck (who led President Clinton’s task force on reinventing government), and Dr. Dennis Smith (the foremost expert on how Mayor Giuliani dramatically lowered crime in NYC). And, yes, Governor Mike Huckabee will lead a workshop on music and wellness education in our schools. Get the full list of topics, presenters, and schedule here. The campaign season is really heating up and the supporters of different candidates are starting to shift into high gear. I know what I’m describing sounds pretty different than what we’re used to in politics. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? After all, real change requires real change and real change requires real solutions. I hope you join me, Governor Huckabee, and thousands of your fellow citizens as we kick off this movement for real change in America. Join us for Solutions Day on September 27th and then on September 29th.