American Solutions for Winning the Future

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is by far one of the most remarkable political and policy thinkers of our generation. David Broder of The Washington Post characterizes him as “visionary.”

American Solutions for Winning the Future is his latest effort and some say his greatest yet. American Solutions as envisioned by Gingrich would fundamentally change government in the 513000 local state and federal elected offices across America. Saturday September 29th will mark the inauguration of over 5000 Solutions Day Workshops taking place throughout America.

Gingrich readily admits that American Solutions isn’t a single-handed “solution” to the myriad of problems facing our nation. The principles of the program are familiar: faith freedom and private property rights.

American Solutions challenges citizens to ask tough questions. Why can’t we have a new program of scientific and technological change and entrepreneurial leadership to meet the environmental and energy challenges? Why can’t we secure our borders for national security reasons? Couldn’t there be a single-rate tax simple enough to be filled out in one page? Why shouldn’t English be the official language of government?

Gingrich uses contemporary examples to drive home the need for real change.  He cites recurring failures of bureaucratic systems – levees shouldn’t fail; bridges shouldn’t fall and students should learn. In fact the bureaucracies that dominate America’s failing education systems should be challenged every day until the students are learning.

Gingrich recently challenged the citizens of Detroit with the statement “The Detroit school system should not cheat three out of every four entering freshmen.” Prompted by that remark the Detroit public school system is on the defensive as parents probe and question why they should tolerate failure.

American Solutions draws a contrast between the world that works (UPS FedEx Toyota Production System Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma) and the world that fails (public and private bureaucracies).

Despite the current mediocrity of bureaucracy and politicians most of us can agree that our nation has a great future with enormous opportunities. There are three powerful reasons to be optimistic about America’s future:

1. The explosion of new knowledge in science is going to produce four to seven times as much new science in the next 25 years than it produced in the last 25 years. The opportunity for breakthrough in Alzheimer’s and in cancer in developing a hydrogen car in creating new systems of learning in radically improved air transportation with no delays and in a host of other areas is just amazing. There is every reason to believe we will have a better generation – as Gingrich says “if we do the right things.”

2. The evidence of what works and what fails is unmistakable. In 1960 South Korea and Ghana had the same per capita income. Today South Korea is a technological and industrial innovator and the 11th wealthiest country in the world. Before Prime Minister Thatcher the French economy was 25 percent larger than the British.

Today the British economy is 10 percent larger than France’s and 50000 young French men and women today work in London. Forty years ago Ireland was much poorer than Germany per person. Today Ireland is much wealthier than Germany per person. Common sense works. It is just our current generation of politicians and bureaucrats who don’t get it.

3. The core values and habits of American civilization continue to make it the most creative hardest working and most integrative society in the world. Despite the best efforts of the liberal elite to undermine and repudiate the core values and principles of American civilization our nation remains resilient.

None of the transformation changes needed in education health energy and environment and many other issues can be handled within the current political structure. American Solutions is a new movement which transcends traditional politics and empowers the American people for action.

American Solutions is ultimately about transformational change in American politics and government. The goal is to pool the ideas generated by thousands of citizens to transform the country.  The challenges facing our nation require a lot more action than a change in who is sitting in the Oval Office and are far deeper than the superficiality that passes for political campaigns these days.

Granted all of the American Solutions goals are over-the-top ambitious. However if anyone could pull this off it is Gingrich. As Broder commented in his article “Newt Gingrich’s Big Ideas” “I have learned not to underestimate him.”

As Gingrich laments this positive future cannot be described in thirty seconds in a campaign commercial. If you want to make a difference American Solutions is worth investigating at www.americansolutions.com. I encourage you to participate. What are your ideas for winning the future?

Michael Ciamarra is the vice president of the Alabama Policy Institute and Alabama’s team leader for American Solutions. He can be reached at michaelc@alabamapolicy.org.

For information or comments contact: Michael Ciamarra Alabama Policy Institute 402 Office Park Drive Suite 300 Birmingham Alabama 35223 (205) 870-9900 e-mail michaelc@alabamapolicy.org. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this column please email joannl@alabamapolicy.org.