A Conservative Declaration of Independence

[Guest Newt Gingrich]

This weekend, I had the opportunity to address CPAC -- the Conservative Political Action Conference. This is the same group to which Ronald Reagan delivered his historic "bold colors, not pale pastels" speech in 1975, sparking a new center-right coalition that would become the ground troops of the Reagan Revolution.

 

In my speech, I called for a conservative "declaration of independence" from the Republican Party.

 

By a "declaration of independence" I don't mean a third party. I mean a renewed willingness among center-right Americans to criticize Republicans when they are wrong as vigorously as we criticize Democrats when they are wrong.

 

And I mean a reinvigoration of the grassroots to focus on all 513,000 elected officials in our country, not just those in Washington.

 

I told the conservatives at CPAC that we need to embrace the movement for change in America and make it our own. As I argue in my new book, Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works, all change is not equal. We need the right changes, not the wrong changes.