Newt Gingrich has spent an entire political career trying to hide his true, socialist leanings by championing privatization and uber-capitalism in the name of the Republican Party.
And Gingrich had been doing an admirable job of maintaining that facade. Until tonight, that is. For tonight, Gingrich decided to come out of the closet, unable to contain his socialist leanings any longer.
Witness the historic moment, unexpectedly inspired by the Los Angeles Clippers:
Yes, you read that correctly. Newt Gingrich thinks the people of Los Angeles, not rich billionaires, should collectively own their basketball team and together share the spoils. Sell it to the people. It's Gingrich's new rallying cry.
The question now is this: with Gingrich, one of his generation's greatest public champions of small government, now out as a card-carrying, Karl-Marx-loving socialist, will other Republicans come out as well?
Time will tell.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.