Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich panned New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over his plans for a "Liberal Contract With America," warning him that his plans to push the Democratic Party further left will lead to disaster.
"He said he was inspired by the 1994 Contract With America, of which I was the lead architect," Gingrich said
in an opinion piece for The New York Post. "I'm flattered, Mr. Mayor. But allow me to offer a few cautionary thoughts."
De Blasio said last week that he has been working closely with other leaders and experts to pull together a progressive list of priorities for progressives, in the vein of Gingrich's famous Contract With America, which at that time detailed actions Republicans promised to take if they were voted in as the majority party in the House.
He said he plans to unveil the contract on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
"De Blasio is clearly trying to pressure the Democrats to move to the left," Gingrich said. "But that is the exact opposite of the Contract with America model. The purpose of the Contract was not to pick a fight within the Republican Party. It was to define a center-right majority with a platform that commanded the broad support of the American people."
Gingrich suggested that before the mayor writes his contract, he should call former British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who resigned after his party was wiped out in last week's elections, losing to conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his party.
Cameron's win "holds lessons for both Democrats and Republicans," said Gingrich. "The historic collapse of the Labour Party and its dramatic under performance is a warning for those who believe a "true" left-wing agenda is the key to electoral victory.
Conservatives dominated British politics for 18 years, from the time Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was first elected in 1979 until Tony Blair moved the Labour Party to the center, winning the election in 1997.
Blair was succeeded by Gordon Brown in 2007, who moved the party further left, and after the party was hammered by the economic crisis in 2010, Brown resigned.
"The lesson Labour learned from this defeat was the de Blasio lesson," Gingrich said in his opinion piece. "Ed Miliband became leader and moved Labour toward its militant left, redistributionist, big-government base. The result is that Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has governed a center-right coalition that the British people decisively reaffirmed this week."
Back in the United States, de Blasio "has to come to grips" with the realities that dominate American politics and government.
"British Conservatives emphasized their concerns for 'working Britons,'" said Gingrich. "In the United States, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, won reelection last year on similar themes. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan won big in a blue state by emphasizing high taxes and the needs of working Marylanders."
And the mayor "wants higher taxes and bigger governments," said Gingrich, while polls say Americans want smaller government and more take-home pay.
And as such, Gingrich said it's "impossible" for de Blasio to create a document in the mold of his own "contract" if it's based on "far-left ideas."
In addition, Gingrich said his document was one that committed to specific steps, and that House Republicans had already written legislation for all pledges.
"As President Obama taught us with the stimulus and Obamacare, the left can’t write its bills out in the open, because the American people would repudiate them as soon as they understand them," Gingrich said.
But he said he looks forward to the mayor's efforts to "practice the self-destruction and self-delusion of the British Labour Party," and he'd be happy to debate the merits of the two contracts.