Newt Gingrich: “Mr. Speaker, I rise because I think this resolution offers us a very important opportunity to talk with ourselves and to…”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise because I think this resolution offers us a very important opportunity to talk with ourselves and to talk with the world. The United States represents two enormous burdens that we have to live out: first, that we are the center of freedom, and that we are engaged in the process of self-government; and second, that we must carry the burden of leading the world, and that is an operational day-to-day which never suspends: It does not suspend for elections, it does not suspend for Christmas, it does not suspend under any circumstance. We have an obligation to prove to ourselves and to the world that we can simultaneously govern ourselves in freedom under the rule of law, and provide leadership wherever it is needed around the world. Let me expand on that for just a moment, because it is a topic I have thought a great deal about since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The United States has to lead. There is no alternative.”