Autism Blog - Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate

18 Jan 2012

Author: Sullivan
Comments: 12

Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate

2012 is a presidential election year in the United States. With the campaigns comes the courting of voters. Newt Gingich, Republican Hopeful, has posted an article to his site: Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate. It’s an excerpt from a Tea Party website article.

I’d love to take the time to go through Mr. Gingrich’s voting record on disability issues. The Republican Party has not always been the best ally from what I’ve seen. Should Mr. Gingrich move up in the ranking (he’s about 20 points behind Mitt Romney at the moment) perhaps I’ll take that time.

If you recall, 4 years ago the candidates courted the “autism vote” even to the point of thinking that we are all behind the failed vaccine-epidemic model of causation. Both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain made statements on the subject. This campaign season has already seen the departure of Michele Bachmann, whose unsupported (“over the top” according to Time Magazine) statements on Gardasail were credited with contributing to her decline in the polls.

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Comments

12 Responses to “Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate”

Autism Blog – Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate « Left Brain/Right Brain | My Autism Site | All About Autism
January 18th, 2012
08:11:37

[...] Go here to see the original: Autism Blog – Newt Gingrich, Autism Advocate « Left Brain/Right Brain [...]
Kassiane
January 18th, 2012
09:36:10

Ugh. We don’t want him. And if the Tea Party does, that’s kind of evidence that he doesn’t want us, except exterminated.
MikeMa
January 18th, 2012
11:53:15

Gingrich has already advocated a moral purity test for government workers. That would make his acceptance of diversity unlikely and hid desire to help those different from himself very unlikely.
linda Drawdy
January 18th, 2012
15:22:58

Newt Gingrich is the only candidate for me because of his support of autism (my son is moderate to sever with partial mental retardation that is attributed to the lack of oxygen to the brain during delivery complications. He is 20 years old and mentally has been scored closer to 5 years of age) He also supports other neurological disorders. Has stated publicly that with the aging population these disorders will effect quality of life and research in these areas will help all disorders including autism. I have found more truths researching on my own and all tv is biased either democraticlly or to mitt romney (fox news is the new Mitt Network). I will vote for the candidate who has been supporting autism since the early to mid 1990’s and not a jumper on in recent times to get votes!
MikeMa
January 18th, 2012
16:16:39

@Linda Drawdy,
I understand that your life may have narrowed to a single focus, but consider: Gingrich, like most politicians, is a liar. He has advocated for child labor, spearheaded impeachment of Clinton while committing adultery at least twice, was convicted of ethics violations while speaker of the house, lied about the founding fathers and pot, lied about lobbying, talked of arresting judges who rule in ways he doesn’t like and promised to (illegally) fire federal employees who he deems not conservative enough.

Obama, on the other hand, has passed healthcare reform, providing services for almost all Americans, removed pre-existing condition clauses and extended the age for which children can receive care on their parent’s policy. Gingrich lies while Obama acts. Obama is not a perfect president (too center-right for me) but compared to the clown car carrying the GOP candidates, he stands tall.
passionlessDrone
January 18th, 2012
16:50:05

Obama is not a perfect president (too center-right for me) but compared to the clown car carrying the GOP candidates, he stands tall.

Hehe. So true.
daedalus2u
January 18th, 2012
18:53:45

Well said MikeMA. Gingrich’s half sister has said she won’t be voting for him because of his opposition to marriage rights for gays (she is gay).
Kassiane
January 18th, 2012
19:17:55

A reminder:
“supporting autism” means pretty much nothing & what people mean when they say that is often a far cry from “supporting autistic people”.

I do not want a candidate who is so anti diversity to get elected. And I definately don’t want someone with such a double standard. And I extra double don’t want someone who has such a ‘bootstrap’ mentality. Funny how the only people who support that particular ideology are people who were born upper class.
Sullivan
January 18th, 2012
20:07:58

Obama hasn’t made good on his commitments. The “autism Czar” thing isn’t that important to me. But he has failed to get the Federal Government to pick up their share of special education funding. He did get a chunk of stimulus funds paid to special ed, but that was a one-time thing. School districts were wary of putting money into teachers and staff, for example, as they wouldn’t have the long term funding. I know of a district which invested in technology for special ed classrooms. I am also aware of one district which went so far as to transfer the stimulus funding to the general fund (“paying down encroachment”), and then they put the money in the bank. Clearly there weren’t good enough protections written into how that money was to be spent.

That said, Obama or Newt? Gee, give me a nanosecond to decide….
Samantha Pierce
January 20th, 2012
01:49:41

I’m an unabashed social and political conservative but when it comes to disability rights and services I am so not impressed by either party. Politicians of all stripes use us when it is useful for them to do so and rarely deliver the goods. A pox on both their houses.
livsparents
January 21st, 2012
03:46:03

Sharpen your pencil, Sullivan, we may have to start dealing with him after tomorrow.

And onto nonsensical observations: Newt and Mitt? Whatever happened to Bob and John and Ron and George and even…DICK? Used to be that Conservatives had CONSERVATIVE names…not Salamander and Glove…
Stephanie
January 25th, 2012
05:40:01

I’m not impressed by President Obama’s ability to carry through on his claims, and I don’t think bigger government is the way to improve life in America. Usually I vote third-party, because I don’t think either Democrats or Republicans truly serve the American people. But if Gingrich gets the Republican nomiation, I will vote to re-elect President Obama. Whatever his claims, whatever he says, Gingrich’s actions have a long demonstrated his poor ethics, let alone his failure to live the morality he claims, and the last thing we need is a “leader” like that.