Here's an interesting piece from Volokh's David Bernstein declaring Newt as a "Right-wing Progressive." That seems oxymoronic, but not if viewed from the vantage point of the Teddy Roosevelt-style of Progressive from the turn of the 20th century.
And please note that while Progressivism is today associated with the “left,” historical Progressivism encompassed many important figures who would not have been considered such (and wouldn’t have considered themselves such) at the time, most prominently Theodore Roosevelt. What they had in common with their left-leaning compatriots was opposition to laissez-faire, faith in government’s ability to solve and manage social problems, and, with regard to the politicians among them, confidence in their own ability to lead and direct the masses for the latter’s own good.
If I could borrow from Canadian politics of the 20th century, Newt is a lower-case progressive conservative. Prior to getting reunited with the Tea Party-esque Reform/Alliance Party, the main party of the Canadian right was the Progressive Conservatives. The farmer-centric Progressives of Manitoba brought a small-businessman vibe along with distrust of big businesses like railroads and banks; that can lean left (as in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor fusion in Minnesota) or right (in the case of the Canadian PCs, who absorbed the Progressives during WWII).
Newt's not a conservative in the William Buckley mold, standing athwart history hollering "Stop!" Newt's more the ground crew of history, with his semaphore flags out, pointing the plane of history a little to the right.
That's not a bad thing. Sometime, change is good. This blog wasn't possible much over a decade ago, as I come up on that 10 year anniversary in less than a month; true conservatives would shy away from such innovations, but people liking progress will take it on. While both sides have used the Blogosphere and other newer social media, the use of blogs allowed conservatives and libertarians a voice in the 00s that they didn't have elsewhere in print media; the progessive tool of the blog was a conservative force for good.
Thus, you could call Newt PC... the Canadian version.
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