On Newt the Grandiose

January 27, 2012

So Newt Gingrich is making much hay of his grandiosity these days. He says America is a grandiose country, and that it is good that he is a grandiose person because it takes grandiose people to make a great nation.

He may well be right about all this, but here’s the thing: it appears that Newt Gingrich does not know what the word “grandiose” means. Or, perhaps more likely, it seems that he has doubled down on his grandiosity because he knows it is a bad thing, but is relying on the hope that if he embraces the idea of his grandioseness, his audience (and, disappointingly, the journalists covering him) won’t know that grandiosity is a thing to be mocked, not celebrated.

See, grandiose means ridiculously grand. Overly ambitious. Pompous self-regard all out of balance of one’s actual skills and accomplishments. Think tin pot dictators who have never fought a war festooned with so many medals and ribbons that they look more like Christmas trees than human beings. Grandiose people and schemes are things to be snarked at, not honored.

So in celebrating his own grandiosity and insisting on the grandiosity of the United States, Newt Gingrich is actually holding himself and the nation he claims to love up to public mockery.

Just thought you should know, since it appears Newt doesn’t.

10:30am | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZPUuPyFSNLf3

(Notes: 34)