COCOA, Fla. — Newt Gingrich has dreamed up a lot of weird ideas, but this one tops them all, according to the former House Speaker.
“At one point early in my career I introduced the Northwest Ordinance in Space,” the Republican presidential candidate told thousands of voters on Florida’s Space Coast. Under Gingrich's proposal, once there were “13,000 Americans living on the moon, they [could] petition to become a state,” he said.
Standing before an adoring crowd of supporters, Gingrich joked that the proposal — which would essentially colonize the moon — was “the weirdest thing I have ever done.” The crowd laughed.
But Gingrich grew more serious as he explained the rationale behind his proposal.
“I wanted every young American to say to themselves, ‘I could be one of those people,’” he said. All practicalities aside, the idea would inspire young people to dream, he said.
“[That’s] the difference between romantics and so-called practical people,” Gingrich concluded.
Gingrich borrowed the term “Northwest Ordinance” from the Second Continental Congress’ establishment of a territory in 1787 that was later used as a model for adopting new states into the Union.
