Hey everyone, Jody Avergan here. Welcome to our Some Sunday context series where we bring you

conversations new and from the archives that try and give you a little context for what we are up to here in

26. Now this past week, as you heard, we ran a two-parter on Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky,

the scandal,

and the investigation. We tried to layer in the changing media environment as a huge factor in that story. We also touched on the fact that the Republicans, starting in 1994, were newly emboldened

and were really ready to go after Clinton over his affair with Lewinsky.

So today, an episode from the archives looking at how they swept into power in the 1994 midterms.

That year, a Georgia congressman by the name of Newt Gingrich became the face of the party

and was able to craft a message on two fronts.

One, using the contract with America, which was a

simple set of GOP principles that he basically got every candidate to sign onto that year. And then,

on the other front, a real sabbiness when it came to messaging and the new media environment.

Now, I think this is important to think about because it is obviously

a very popular parlor game to talk about how we got to the GOP that we have today. And I do think

that a lot of it started with the 1994 midterms. That said, I think it's safe to say that the idea of

a GOP built around a platform of big ideas feels quite antiquated

at this point, but the tactics of the party owe a lot to the Gingrich Revolution, for one,

taking advantage of that new media environment like Fox News and the internet ascendant,

but also this idea that the most important thing, by far, is unity.

Everyone in the party needs to get in line with what the leadership dictates and that a lot of the fealty is going to be organized around fierce opposition

and obstruction to whatever the Democrats in power are up to.

And I don't think you need me to tell you that we are living with the most extreme

...