Posted on 02/06/2007 10:43:27 AM PST by ElkGroveDan
“Murder and graffiti are two vastly different crimes,” Rudy Giuliani once said. “But they are part of the same continuum, and a climate that tolerates one is more likely to tolerate the other.”
Good point, Rudy.
Now, what about a climate — not to mention a Republican presidential candidate — that not only tolerates, but allows unelected judges to legalize the practice of delivering a child until only its head remains within its mothers womb so the child can be killed by sucking out its brains?
What about a climate where same-sex couples are given the same legal status as married couples, whether the resulting arrangements are candidly called “same-sex marriages,” or are semantically papered-over with terms such as “civil unions” or “domestic partnerships”?
Apply the Giuliani Continuum to fundamental issues such as marriage and the right to life, and where does it lead?
Not where conservatives want America to be.
Rudy Giuliani’s observation about the “continuum” running from graffiti to murder was quoted in a piece in the winter edition of City Journal by Steven Malanga. The title of Malanga’s piece neatly encapsulates his argument: “Yes, Rudy is a Conservative — and an electable one at that.”
I believe Malanga is wrong on both counts. Rudy is neither conservative, nor electable — at least, not as a Republican presidential candidate.
As Malanga seems to define it, a politician dedicated to good police work and free-market economics qualifies as a conservative. “Far from being a liberal,” Malanga writes of Giuliani, “he ran New York with a conservative’s priorities: government exists above all to keep people safe in their homes and in the streets, he said, not to redistribute income, run a welfare state, or perform social engineering. The private economy, not government, creates opportunity, he argued; government should just deliver basic services well and then get out of the private sector’s way.”
But that’s not enough. While advocating law and order, self-reliance, and capitalism is laudable, it does not entitle a politician to a free pass for advocating other causes that are deeply destructive of American society.
While it is always wrong to take an innocent human life — whether on a New York sidewalk or in a mother’s womb — Giuliani is highly selective in applying this principle. In 1999, when he was pondering a run for the U.S. Senate, he was asked whether he supported banning partial-birth abortion. “No, I have not supported that,” he said, “and I don’t see my position on that changing.”
“I'm pro-gay rights,” he also said. Indeed, his position is so radical in this area that as New York City mayor he promoted a city ordinance that removed the distinctions in municipal law between married and unmarried couples, regardless of their gender.
“What it really is doing is preventing discrimination against people who have different sexual orientations, or make different preferences in which they want to lead their lives,” Giuliani said, explaining the ordinance to the New York Times. “Domestic partnerships not only affect gays and lesbians, but they also affect heterosexuals who choose to lead their lives in different ways.”
In other words, preserving a legal order that prefers traditional marriage and traditional families is “discrimination.”
Giuliani’s positions on abortion and marriage disqualify him as a conservative because they annihilate the link between the natural law and man-made laws. Indeed, they use man-made law to promote and protect acts that violate the natural law.
Given his argument that there is a “continuum” between graffiti and murder, you would think that Giuliani would understand the importance of the link between the natural law and the laws of New York City, let alone the laws of the United States. At the heart of Rudy’s “continuum” argument, is the realization that when society refuses to enforce a just law it teaches people to disrespect the moral principles underlying just laws.
The late Russell Kirk argued in The Conservative Mind that the first canon of conservatism is “[b]elief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience. Political problems, at bottom, are religious and moral problems. … True politics is the art of apprehending and applying the Justice which ought to prevail in a community of souls.”
It is simply not justice to take the life of an unborn child. Nor is it justice to codify same-sex relationships so that, by design of the state itself, a child can be denied a mother or a father from birth, which is one thing legalized same-sex unions would do.
By advocating abortion on demand and same-sex unions, Rudy is doing something far more egregious than, say, defacing a New York subway train. He is defacing the institution that forms the foundation of human civilization.
That is not conservative.
Rudy will not win the Republican nomination because enough of the people who vote in Republican caucuses and primaries still respect life and marriage, and are not ready to give up on them — or on the Republican party as an agent for protecting them.
His track record in NYC is fantastic, in case you want to check out what he did there. The libs hated him while he was mayor. Nuff' said about that.
He DOES oppose partial birth abortion, or you didn't hear him on Hannity and Colmes? And you can say the same thing about any candidate, such as Romney, who has flip flopped on several issues now. So much for talking a good game...LOL !!!
Seems to me that tolerating "deviant behavior" like abortion and gay marriage can have the same effect. How much of those behaviors you'll tolerate can also be unknown until it is too late and things are out of hand.
"Point being that the primary is the time to sort out this kind of stuff. The disgruntled ones who sit out general elections because the nominee doesn't rise up to their high standard are the ones who lose elections to the REAL bad guys, like Hillary. Is that what you want to happen, should Rudy happen to get the nomination?"
I know you can't possibly read every post on every thread, no doubt haven't read all of mine, but had you read any of them you would know I will vote for the Republican nominee no matter how difficult it might be for me. In the mean time, once I decide who I am gonna support I will work hard to get them nominated as I assume you and your wife will do as well. Hope that answers your question.
How many people does New York City have? More than New Mexico? More than Wyoming? How many states have less of a population than New York City and is as diverse?
Yeah, the JOOZ like to hear all that anti-terror talk.
He won't get my support - a likable guy on a certain level - but definitely NOT a conservative!
Thank you for admitting that the two statements were not inconsistent.
You're welcome.
I'll group you in with the "we support the troops, but not their mission" crowd of technical semantics liberals.
I don't recall Rudy ever saying Roe was "good law." Can you cite that? He said Scalia, Roberts and Alito were good choices. What's wrong with that? I guess you don't believe the man. One thing I've never heard about Rudy is that he is dishonest or a flip flopper. Romney, on the other hand....lol
Bumping a good article.
And if you don't either support a rino NOW or declare who your candidate is 22 months before the election, and tell how in the hell they could beat the unstoppable hillary, well, you just don't love america and apple pie and you want the terrorists to win.
This nails it! Thank you for putting into words what a lot of us have been thinking here.
Well, when you're in a cesspool like NYC in those days, anything looks like improvement. Believe it or not, most RINOs actually are marginally better than Demonrats. But they get us to the same hell eventually.
Just motivating urban cops to do what they should have done all along is not grounds for electing someone President. It might be grounds for electing him governor. Will he secure the nation's borders? I doubt it.
And after these "23 tax cuts," by what % were taxes in NYC actually reduced? Did he get rid of rent control?
There is simply no reason the party of Reagan needs to stoop this low. We were told for decades that conservatives couldn't win, so the country-clubbers forced Ford, Nixon, and many others on us. It's a tired old lie.
Thanks for the info; I'll check out the transcripts. That doesn't jibe with his position on Scalia, Alito and Roberts, however. He cited those justices as good picks for the high court.
"Yah, and southern conservatives are sure to vote for Obama or Hillary over Rudy because of this, right? /sarc"
Every Republican and a few Democrats likes to HEAR anti-terror talk. Talk is cheap. When it comes to actions, a mayor has no track record on national security. Period. On most other issues, his stance is pure liberalism.
And yes, a strong pro-Israel, pro-Iraq-war stance does play well with many Jews. Why do you think Joe Lieberman risked the wrath of his party to back those issues? He too is a standard leftist on everything else.
People who back Rudy because of his (largely hypothetical) "hawkishness on security" are the real single-issue voters.
"Rudy said last night on with Hannity that he supports a partial birth abortion ban."
If it comes down to Rudy vs. Hillary (and it looks like if it were held today,etc.etc.........)
I would vote Rudy.
Rudy sounds tough on terrorism but soft on illegals, even though he acknowledges that terrorism could come from the ranks of the illegals.
I would prefer that my candidate is tougher on illegals.)like Romney)
As far as the abortion question goes, RU184 (or whatever the heck you call it) will make this all a moot point eventually, even with the controversy surrounding that moring-after pill.
It'll be sold over-the-counter someday like condoms, before it is all said and done, and the question will go away (to a degree).
Abortion doesn't have the traction it used to, IMO.
Bigger fish to fry-Terror and Illegals.
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