Posted on 06/18/2007 10:45:44 AM PDT by hardback
After an assassination handed him the presidency and timing placed him on a national stage consumed by corruption, Teddy Roosevelt took action and redefined the president's power to impact the marketplace of ideas and move the hearts of men.
To the Rough Rider, the moral authority of the White House had been sullied by the corruption of the Grant and Hayes administrations and rendered impotent by the sit-on-your-hands administrations of Garfield, Harrison, Arthur and Cleveland. And while the White House lay occupied by men unwilling to lead, the nation lost its way. But with TR, there was a new sheriff and a new rulebook.
From the very beginning of his presidency, TR understood the intricacies and nuances of the branch he embodied. While the legislative branch is a collection regional and state factions whose voices are drowned out by contentious clamor and the judicial branch is one bound, in theory, to the rule of law and not public opinion, the executive branch represented one voice and one interest. In other words, the executive branch was the voice of the nation.
With such a realization came the birth of the bully pulpit, a terrific platform that TR established in the marketplace of ideas to win the minds of the American people and advocate an agenda without distractions. It was a brilliant concept, for the president's lone voice, coupled with his redeemed prestige, permitted him to influence debate and win converts to his cause. It was the rise of the modern president.
Because the president has the power of the bully pulpit and because he is best suited, on a national level, to change America's collective conscience, the election of a president is not just about party politics; it is about the protection of principle.
For traditionalists in America, no right is more cherished than the right to life. It is the one right, according to Pope John Paul II, "upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop." Thus, a government that loses sight of the right to life loses its moral legitimacy, as well as the authority to govern in a just manner. If a nation is to remain just, if it is to remain the light of life, then it must commit itself to the protection of the lives of all its citizens - from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Unlike tax increases or the battle for the border, a speck of gray cannot be found when examining the issue of life. One either believes that life begins at conception or one adopts the view that life does not begin until birth.
In the years since the Supreme Court delivered its pro-abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, the principles of life have become muddied by the politics of man. The Republican Party, once deemed the party of life in America, has entered into an unholy matrimony with political relativism, and in that wedded bliss the pro-life movement has become the redheaded stepchild. Rockefeller Republicans, like a cancer, have been solely eroding the power of the pro-life movement, marginalizing its members and decreasing its perceived relevance on the national stage.
How has such a coup been conducted in the party of Reagan? Simple. In the 31 years since the GOP adopted a pro-life plank in its platform, the nominees carrying the Republican banner have ceased viewing the right to life as an absolute principle of truth. Hence, while the party, in theory, commits itself to the cause of life, in practice it has gradually adopted the view that regardless of whether the unborn child is a life, the issue is best decided by the individual and not the collective conscience of a nation. And there is no better embodiment to this view than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
"There are millions of Americans who are as of good conscience as we are, who make a different choice about abortion. And I think in a country where you want to keep government out of people's lives from the point of view of coercion, you have to respect that," Giuliani told Republican primary voters during the May 15 debate in South Carolina.
To Giuliani abortion is a matter of individual choice, a private decision to be conducted absent "government intrusion." Yet the former mayor has stated it is his "view on abortion is that it's wrong." Something does not jibe here.
If abortion is wrong, how can it be tolerated by a just society? How can the leader of the free world stand by when 4,000 women a day choose to terminate the life of a child? Is that the leadership quality we seek in a nominee? A president?
Giuliani cannot have his cake and eat it too. Odds are, however, that the mayor is merely blowing smoke up the skirts of conservatives to appease them so he can clinch the nomination. This author does not believe Giuliani for one second, for how can the mayor believe abortion is wrong when he told CNN's "Inside Politics" in 1999 that "I'm pro-choice."
And when asked about whether he supported the ban on partial birth abortion, the mayor opined, "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing." Rudy is selling the Brooklyn Bridge, and Republicans are buying.
With many in the media handicapping Giuliani as the favorite to clinch the nomination, and a Rasmussen poll showing Giuliani tied for first with former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson (another candidate with a questionable pro-life commitment), the pro-life movement is in mortal danger.
A Giuliani candidacy, let alone victory, would be the cyanide pill of the pro-life movement, if not the Republican Party. With a pro-choice candidate at the helm of the not just the party but the nation, what little use the bully pulpit to advance the cause of life would be extinguished. Giuliani's moral relativism would delude the principle of life, the culture of death would be left unchallenged, and the moral compass of the nation left spinning in a cloud of confusion.
The ability for the leader of the free world to take up the cause for life would be lost, as would the legitimacy of the Republican Party to defend the unborn. The sun would then set on the pro-life movement. This, however, does not have to be.
"He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. ... He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared," wrote Sun Tzu in "The Art of War."
The time has come for the pro-life movement to fight. For the last three decades we have been promised the moon and have received rocks. We have lived in fear that our defection from the Republican Party would result in a Democratic president, but in those 31 years of fear, 50 million unborn children still perished, regardless of who was in the White House. If the GOP nominates Giuliani or any other pro-abortion sympathizer, the party would have left us, not vice versa.
"God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose," stated Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Take which you please - you can never have both." Defeat is not our destiny, but unless we act now, it could be our choice. Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us.
Liberal Republicans like Guiliani are MUCH MORE DANGEROUS than liberal democrats,,,
because liberal Republicans BLUR THE DISTINCTION between conservatism and liberalism,,,
MAKING LIBERALISM MUCH MORE ACCEPTABLE!!
After GW Bush’s illegal immigration policy is enacted there will no GOP left to harm.
Before I go any further, allow me to say that I do NOT like Giuliani. I have never liked or trusted him. I believe he is more Democrat than Republican, and certainly not fit material as a candidate for the Presidency.
I would not vote for him under ANY circumstance. He will never, NEVER get my vote. EVER!!
However, he is not needed as a “cyanide pill” for the Republican Party. The position is already taken. Giuliani NEED NOT APPLY.
President George W. Bush appears to be staring in that role, and does not need supporting actors in his cast.
While the Democrats are offering an unprincipled shrew, an inexperienced demagogue and assorted nutcakes.
BTTT...
Lots of you aren’t going to like this...but we have to start looking past abortion...it’s never going away. Even were it to be overturned (and it won’t be) it would be installed, as it mostly already is, as law at the state level.
I think Rudy would be a very good President...he’s tough, smart, and frankly, reminds ME of TR. He would be the center of action. He’s a man with ideas, and knows how to lead. If we cut him up on abortion (no pun intended) we limit ourselves to candidates who can pass a litmus test and they are losers.
No “open borders rinos” ever ever again!!
They don’t care. They just want to get their “point across.” Just great. Thompson is too ugly to win. MacPain is to angry like a male Hilary. Mitt is too Mormon and Americans dont like that. Rudy is the only one who can beat Hilary. But they dont care. They just want to hand over the country to H to get their point across.
Except that Rudy's problems are not just limited to abortion. Try gun control. Support of CFR. Support of amnesty and sanctuary city policies. Promotion of the gay agenda.
Plus, he's a thin-skinner authoritarian freak. And I simply don't buy into the leadership image that his campaign tries to promote. He has made a lot of bad mistakes - the worst being pushing Kerik for the most important anti-terror job in the country.
So Rudy is a disaster waiting to happen on any number of fronts.
Interesting backhanded slap there at Fred, with no mention of Romney, wonder who this Joe Murray would like to see as the Republican nominee?
I don’t know why people keep thinking Hillary can actually win. Maybe this has been forgotten but, Howard Dean actually doesn’t like Hillary Clinton. Right now, he is their titan, and believe it or not, a national party chair has more influence over who wins a primary than you think he does.
My gut feeling is that Dean supports Edwards, and it is also my gut feeling that Edwards is going to win an early primary and then he’s in contention and at the end of it all, I do think he comes off winning.
Giuliani cannot beat Edwards in several states that we must win to keep the election, and honestly, I actually think Edwards is more socially conservative than Rudy. If you take out the culture war equation, there is no reason for Southern lower income white voters to support the Republican Party, thats just the truth. We’re not going to have an election between two New Yorkers, no matter how much people in the NE would love us to.
The qualities that made Giuliani a great mayor are the same qualities that basically disqualify him to be president. And I’m not one for race-baiting, but there are Republicans who, if blacks won’t necessarily vote for, they also won’t turn out in droves just to vote against said person. Our governor is one of these people who doesn’t arouse black anger. Giuliani is the exact opposite. Whether it is deserved or not, Giuliani is truly detested by blacks in New York, and once certain aspects of his record were highlighted, you’d see the highest black turnout ever just to vote against the guy. Not defending New York’s black leaders by any means, but, Rudy has a problem on race and when you combine that with all of the whites who wouldn’t show up because he’s a liberal, actually, no, Rudy is not the only one who can be elected President. In fact, he has a less of a shot than the Mormon.
You Rudybots think abortion is a giggling matter. I'd rather stare at Hillary's wide ass for all eternity than vote for your abortion-loving candidate.
“After GW Bush’s illegal immigration policy is enacted there will no GOP left to harm.”
There won’t be much America left to harm. The whole country will suffer California’s fate. A billion people work for lower wages than what Mexicans earn in Mexico. George W is announcing to them that all you have to do is get here.
You can bring your culture, your family, your village, whatever you can cram into your apartment. America is just a work site, it’s no longer a nation with a history.
Yep--he's got ideas, alright! Pro-abortion, pro-gun control, sanctuary cities, 4th Amendment abuses, special rights for homosexuals, etc. These ideas should disqualify him as an acceptable candidate for the presidency.
Abortion is not the issue for 2008 to focus on. For one issue voters that’s a tough cyanide pill to swallow, but it’s the truth.
Giuliani will make an excellent president and has the best chance of defeating a guaranteed NOW/Hillary Clinton direct dial number to the WH.
Blah blah blah. If you had a clue, you would see the rift that Rudy has caused on FR and realize that Rudy winning the nomination would have the same effect on the GOP.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.