« Online straw poll: vote early and often | Home | Fortunate sons »
February 05, 2007
Guiliani the "civ-con"
I wrote previously:
Many social conservatives like Rudy Giuliani enough as a presidential candidate (for his clarity on fighting Islamist terrorism) that they are trying to find ways to reconcile their positions with his liberal track record, specifically, that Giuliani is pro-choice and non-judgmental about homosexuality.
(Giuliani explains his positions with candor and without apology in this interview with Sean Hannity.)
One way to think about Giuliani's relationship to conservatism, is to see him as a "civ-con."
. . . . most conservatives are fusionists, supporting limited government, traditional values, and strong national defense. But what stirs the blood?. . . . national-defense conservative would come the closest. But it doesn’t quite fit. So let me try a new label. I am a civic conservative, a “civ-con.” At the level of highest principle civic conservatism emphasizes the Unum in E Pluribus Unum and puts American national cohesion over any group interest. . . . civic conservatism emphasizes the following principles: the equality of American citizenship; the learning of America’s history and values, properly understood; the imperative of assimilating immigrants patriotically into the American way of life (what we proudly used to call Americanization); and the indivisibility of American sovereignty.
The Manhattan Institute's City Journal says: "Giuliani may be the most conservative candidate on a wide range of issues." Their account of his tenure as mayor of New York expands on the "civ-con" idea:
. . . .Far from being a liberal, 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. He denied that cities and their citizens were victims of vast forces outside their control, and he urged New Yorkers to take personal responsibility for their lives. “Over the last century, millions of people from all over the world have come to New York City,” Giuliani once observed. “They didn’t come here to be taken care of and to be dependent on city government. They came here for the freedom to take care of themselves.” It was that spirit of opportunity and can-do-ism that Giuliani tried to re-instill in New York and that he himself exemplified not only in the hours and weeks after 9/11 but in his heroic and successful effort to bring a dying city back to life.Today, Americans see Giuliani as presidential material because of his leadership in the wake of the terrorist attacks, but to those of us who watched him first manage America’s biggest city when it was crime-ridden, financially shaky, and plagued by doubts about its future as employers and educated and prosperous residents fled in droves, Giuliani’s leadership on 9/11 came as no surprise.
It is unprecedented for a politician to go right from being a mayor to being the Commander in Chief. But City Journal reminds us:
To engineer the city’s turnaround, he had to take on a government whose budget and workforce were larger than all but five or six states. (Indeed, his budget his first year as mayor was about ten times the size of the one that Bill Clinton managed in his last year as governor of Arkansas.)
Responses to the article.
A socially conservative New Yorker explains why he supports Giuliani - read the whole thing. And Baseball Crank wrote another essay in favor of Rudy in 2005 when Rudy was running away with straw polls on Patrick Ruffini's site.
Judith | 02/05/07 at 11:34 PM | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.keshertalk.com/cgi-bin/mtb.cgi/6101
Blogs which link to Guiliani the "civ-con":
» The dark side of Rudy Giuliani from Kesher Talk
We have promoted the presidential candidacy of Rudy Giuliani since before he actually announced, not only for his clarity on an aggressive response to terrorism, but for his understanding of civic values. We are part of a groundswell of enthusiasm... [Read More]
Tracked on March 6, 2007 08:02 AM
» The word "liberal" jumps the shark from Kesher Talk
For some time several of my co-bloggers have been after me to change the subhead on our banner because they see themselves as more conservative than liberal, or even libertarian. I kept the term "liberal" because to me it still... [Read More]
Tracked on March 7, 2007 07:26 PM
» Giuliani is the seed crystal from Kesher Talk
The latests Gallup poll shows Rudy still comfortably out in front of the Republican candidate field. We have been following the Giuliani candidacy since its first stirrings. In fact, we were fantasizing about a Giuliani presidency since the 2004 GOP... [Read More]
Tracked on March 20, 2007 01:36 PM
Comments
Rudy works me for me! And I have an upper West side Democrat Mom who will vote for him too!
However, I don't think he can get the party nomination, he's too liberal, socially. Oddly enough, I think Rudy could win the national election.
The opposite is true with Hillary. She can get the Dem nomination but I don't think she can carry the national election, ("Please dear Lord," said in praying position.)
Psychobarb | February 6, 2007 12:51 PM
Rudy works me for me! And I have an upper West side Democrat Mom who will vote for him too!
However, I don't think he can get the party nomination, he's too liberal, socially. Though oddly enough, I think Rudy could win the national election.
The opposite is true with Hillary. She can get the Dem nomination but I don't think she can carry the national election, ("Please dear Lord," said in praying position.)
Psychobarb | February 6, 2007 12:52 PM
I support Rudy G. and I would love to see him become President !!
Paul | February 6, 2007 02:06 PM
I lived in NYC from 1975 until 1985. During those years I got married and we had 2 children. In 1985, for a number of reasons not relevant here we moved away. Three years ago the oldest child graduated and moved to NYC to take a job.
When we left NY in 1985 the place was still a mess. There was a murder on the roof of a building across the street.
When our child moved back, the city had been transformed. We went places in neighborhoods I would not have ventured into on a bet in the 1970s. That is what Rudy did. He has our vote.
Robert Schwartz | February 28, 2007 12:37 AM
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.keshertalk.com/nav-commenters.gif)
