Posted on 04/06/2007 5:43:31 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani often enjoys poll scores above all presidential rivals from both sides of the political aisle. He inarguably projects the kind of appeal normally foreign to most candidates trying to convince voters that citizens matter more than a partys agenda.
However, that likely centrist advantage in the general election can be kryptonite in the primaries because centrism has so often been antithetical to the ideologues selecting each partys nominee. But things are changing and Giulianis tough stances in defense of moderate positions are continuously embraced by the respondents of all surveys. Republicans have begun demonstrating more acceptance of moderates than have the Democrats, and this is a dramatic shift.
While having parity with the loons of the Right in the 90s, those on the Left have since morphed into greater episodes of unhinged behavior. Yes, the right-wingers have Ann Coulter. However, the leftovers have Rosie ODonnell, and she has grown to equal six snapping Coulters.
Let us be candid in the way we measure their respective fringe-like behavior. Coulter wrongfully resorts to name-calling while ODonnell likens Irans taking of 15 British sailor and marine hostages to a cabal arranged by the United States government. Apparently the Baker-Hamilton Commission was right all along when recommending diplomacy with Iraqs surrounding hostile regimes possessing a vested interest in our demise. We need only talk with the Iranians and look how quickly theyll kidnap on our behalf! By Rosies measure however, well now appear to have lost our influence because President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad let them go U.S. cabal neutralized.
Back in our own galaxy, hard right elephants are uncomfortable with Giulianis progressiveness despite respecting his globally witnessed 9/11 heroism but theyre not as disquieted as the liberals would prefer. Hard-Left donkeys are paranoid that if he does win the primaries, his centrism will then be unleashed upon its most target rich audience, the general election voters.
This is reminiscent of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who lost the states Democratic primary in 06 only to win the statewide election thereafter as an independent. The militants rejected him while mainstreamers decisively returned him to power.
Why are the rigid partisans on both sides so frightened? Because even the wing-nuts have learned over the years that a preponderance of polling data illustrates that most Americans are socially moderate and fiscally conservative while being strong on national defense.
A more strangling frustration however will tighten around the Democrats because while the hierarchies of both camps are unnerved by centrists, a Giuliani victory would become a Bill Clinton moment for the GOP. Just as Bill extricated control of the Democratic Party from the far-Left, Rudy would take from the far-Right that similar influence. Republicans would accomplish in 08 the broader appeal once enjoyed by Democrats in the 90s. This of course was before they succumbed to the authoritarian collectivism of Moveon.org and the pro-Tiananmen Square massacre mentality of International ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism).
Mr. Giuliani will nonetheless encounter battles with his own partys old guard, but its a healthy and necessary process. Social conservatives will never come around to his perspective on gay rights and abortion, but will continue admiring his law enforcement prowess, contempt for a legislative judiciary, and zealous advocacy for free trade. Hes also the only candidate who has spoken extensively on the dangers of crossing the separation of powers between the branches, and how Constitutional law outranks legislative law each and every time - regardless of whether or not its liked by Congress, the Supreme Court or the Executive Branch.
Yet these are cautionary challenges juxtaposed to the well-grounded nervousness felt by Democrats over Giulianis prowess. In a column entitled, Democrats Should Go After Giuliani NOW, popular left-wing syndicated columnist Roland Martin recommends going after the pre- 9/11 Rudy:
He was accused of being grossly insensitive to the family of a black man shot numerous times by the police and his rudeness was the talk of City Hall. (Creators Syndicate, February 16, 2007.)
However, Martin later admits in that column:
There is no candidate that strikes fear in the hearts of Democrats more than Giuliani. He has mass appeal, can raise money, has a huge name I.D. and is strong on defense. He talks tough and walks even tougher.
A month later, a quasi-progressive magazine published an opinion piece by Robert Polner entitled, What an anti-Giuliani add should say, wherein he supports the need to emphasize the benefits of disparaging the Mayors 9/11 credentials just as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did in the 2004 election against Senator John Kerrys military service. He argues that the Democrats should use the International Association of Fire Fighters drafted letter of rebuke:
It blasted Giuliani for his "disgraceful" order of November 2001 that forced hundreds of New York firefighters to stop searching ground zero for the remains of their fallen brethren. (Salon Magazine, March 17, 2007)
Somehow, this scheduling dispute pales when compared to the veteran-turned-activists own comments before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he characterized the confessed actions of a minority of soldiers as if they were the atrocities of most:
They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. (Government transcript of John Kerrys testimony, April 22, 1971, courtesy of C-SPAN)
However, the country will soon see the benefits of Giulianis pre-9/11 record. During his tenure, crime dropped, employment rose, the economy strengthened, drug use plummeted, and Time Square stopped being the toilet everyone wanted to flush.
He accomplished what 40 years worth of predecessors could not he allowed my city to radiate again with pride.
Hope I didn’t ruin any plans you may have had while you waited for me to respond to whether I favor child pornography. I try to be on FR 24 hours a day but I find it damn impossible.
I also find it impossible to believe that some people need to be spoon fed.
I’ll try again.
The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;”. Pretty straight forward. No and, if, or buts. It is as “absolute” as the Second Amendment. Actually, clearer. On its face certainly “freedom of speech, or of the press” isn’t as open to interpretation as the issue of RTBA and its relationship to militias.
So how can Congress abridge the freedom of the Press to publish any pornography?
Because we know that the Founders could not have imagined contemporary pornography, and certainly child pornography, in their wildest dreams- or nightmares. We know that it would be absurd to believe that the First Amendment allows anything. So have the courts ruled, and we have readily accepted those rulings, as common sense which overrides- or abridges- Freedom of the Press.
But strangely people who accept that the First Amendment can be made to conform to reality argue that the Second is sacred.
In the same way that the Founders could not have imagined contemporary pornography, they could not have imagined the United States in 2007. They could not have imagined NYC. They could not have imagined the multicultural, multi ethnic metropolis. They could not have imagined the NYC subway system.
And as it is impossible that they anticipated that unabridged Freedom of the Press should allow child pornography, so too it is impossible to believe that they would have thought that by the Second they are allowing that in a subway car where they may be pychpaths, sociopaths, criminals, white supremacists, black supremacist, toddlers, grandmas, Jihadists, schools girls, and other assorted human beings, that all can come into that car with weapons concealed under the rights of the Second Amendment.
All the Amendments are equal. The Second is not special. And as I wrote above, while the First, Fourth and others, remain vital to our freedoms and liberty, the purpose of the Second has been superceeded by the fact that the citizen can never again dream of having arms proportionate to those available to the Government.
Now call me a Liberal.
You are in a class by yourself if you believe that the First Amendment should protect child pornographers.
I don’t even think the ACLU supports your position.
And to return to commentary regarding Rudy Giuliani.
You started off this thread defending him. Yet, he is the one that closed down the porn shops in NYC. It was not an “America is a Christian Nation” politician who did it.
It was your man Rudy.
Now I just think you’re illiterate.
You're just frustrated that the vast majority of members here aren't locking in marchstep behind Giuliani.
For a few bucks a month, you can easily create your own website and you and your misguided Rudy minions can cheerlead Rudy until the cows come home.
Most FReepers do not support Rudy. We will not support him in the primaries, and if he wins the nomination, we will stay home or vote for a 3rd party candidate. This is something you need to simply realize and stop trying to shove your candidate down our throats.
No, I’m not illiterate. Yours was simply the first post I have ever read on this forum that claimed that the First Amenment should protect child pornographers.
And I find it strange that you use that as a reason to support Rudy Giuliani.
Freeper polls show that when push comes to shove, Rudy will hold about half of the Freeper vote in the General. The bad Torie has this thing, that maybe Rudy should be nominated and elected, if only to demonstrate that no one wing of the GOP can dictate anything. It isn’t all about me, as it were. Punish the hubris, and then punish it some more, so the bad Torie muses.
BTW, I didn't think you were making an argument for child pornography.
I'm thankful for that as that only leaves me as being a "child murderer" of which I was accused a few days ago.
FreeRepublic is so rational and fun these days. Still I long for the good ole days when the worst I was accused of was being an Israeli First traitor to the US.
I'm thankful for that as that only leaves me as being a "child murderer" of which I was accused a few days ago. FreeRepublic is so rational and fun these days. Still I long for the good ole days when the worst I was accused of was being an Israeli First traitor to the US.
I'm surprised you haven't been shot at dawn. I long for those posts that could dissect an EO right down to its heart in ten minutes after Xlinton signed it. I miss the posters who would rip any legislation to shreds and expose the true Dim agenda, people who could take a news article and find the slyest line of propaganda in the very first read of it. We've lost some good posters over the years. We were more radical then but more effective.
I'd begun to think you were busy with Easter. Or with an egghunt. Then I reconsidered and recalled there was some quaint custom of observing a holiday called Passover. Just a little ribbing. It's funny sometimes to be so majoritarian that you fail to realize that a holiday you celebrate has an older tradition from which it derives.
So happy Passover! Well, if that's the correct term and if it isn't over already (which I suspect it is).
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