Giuliani's Interesting Mix

It's no coincidence that I decided this was the year I should start learning about politics. A presidential election is upcoming and as such there is a plethora of different political views being expressed by presidential hopefuls at the moment. Time will narrow the number of candidates and hence the number of viewpoints expressed, so for me this year is almost as interesting as next year will be. This brings me to the subject of this post: Rudolph Giuliani, a different kind of Republican.

Giuliani is widely criticized by conservatives for being "socially liberal." In particular, Giuliani's pro-choice stand is unacceptable for many conservative voters. Although the war and terrorism have changed the United States, abortion remains the most important issue for at least some Americans. The interesting thing about Giuliani to me is that he blends conservative and liberal views pretty well. He seems like a candidate who, although he will alienate some members of his own party, will be very able to attract some voters nominally attached to the other party as well as independents. Giuliani tries to come across as a tough guy, the crusading mayor of New York who cut crime and was a pillar of strength in the crisis of September 11. But Giuliani is, notwithstanding his indignation at a recent debate for being called soft, a "compassionate conservative" in other respects. He has a mayoral record of cutting taxes yet also increasing funding for education; he cut government spending and supported gun control. Giuliani's platform, thus, is not cookie-cutter and has the potential to appeal to voters who are also unique.

In practice, however, Giuliani hasn't really been running as a liberal/conservative "fusion" candidate. He at times seems like a demagogue who is running on only one issue: terrorism. His recent attempt to villify Ron Paul was effective in the heat of the debate, but I wonder if Giuliani can really effectively combat terrorism if he truly believes terrorists act mindlessly. From my perspective, the 9/11 terrorists were evil, but I don't consider them all to have been insane. They had reasons for doing what they did -- reasons that don't resonate with me, but which were so compelling to them that it led them to kill and to die. If a change in American foreign policy would make those reasons less compelling to other would-be terrorists, I'd certainly hope a president would at least consider making that change. Would-be terrorists could be would-be businessmen or would-be farmers in other circumstances; they might remain evil people no matter what walk of life they choose to follow, but perhaps as businessmen or farmers they would cause less suffering. When Ron Paul, another very "unique" candidate, chastises Giuliani for a lack of foreign policy knowledge it seems well deserved. Giuliani remains an interesting candidate, however, and I hope he will be brave enough to campaign strongly on a wide range of issues. A debate with Ron Paul could also be really interesting -- although Giuliani would be giving a fringe candidate some prestige, Rudy could also demonstrate that he does have a sound reason for believing as he does and is not the foreign policy ignoramus Paul has painted him to be.