Malanga Recalls What Seems Like Ancient History
Let me go ahead and pile on and be one of the many blogs that links to this article in City Journal about the Giuliani years here in the Big Apple. Let me just add my view, a view that was informed by the fact that I lived through it all, that Malanga has it dead right. You really couldn't appreciate how stunning the Giuliani years were unless you experienced how bad the Dinkins years were. They were terrible and made the Giuliani years feel like an unprecedented Golden Age after Rudy brought the city back. The great years brought back so many jobs and opportunities that thousands of young people came back after years where there was not much cause for young people to strike out and make their way in NYC. Sadly, most of these people were freshly-minted graduates who came to believe that the New York City of Rudy Giuliani was just normal, that it was and always will be that way. Au contraire.
Second I hear constantly that Rudy can't win in the red states because of his social views (and the insulting implicit antedeluvian views of red state denizens). Poppycock. Sure, you may find pockets of disgust for a guy like Rudy but I would bet that his appeal is much wider than people know, especially in the increasingly urbanized south and southwest. On my ventures to places like Oklahoma and North Carolina, I detect nothing but open-mindedness regarding a Rudy candidacy. I suspect what is at work here is more of the pundit class's cocoon-generated cluelessness. (Cue the famous Pauline Kael quote.)
Third, I have always thought that there was a huge appetite for a candidate that embodied conservative management ideas but without the oftentimes off-putting social conservatism, call it like a 'tax cuts and stem cells' kind of platform. The punditocracy has always seemed to claim such a demand was out there, at least obliquely as they pour disdain on social conservatism but have to temper their partisanship for appearances. Rudy is that candidate. So why now all the doubters who think that our candidates must come pre-packaged with standard features?
Finally, the cold calculus of electoral politics argues in favor of Rudy. Rudy can be competitive in traditional blue states whereas no other Republican candidate would even come close. Rudy will make New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut competitive, and I don't think he gives up places like Nebraska or Kentucky to do it. The 2008 election will see the Republicans desperately trying to hold onto some of their traditionally strong states, all the more reason to turn places like New Jersey into toss-ups rather than concede them by nominating McCain or Romney.
Don't forget, when Rudy first ran for mayor here, he ran as an "Independent Republican." It was truth in advertising and the product worked damn well. I think America is ready for that...in fact, America has always been ready for that.
N.B. I might add that Rudy was reviled by garden variety NYC whackadoos for wanting to shut down the last few remaining Peep Show stalls on Eighth Avenue between MSG and Port Authority.
Second I hear constantly that Rudy can't win in the red states because of his social views (and the insulting implicit antedeluvian views of red state denizens). Poppycock. Sure, you may find pockets of disgust for a guy like Rudy but I would bet that his appeal is much wider than people know, especially in the increasingly urbanized south and southwest. On my ventures to places like Oklahoma and North Carolina, I detect nothing but open-mindedness regarding a Rudy candidacy. I suspect what is at work here is more of the pundit class's cocoon-generated cluelessness. (Cue the famous Pauline Kael quote.)
Third, I have always thought that there was a huge appetite for a candidate that embodied conservative management ideas but without the oftentimes off-putting social conservatism, call it like a 'tax cuts and stem cells' kind of platform. The punditocracy has always seemed to claim such a demand was out there, at least obliquely as they pour disdain on social conservatism but have to temper their partisanship for appearances. Rudy is that candidate. So why now all the doubters who think that our candidates must come pre-packaged with standard features?
Finally, the cold calculus of electoral politics argues in favor of Rudy. Rudy can be competitive in traditional blue states whereas no other Republican candidate would even come close. Rudy will make New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut competitive, and I don't think he gives up places like Nebraska or Kentucky to do it. The 2008 election will see the Republicans desperately trying to hold onto some of their traditionally strong states, all the more reason to turn places like New Jersey into toss-ups rather than concede them by nominating McCain or Romney.
Don't forget, when Rudy first ran for mayor here, he ran as an "Independent Republican." It was truth in advertising and the product worked damn well. I think America is ready for that...in fact, America has always been ready for that.
N.B. I might add that Rudy was reviled by garden variety NYC whackadoos for wanting to shut down the last few remaining Peep Show stalls on Eighth Avenue between MSG and Port Authority.
posted by Donny Baseball at 8:43 AM
4 Comments:
Giuliani was anti capitalism and anti wall street when he was the NY AG. Should we forgive and forget what he did from the NY AG's office? I would like to ask him if he could go back in time, would he still do it again.
Yes, Don Luskin at Poor and Stupid feels the same way. I have mixed feelings.
Bat-
All fine points and I am torn between what you and TS express versus what I experienced here in NYC. Politics is never for the pure. I don't like accepting that fact but sometimes I feel I must because, as in many other areas of life, I never let the perfect stand in the way of the good.
Thanks for the memories of old NY. I'm a bit younger than you I suspect, but I remember stories that my mom would tell about her, at age 12, hauling her two younger siblings from Queens to the West side of Manhattan to grandma's house. Even I was allowed to take the train in unaccompanied to meet my dad for a Yanks or Rangers game.
Bat-
Good post over at SA. One thing I am amazed at is that people assume that because a politician has an opionion that means that opinion simply must translate to a high priority legislative agenda. Yes, Rudy was pro-gun control as a prosecutor and mayor of NYC. Does that mean that Rudy top priority is attacking the 2nd amendment at a national level? Many Democrats are pro-life. Does that mean that reversing Roe v. Wade is their major ambition? I think Rudy will view many of his opinions as no business of the nation's and no business of the federal government. I am not scared of a pro-life, pro-gun control President Giuliani.
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