Posted by Eugene Volokh:
John McGinnis on Why He Supports Rudy Giuliani for President:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_12_30-2008_01_05.shtml#1199295861
From [1]Prof. John McGinnis:
While I am now a resident of Chicago, I lived in New York City for
the duration of Rudy Giuliani's mayoralty. My support for his
presidential candidacy stems from watching him transform a
derelict, sclerotic and dangerous city into the vibrant urban
center it is today. He did so by promoting the classical liberal
virtues of public order, private accountability and entrepreneurial
freedom that are sorely needed at the federal level. His triumph in
the face of entrenched ideological, partisan and special interest
opposition suggests he can succeed in Washington, making good the
old adage that if you can make it in New York, you can make it
anywhere.
At the time Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor, New York was in danger
of falling apart and becoming an urban shell. Crime was out of
control, with more than 2000 murders a year. There were large areas
of the city where I was afraid to venture. A growing proportion of
the city was on welfare. The Crown Heights riots had revealed the
costs of treating people as members of ethnic groups rather than as
individuals linked by civic bonds. Because of the low quality of
life and high taxes, middle-class citizens were fleeing the city.
Rudy Giuliani turned this all around. He understood that civil
order is the foundation of a prosperous and flourishing society and
thus focused on policies that radically reduced crime of all kinds.
One cannot say of many politicians that there are people alive
because of their policies, but without Rudy Giuliani's leadership
many walking the streets of New York today would have faced an
early death.
Giuliani also understood that personal accountability provided the
best opportunities for escaping poverty. He substituted workfare
for welfare. Just as there are people were alive today as a result
of Giuliani's policies, there are many more who are earning a
decent living and self-respect.
But Giuliani did not simply restore order, he recognized that the
conditions for enterprise and freedom required substantial tax cuts
and deregulation. It is a tribute to the sum of his policy choices
that today most New Yorkers want to stay New Yorkers, and that city
has once again a claim to being the greatest city in the world.
To be sure, Giuliani is not solely responsible for the revival of
New York. Impersonal forces, like the stock market boom and the
decline of the crack epidemic, played important contributing roles.
But huge forces militated against regeneration as well. Every day
New York's leading newspaper delivered a wide range of bad ideas to
the doorsteps of its most influential citizens. Its public sector
sustained powerful unions with a vested interest in preserving the
status quo.
Giuliani personally held these reactionary forces in check with his
relentless stress on the sound political principles of civic order,
personal accountability and freedom. Like Margaret Thatcher, he
forced the opposition to change so that for the foreseeable future
no viable politician in the city will advocate a return to the
culture of dependency and the toleration of low standards of social
conduct.
The values that were at the heart of the Rudy Giuliani's mayoralty
would serve him well as President. Just as there needs to be
respect for civic order in city for it to thrive there needs to be
respect for global order, particularly in an age of weapons of mass
destruction, for the United States to be secure.
The mayor's insistence on personal accountability unites social
conservatives and libertarians and would help him secure the
breadth of the conservative coalition necessary to govern as
President. He is also a strong supporter of federalism -- the
constitutional structure most amenable to that coalition.
Federalism simultaneously allows states to choose social norms that
serve their citizens and citizens to choose states that serve them
the best.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani successfully acted on his understanding that
the greatness of America has been that its institutions foster both
respect for the rule of law and a love of freedom, including
entrepreneurship. A President Giuliani would have both the vision
and determination to maintain, renew, and improve these
institutions.
References
1. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/fulltime/McGinnis/McGinnis.html
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