At CPAC, Romney gave the most polished speech, touching all the
conservative movement's erogenous zones, pointedly denouncing the
``McCain-Kennedy'' immigration bill and promising to seek repeal of the
McCain-Feingold law regulating campaign speech. Romney, however, is
criticized by many conservatives for what they consider multiple
conversions of convenience -- on abortion, stem cell research, gay
rights,
gun control. But if Romney is now locked into positions that these
conservatives like, why do they care so much about whether political
calculation or moral epiphany moved him there?
Giuliani is comprehensively out of step with social conservatives,
and
likely to remain so. He probably assumes two things.
First, that some of the social issues have gone off the boil
because
argument about them seems sterile: Democrats have scant interest in
federal
gun control legislation; scientific advances may obviate the need for
using
stem cells; cultural changes will do more than any feasible legislation
can
do to reduce abortion numbers; the way to change abortion law is to
change
courts by means of judicial nominations of the sort Giuliani promises to
make.
Second, that his deviations from the social conservatives' agenda
is
more than balanced by his record as mayor of New York. That city was
liberalism's laboratory as it went from the glittering metropolis
celebrated in the movie ``Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961) to the
dystopia
of the novel ``Bonfire of the Vanities'' (1987). Giuliani successfully
challenged the culture of complaint that produced the politics of
victimhood that resulted in government by grievance groups.
He favors school choice, he opposes bilingual education that
confines
students to linguistic ghettos and he ended the ``open admissions''
policy
that degraded City University, once an effective instrument of upward
mobility. The suggestion that 9/11 required city tax increases triggered
from Giuliani four adjectives: ``dumb, stupid, idiotic and moronic.''
Conservatism comes in many flavors. None seems perfect for every
conservative's palate; most should be satisfactory to most
conservatives.
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