Los Angeles Times political writer Ronald Brownstein says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is promoting federalism as he runs for the GOP presidential nomination.
Social issues such as gay rights and gun control divide America so sharply largely because no one has found a single solution for them equally acceptable to both churchgoing conservatives and secular liberals. The first step toward resolving these disputes may be to recognize that the search for a single solution has itself become part of the problem.
More than any other 2008 presidential hopeful, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has grasped that insight. Giuliani is mostly running for the GOP presidential nomination as a warrior against Islamic terrorism. But his most innovative domestic idea casts him as a peacemaker on the social issues that have divided the nation since the 1960s.
Giuliani argues that the best way to reduce tension about social issues is to allow states, rather than the federal government, to take the lead in responding to them. That would allow socially conservative and liberal states to each set rules that reflect the prevailing values inside their borders. Rather than perpetual combat in Washington, he insists, the nation could reach a new equilibrium as different states gravitated to different solutions.ADVERTISEMENT
In an interview last week, Giuliani said the key to resolving cultural arguments "where our society on a national level ends up being very divided" is to apply the "principle of federalism." Questions on topics such as gun control, gay rights or aspects of abortion, he continued, "are issues that I think the founding fathers would say should be consigned to state and local governments, experimenting, deciding, having different views, and the federal government having a more limited role."
That perspective leads Giuliani toward positions uncomfortable for both left and right.
Though some view Rudy as a rather authoritarian figure, if he really is committed to federalism, that's a good thing, especially as it means that once the GOP race becomes a two-man between Rudy and Fred Thompson, as I believe is almost inevitable, it will be race between two candidates who are committed to federalism.
Though if you read all of Brownstein's piece, you realize Rudy isn't as committed to federalism as he should be.
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