By Darren Mcvey
November 2008 is only 20 months away. For those who dream of residence on Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s about time to form exploratory committees, make the Sunday talk show rounds and, most importantly, raise more cash than Rick Pitino spends on suits.
Democratic candidates are still trying to figure out which side of the War on Terror they are supposed to be on. And on the Republican side, what looked like a three-way race between John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani has become much more interesting.
Romney continues his free fall in the polls, Newt Gingrich continues to act like he might not run and Fred Thompson has every Reaganite right of Ann Coulter dreaming of another actor-politician to spark a Republican revolution.
The front-runner is still Rudy Giuliani, but his potential candidacy raises some issues about the conservative movement.
The GOP is the party of original intent and strict Constitutional constructionism, but it seems they’ve forgotten about the most important and revolutionary aspect of American government, federalism.
The Founding Fathers realized the dangers of a powerful centralized government. This knowledge and fear led to the creation of the Articles of Confederation, which featured 13 loosely affiliated states held together by a powerless national government.
The failure of the Articles spawned the most innovative form of government mankind had ever seen.
In Federalism, the states had as much power as possible, but the central government held the power to do things that states couldn’t do; provide defense, control money and that’s about it.
Today’s conservatives, mostly the religious right, have forgotten the most important part of Federalism, states’ rights. The social issues of abortion, same-sex marriage and gun control are near and dear to the hearts of the conservative base.
Under the Constitution, however, those issues are out of the federal government’s control. Liberals have succeeded in making social issues into national issues and conservatives allowed themselves to be caught in the trap.
Conservatives need to bring social issues back to the state level. Not just because they constitutionally belong there, but because conservatives will win when the people decide on abortion and same-sex marriage.
Which brings up Giuliani. The former mayor of New York City is possibly the most conservative Republican candidate on fiscal and foreign policy.
There is no doubt where he stands on economic issues; he turned New York around by lowering taxes and cutting restrictions. There is no reason to believe he wouldn’t do the same in the White House.
On Foreign Policy, he may be the most reliable candidate to execute the War on Terror and fight any other threat that comes along. He proved to be tough on terrorists when he kicked Arafat out of the Lincoln Center.
His nomination is not set in stone, however, because the evangelical Christians don’t like his personal stance on the social issues.
Frankly, those issues shouldn’t matter. Giuliani is not running for Senate, he’s running for President.
Legislators are different than executives, the job of a legislator is to speak for the people and represent them in congress. The job of the president boils down to two obligations: protecting the nation and growing the economy.
The President must be strong on threats abroad and tough on crime at home. He must also provide an environment where the economy can grow and Americans can prosper. Giuliani is perfectly suited for this job; he already did it in New York.
What Giuliani thinks about abortion and same-sex marriage is irrelevant, he is the best candidate to run the country. Well, except for maybe Fred Thompson.
Darren McVey is a third year chemical engineering major. E-mail him at opinion@louisvillecardinal.com.
