RSS 2.0 FeedRudy Giuiliani Is Not A Libertarian, Exhibit Two
by Doug MataconisDavid Weigel at Reason reports this exchange on the campaign trail:
Just finished my reporting trip with a Rudy Giuliani town hall in New Castle, New Hampshire, a tiny island luxuryville a few miles from Portsmouth. Don Murphy from Republicans for Compassionate Access, the pro-medical marijuana group, got to ask Rudy a quick question in the mass flesh-press that preceded him leaving the event. Rough transcription:
MURPHY: You talked about abortion rights and how you trust people to make their own choices. Do you support the choice of cancer patients to use medical marijuana?
RUDY: No, I don’t think a cancer patient should use marijuana. There are other options.Coming after a lot of flights of “the government can’t tell you what to do!” rhetoric, it was pretty abrupt.
After stuff like this, anyone who continues to call Rudy Giuliani a libertarian is either making it up or completely uninformed.
They’re the same people who call Bloomberg a libertarian. Yes they are somewhere between left and right, but they often combine the authoritarian aspects of both sides.
Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that Kos had the gall to call himself a libertarian *snort*
Comment by Nick — June 6, 2007 @ 12:32 pmI await Eric Dondero’s explanation of this and the last Rudy article earlier this week eagerly.
Okay, that last word was sarcastic. But I do wonder what his explanation will be – if he isn’t too busy running for TX-14 District to respond.
Comment by Tom Gellhaus — June 6, 2007 @ 12:48 pmNeither is Ron Paul a Libertarian then- he’s anti-abortion
Comment by Richard — June 6, 2007 @ 1:39 pmRichard,
I’m anti-abortion too. I can’t think that anyone actually thinks aborting a fetus is a good thing, even if they believe someone should have a right to do it.
What you actually mean, of course, is that Congressman Paul is pro-life.
The problem is that your assumption that all libertarians are pro-choice is entirely incorrect.
Comment by Doug Mataconis — June 6, 2007 @ 1:44 pmRichard,
At the risk of sounding a lot like the Ron Paul-spammers, if you check out Paul’s voting record or his essays over at http://www.ronpaullibrary.org you’ll see that he’s ideas on abortion are thoroughly consistent with libertarianism.
My wife (vehemently pro-choice) spent the entire night reading through his essays and at the end had no problem with his views.
Comment by Bret — June 6, 2007 @ 2:28 pmRichard you assume there’s no room for debate on the life issue within the context of libertarianism.
The issue is one that simple liberty-oriented philosophy does not directly engage.
Where does life start? When does that life become human? I’ll admit I’m not the best read when it comes to libertarian writing, but do these issues have a clear-cut answer?
I don’t think so. If you believe that from the moment of copulation, sex (as a consentual act) carries with it an inherent obligation to the potential fetus, then a pro-life stance can hardly be denied.
If you believe that a fetus isn’t a baby/human until it takes its first breath, then a pro-life stance would not be consistent with libertarian views.
The key word here is belief. This is something science can’t answer.
As a med student who used to tutor in embryology, I can give you a lot of facts as to why the ‘first breath’ thing is bollocks. That and the fact that I was born over a month early, perfectly healthy. The difference between me and an ‘abortable fetus’ was one of location, for over a month of my life. I can also give you a lot of reasons why ‘conception’ isn’t a very good point either. Not least of which is the fact that conception isn’t actually the beginning of pregnancy, physiologically and developmentally speaking.
But that’s all that science can do, it can merely inform the debate.
http://www.l4l.org/
Comment by Nick — June 6, 2007 @ 2:44 pmReturning to the original post’s subject, have we heard from Eric Dondero about Rudy’s excuses for his opposition to medical marijuana and his refusal to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge?
Comment by Tom Gellhaus — June 6, 2007 @ 6:16 pmI mean, Eric kept saying months ago that Rudy was a libertarian; I know that Ron Paul is not the only one running who has said they would not use the federal government to oppose states who voted to allow medical marijuana use.
“Live Free or Die”
It would appear that Rudy would prefer people die.
Comment by Seer — June 9, 2007 @ 4:42 pmI was there when Don asked Giuliani, right after he gave a speech about protecting state rights and individual freedom. If you want to find out where all of the presidential candidates stand on medical marijuana please visit http://www.granitestaters.com.
Comment by gsmm — June 11, 2007 @ 6:46 am