Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Giuliani and birthright citizenship

There were a lot of immigration questions today, and Giuliani didn’t satisfy the hardcore border security first people with his answers. He did try--rather cleverly, I thought--to turn their concern with security against them, arguing that encouraging people to come forward would make it easier to go after those who wanted to remain in the shadows.

Someone asked him about "anchor babies" and he offered the conventional "birthright citizenship" answer, based on something other than a simply "strict construction" of the 14th Amendment. For a stricter construction, you can go here and here.

I would say that his deferral here to a simplistic reading of the Constitution also does him no credit.

Discussions - 8 Comments

I recently found out that as mayor Giuliani defended NYC's "immigrant sanctuary" policy all the way up to the Supreme Court (he lost, but that didn't amount to much). Thus, we have a man who thinks it is perfectly OK for a city to defy Federal immigration law. I'm beginning to wonder why this man is a Republican -- he seems to be on the wrong side of several issues that are core concerns of the base.

Although I am not a single-issue voter, immigration comes very close to a deal-breaker for me. As it stands, I don't see how I could vote for him. Let O'Hillary have 4 years -- after they've run the country into a ditch, perhaps the GOP will find a way to nominate a conservative. With gasoline likely to hit $4, staying home on election day is beginning to make more and more sense.

Joe K., maybe I am missing something, but I don't see how a different answer would have done Giuliani "credit". Birthright citizenship is the mainstream position. Whether it is correct or not (I have no opinion on that) the courts have sided with Giuliani's interpretation for about 150 years. Are you really suggesting that it would be better for Giuliani to take the opposite view? I think it would look like pandering and would help paint him as being outside the mainstream. Some people reading this post might like it, but it certainly wouldn't help him get elected.

I agree with your comments, Professor Knippenberg. I'm liking Rudy less and less, for just such reasons. Too often, he does not think outside the liberal box. Which has been a major problem with President Bush, and may be even more of a problem with Rudy on certain issues.

2: No, Dain, "staying home on election day" NEVER makes sense. It is unilateral disarmament, an invitation to political rape. If you must preach this kind of defeatism, don't pollute this site with it. Your "the worse the better" scenario is naive at best. Way too many "ifs."

The third-world invasion of the West is the greatest threat facing us today. As Jean Raspail said in Camp of the Saints, "the best conservative novel of all time," we can make a stand against these third-world hordes, or we can watch the West crumble.

David, we've had this disagreement before. If I am confronted with two liberal candidates, I choose neither, period. Yes, there is much at stake, but sometimes things have to get worse before they get better (much like the beginnings of a fever). Without Carter would the country have elected Reagan? We have a reactionary electoral, and a pretty ignorant one at that. Sometimes you just have to show people how bad it can get.

The current GOP has relied on "fear of the liberal" to elect crooks, bums, and (yes) some traitors. Enough. While I will not vote for some quixotic third party (that would waste both my time and my gasoline), I also refuse to be stampeded into supporting a candidate who doesn't represent most of my "core" interests...even if he would be slightly "better" than the alternative. Such logic (i.e., voting for the least of evils) blands down the ideological distinctions over time, and pretty soon you don't have anyone representing your interests.

And yea, I know, Supreme Court...yada yada yada. The stakes are high, sure. Nonetheless, a base must behave like a base if it wants its needs served over time. A base that prostitutes itself out for cheap electoral "victories" will find itself increasingly manipulated or ignored. Here endeth the lesson.

Staying home on election day doesn't make much sense, but strategic voting for a candidate to the right does. If Rudy is the nominee, then I don't see how any self-respecting conservative could do anything other than vote third party.



Click on my name to visit the Conservative Exodus Project.

And some of you folks better wake up to our immigration problems. Of all the issues on the table, it alone could be a civilization buster. Hell, if the Census Bureau sees some of the problem, why can't you folks?

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