On August 9th of 1997, a young Haitian immigrant by the name of Abner Louima in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn was brought to a police station after being arrested for his role in a brawl at a popular night club. While he was punched, beaten with a stick, had a plunger brutally inserted into his backside causing severe damage to his colon and bladder, while he agonized in a pool of blood, an officer from the New York Police Department told him: “it’s Giuliani Time.”
Two years later, a West African Muslim immigrant by the name of Amadou Diallo had his turn to experience Giuliani Time. The encounter would be brief, and it would cost him his life. The unarmed man was walking home in his Bronx neighborhood and was approached by the NYPD. When he made a gesture to reach for his wallet the officers fired 41 shots, killing an unarmed, hard-working man with no criminal record in cold blood. This was Giuliani Time in New York, a time when the rules and regulations on the police had been loosened and residents of many African-American, Latino and immigrant neighborhoods lived in fear of mostly white elite units in the department who, under the direction of Giuliani, often cracked down brutally on any perceived threats.
The police tactics of the Giuliani administration were not in vain; they coincided with the massive uprooting of the poor and working-classes of New York City in order to make way for the more affluent crowd that sought to turn NYC into their own playground. Rudy led the fight to turn NYC from a place made up largely traditional, working-class families in ethnic neighborhoods to a mecca of hedonism and mindless consumerism. Many of those who worked with Rudy all came away with the same impression: he is hard on the little guy, and an authoritarian. In other words, “he does not play well with others”.
The style of conservatism that Rudy championed is not that of Evangelical Christians or that of grassroots white populism. The conservatism of Rudy in New York was based on a tough law-and-order stance, a pro Wall Street view of economics, hostility towards minorities, and “small government”. While Republicans around the country were railing against gays, Rudy left his second-wife in order to go and live with a gay couple while publicly committing adultery. While the grassroots was railing against abortion, Rudy was funding it. Far from being an enemy of Hollywood and the “cultural elite,” Rudy was a friend to that particular crowd. This occurred at the same time that the coalition of the traditional America left waned, and many who thought of themselves as liberal no longer had much concern for issues of racial and economic justice, being more interested in lifestyle issues. And on those issues, Rudy was in agreement with them.
Giuliani’s role as the mayor of New York city gives you a pretty good idea of what Rudy will be like as a President on domestic issues; he will do little in the way of making health-care accessible to all, he will favor immigration that benefits the business class, he will not push on social issues, and he will do very little to fight for racial and economic justice. In addition to this, Rudy has a history in NYC of putting his own cronies (such as former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is now under indictment and has alleged ties to the Sicilian Mafia of New York) in high positions. We could expect a Rudy cabinet to be stacked with yes-men and women, much like in the Bush White House.
What does Giuliani’s past tell us about what kind of a world leader he would be? New York’s elected officials, more so than any other American politicians, have to take an undiplomatic stance on issues regarding Israel and her Arab neighbors. This is done for political necessity. Rudy was a mayor who had strong support from the pro-Israel lobby, and throughout political career has remained an uncompromising supporter of the right-wing line of thought wherein Israel is concerned. Rudy, for example, personally ejected Yasser Arafat from a concert for world leaders in New York. He’s even gone as far as compare Ariel Sharon to all-American hero Babe Ruth.
Prior to 9-11 Rudy simply known for being pro-Israel; but post 9-11 the man with no military experience or a previous foreign policy post, has sought to define himself as the ultimate warrior against “Islamic fascism,” and is seeking to dance on the blood of the 9-11 victims all the way to the White House. He crassly exploits the tragedy at every possible opportunity. In an average speech, he mentions 9-11 in practically every other sentence.
In America, Rudy was seen as a great “take-charge” leader following 9-11and he wants to keep reminding people of this. I, however, fail to see how founding his campaign on a tragedy that he did nothing to cause or prevent is at all justifiable. In the grand scheme of things, Rudy was a bystander to 9-11 (a bystander who has gone as far as to claim that he was “one” of the clean-up workers at the rubble of WTC) , so why exactly is he still allowed to use 9-11 to such an extent? The answer is simple: average Americans are still too preoccupied with following professional sports and the lives of celebrities while paying lip service to the political process, so a guy like Rudy can easily continue to piggyback on the deaths of thousands when he is not being asked the tough questions.
It is not hard to figure out what Rudy will do on a global level if elected; he will continue the disastrous and costly traditions of George W. Bush. He will most likely bomb Iran, he will keep American troops planted firmly in Iraq, he will expand the so-called “war on terror” (possibly to Saudi Arabia and Syria), and he will let Israel go unchecked wherein Palestinians are concerned. He is likely to severely curtail minority rights, immigration, and student visas to America, visas from Muslim countries whose younger generations cannot afford to be isolated from the West. He will be in prime position to infringe upon the rights of Muslims living in America, all in the name of his war against “Islamic fascism” – a war whose real purpose is mere political capital.
You can contact Umar at: umarlee [at] gmail [dot] com