Mark Steyn praises Rudy Giuliani for endorsing New Hampshire’s state motto, "Live Free Or Die." I love the motto too. But isn’t it exactly the opposite of what today’s GOP stands for? The entire premise of Giuliani’s positions is that, after 9/11, we should not live free in case we die. Last night, he spoke of two risible plots by total losers with no capability of doing serious damage as grave threats to America’s survival. The Fort Dix goons and the JFK plotters are among the most pathetic, puny enemies this country has ever known. But Giuliani speaks of them as if they were the approach of global catastrophe – and he demands that Americans surrender their most precious liberties in order to remain safe from them. Live free or die? Giuliani’s motto is: Live Under My Protection Or Die.
He eagerly supports the suspension of habeas corpus, he enthusiastically supports the torture of anyone the president drags off the street as a designated "enemy combatant," he has raised no objections to the "unitary executive" theory of presidential power, and he has never expressed the slightest interest in civil liberties. Au contraire. In his time as mayor, I don’t recall a single incident in which Giuliani ever preferred freedom to security. The man tried to prevent people from jay-walking because it was not safe enough. You want your life micro-managed by government? Giuliani’s your guy. The logic of today’s GOP in the war on terror, moreover, is the inverse of New Hampshire’s. In every choice of liberty versus security, the GOP now prefers security, without even publicly acknowledging the costs. And yet Mark Steyn sees no irony here. Do they really not see that their rhetoric on liberty is utterly hollow? Or have they just persuaded themselves that because they’re the ones taking our freedoms away, we have nothing to be concerned about?
The Dish 