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George Washington Giuliani,
the Fuhrer of our country?by Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
January 28, 2001Rudy's Farewell Speech
(New York City Saturday, January 29, 2001)
The Mayor's delusional personality was - to use a favorite Giulianiism - "very, very" much on display during his farewell address in historic St. Paul's Chapel this past Thursday 12/27/2001.
He appeared intent on associating himself in our minds with America's greatest hero, George Washington, who prayed in the church after being inaugurated. Let's hope Rudy Giuliani's self-serving speech before his usual closed circle of cronies and contributors only temporarily desecrated the hallowed ground he stood on."America's Mayor" is if anything George Washington's polar opposite. Despite his rumored ambition to be Vice President in 2004 and President in 2008 he is poor leadership material for this or any freedom-loving country. Unlike our modest first President, Giuliani is a vindictive tyrant and megalomaniac - a small man in search of a balcony - whose philosophy is best summed up in his classic motto, "Freedom is about authority."
George Washington was posthumously credited with having never told a lie. Rudy Giuliani may be best remembered for having never told the truth.
George Washington and the Revolutionary War patriots who founded this nation risked their lives and liberty for the right to be free in one's property and possessions; to be free from illegal searches and seizures; and for the right to be free to speak out, to assemble and to peacefully protest against governmental oppression. These are the ideals Giuliani has spent his entire public career mocking and enthusiastically violating at every opportunity.
Washington's reputation was based on personal accomplishments so great they could hardly be exaggerated. Giuliani's reputation for greatness is nothing but an exaggeration.
The Mayor's smallness of character seeped through every sentence of his final maudlin speech. Interspersed between his usual invocations to God, freedom and country "Our Rudy" took great pains to insult a Federal judge who ruled in favor of a Fifth Avenue church's right to allow homeless families to sleep on their steps and attacked the editorial boards of newspapers for daring to criticize his policies. What country do they think this is the Mayor asked his retinue of loyal yes-men and fawning groupies, America?
George Washington was a slave-owner yet his efforts on behalf of freedom have economically and socially benefited Americans of every race and economic class for more than two centuries. Recently knighted by the Queen of England, "Sir Rudy's" lavish corporate welfare checks handed out to billionaires like David Rockefeller, Donald Trump and George Steinbrenner will financially enslave NYC taxpayers for generations to come. Contrast the Mayor's final orgy of budget cuts and last minute attacks aimed at the poor, the sick, children, libraries, hospitals, schools, community centers, the homeless and the City's immigrants of color with how generously Mr. Welfare Reform doles out the tax dollars to his plutocrat-pals, even post 9/11.
George Washington refused the pleas of his supporters and top aides that he become our nation's king. In resisting the seductions of unlimited power and public adulation, he established the tradition of a limited Presidency which has protected electoral democracy ever since.
In contrast, Giuliani the "hero" spent much of the 9/11 crisis pre-occupied with trying to subvert the orderly succession of elections George Washington had helped establish so that he could indefinitely remain in power beyond his legally-mandated two terms in office. Like the dictators who have rocked 20th century history with their mad ambitions, this small man despises the very premise of democracy, aspiring to be nothing less than our god-king.
Unlike Washington, who left his successors a legacy of sober respect for the rule of law and a nation of unlimited promise, Giuliani leaves the new Mayor a four billion dollar budget deficit, thousands of lawsuits for false arrest, a publicly-owned City Hall less open to the public than England's Royal Palace and a contract with two billionaire baseball team owners requiring our newly impoverished City to build them each a giant baseball stadium at taxpayer expense.
Washington is revered as the Father of our Country and is the role model of a dignified and decent public official. Giuliani is a serial adulterer who went out of his way to humiliate his second wife and her children by dumping their mother on live T.V. and appearing at countless parades and public events with his mistress.
Perhaps inspired by the Roman Emperors, who fancied themselves to be divinely above the morality their subjects were required to follow, Giuliani is an immoral moralist. Who but a sociopath would try to legally install his mistress as the City's official First Lady while sternly lecturing us all on "decency"? He has been neither a good example to his children nor to the City he absurdly claims to have "civilized."
Derived from the heightened theatricality of the Italian operas he loves, Giuliani's costumed antics - his acting roles range from a singing, slinky Marilyn Monroe to a jack-booted Adolf Hitler - leave an indelible impression, even on those unable to follow the plot due to it being in a foreign language - Giulianese. One can only hope that future generations will see him exposed to a more truthful light than the corporate media has so dutifully shone on him since performing his Oscar-caliber 9/11 three-in-one performance as Super-Rudy, Father to us all, Disaster-Site Tour Guide to the Stars and Scourge of Terrorists Everywhere.
Like a gigantic Macy's Day Parade balloon caught in a strong wind, the Mayor's uncontrolled ego could someday present a serious threat to Democracy's safety if he's not properly reigned in. Inflated far beyond its capacity, the laws of physics must inevitably cause this reputation for greatness to spring a leak and explode.
Our new Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, will be inaugurated Monday night in the center of Giuliani's most-lauded accomplishment - the Disneyfied and thoroughly sterilized Times Square. Mr. Bloomberg has repeatedly praised Giuliani for his many "accomplishments" and has promised to maintain if not outdo his controversial "Quality of Life" arrest policies.
When the truth starts to come out about the real nature of Giuliani's reign, let's hope the blast of hot air escaping from the Rudy balloon does not completely wilt the new Mayor's chances for success. If success is his goal, Mayor Bloomberg would do well to start by emulating the real George Washington and not the two-bit Washington impersonation Rudy Giuliani has been performing in his magic mirror for the past eight years.
In his final official speech Giuliani also sought to emulate another famous President, Abraham Lincoln. Let Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg both recall Lincoln's most famous quote:
"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time."
"Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority." -Mayor Giuliani, New York Times, March 17, 1994
"Precedents are dangerous things; let the reins of government then be braced and held with a steady hand, and every violation of the Constitution be reprehended: If defective let it be amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an existence." -George Washington
NY TIMES December 28, 2001
In Final Address, Giuliani Envisions Soaring Memorial
As City Hall was being festooned with red-white-and-blue bunting in anticipation of Mr. Bloomberg's inauguration on Tuesday, Mayor Giuliani took the unusual step of saying goodbye from the 18th-century chapel where George Washington prayed after being inaugurated president.
Newsday 12/22/2001
Giuliani set to leave after an operatic eight years in office
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer
In "The Marriage of Figaro," Count Almaviva is suddenly and unexpectedly forgiven by his enemies for a host of alleged transgressions ranging from abuse of power to infidelity. The opera, one of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's favorites, parallels the arc of Giuliani's complicated relationship with the city as he prepares to leave City Hall Dec. 31 after eight wildly uneven and operatic years in office. He departs amid an outpouring of praise that would have been unthinkable a few months ago when newspapers were full of tidbits about his sordid divorce and accounts of his angry public outbursts.
NY TIMES December 29, 2001
Giuliani Presents Deal on Stadiums
Trying to seal an 11th-hour deal on one of his most cherished projects, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that he had entered into tentative deals with the New York Yankees and the New York Mets to build stadiums for a combined $1.6 billion in the backyards of the teams' current ballparks. Mr. Giuliani, who insisted that Mayor-elect Michael R. Bloomberg was on board with his plan, held a news conference yesterday and displayed models of the proposed new stadiums, retractable roofs and all. Appearing with George M. Steinbrenner 3rd, the chief owner of the Yankees, he seemed to be trying to make Mr. Bloomberg, who has repeatedly expressed ambivalence about the projects, an offer he could not refuse...New baseball stadiums were the last and perhaps most important piece of unfinished business that Mr. Giuliani had sought to clean up as he entered his final weeks; negotiations were stalled after Sept. 11, and the mayor's aides have worked tirelessly to keep the Mets and the Yankees even at considerable cost and despite the absence of any credible threats by the teams to leave the city...Randy Levine, the Yankees' president [Levine is also Giuliani's former Deputy Mayor and long-time personal friend], said there would be fewer higher-priced seats, in order to preserve the number of cheaper ones...Officials from the Mets and the Yankees expressed enthusiasm yesterday. "We were happy to be able to do this for New York," Mr. Steinbrenner said. "When 3.3 million people come out and support us," he added, they ought to have shorter lines at the restrooms and concession stands...Referring to the city's need to recover economically after Sept. 11, Robert Baade, a longtime critic of public financing of stadiums who is an economics professor at Lake Forest College in Illinois, said the city's involvement in new stadiums "strikes me as insensitive and ill- timed at this particular juncture.
To a Directory of Mr.Lederman's Essays
Robert Lederman is an artist, writer and activist and is also the President of the street artist advocacy group, A.R.T.I.S.T.
Click here for an archive of A.R.T.I.S.T. related news articles on the Freedom Forum websiteHis essays and Op-Eds have appeared in hundreds of alternative publications as well as the Daily News, Penthouse, Africa Sun Times, Street News and The Shadow.
Lederman was falsely arrested 41 times for his anti-Giuliani activities and was never convicted of any of the charges. As a result of the arrests, he's won four Federal lawsuits and overturned three laws.
He is best known for having created hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator which were carried in demonstrations throughout the eight years of the Giuliani administration. Images of his paintings and articles about his arrests and lawsuits have appeared on all of the major television networks hundreds of times as well as frequently appearing in the NY Times, Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Newsweek, People, The Washington Post, LA Times and NY Magazine.Robert Lederman,
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
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