Republicans With Democratic Viewpoints - United States of America - World

After Bush’s conservative administration, the liberal current is becoming stronger in the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has a very interesting choice of candidates. In the presidential race are people such as the liberal Rudy Giuliani, actor Fred Dalton, who has not yet officially announced his nomination, but has the support of voters, a conservative Mormon Mitt Romney and war veteran John McCain.

According to a poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, 33% of voters believes that Giuliani should be the Republican presidential candidate. He, thus, has a significant advantage over rival John McCain, who has the support of 22 percent of those surveyed. Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson has a 17 percent support, and the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, 12 percent.

America’s mayor

Former New York’s mayor Rudy Giuliani is an interesting persona who surmounts party rifts. Many

Marrying a relative

Apart from viewpoints that no democrat would be ashamed of, Giuliani is not a typical republican with regards to his way of life either. He was married three times, which is completely unacceptable to most republicans, although his first marriage was annulled by the Church because, he says, after 14 years of marriage, he and his wife discovered they were cousins twice removed. He began a relationship with his third wife in the eyes of the public while he was still married. The media and the public condemned him for this.

believe that this is the reason he is the main favourite for the White House. The polls conducted certainly confirm his status as a favourite for the Republican Party candidacy as president. The media have been speculating about his candidacy ever since the attack on the WTC on September 11 when he displayed extraordinary leadership skills, earning him the title of “Mayor of America”. This title was constructed by Oprah Winfrey. Time magazine then declared him the person of the year. Until then he was not that popular and had an image of a strict, overly ambitious politician.

His political stances, to put it mildly, stand out from typical republican views. Firstly, Giuliani supports the right to abortion. Although he believes that marriage should be a union of man and woman, he agrees that legal and medical reasons should provide partners of the same gender with some legal rights. He endorses the right to purchase and carry weapons and advocates stringent penalties for illegal weapons.

If he wins in the coming presidential election, he will be the first Italian American to become president of America and the second Catholic president, after John Kennedy.

Atypical Mormon

Mitt Romney is one of the rare Mormons who has run for president. He is very popular among members of the conservative current in his party. His stands are typical republican. He opposes abortion, except in cases of rape, incest and if the future mother’s life is at stake. Although in 1994 he had a different opinion after his cousin had died after an illegally performed abortion. He supports the death penalty and the law on three offences, according to which a person convicted of a felony for the third time should be given a much longer sentence, often a life sentence. He opposes same-sex marriages and any civil rights to such families.

He calls himself a supporter of arms control, which he proved by endorsing such laws, but he often gives out the impression of ambiguity and confusion when taking about the issue, so many think he does not have a clear stand on the issue. What sets him apart from other republicans and members of the Mormon community is his support to research that use human embryos obtained during fertility treatments. But, he opposes the use of cloned embryos obtained from donated eggs. It is an interesting fact that until 2002 Romney strongly advocated stem cell research, which is a rather controversial subject in the United States. Bush vetoed a law allowing such research, but Romney has given up on such stances during his campaign.

Senator with independence stances

McCain’s inappropriate jokes

McCain often found himself in media spotlight for his unusual statements and controversies. At a party charity dinner he made a joke about Chelsea Clinton: “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father”. He openly uses the term “gook”, which is a racially derogative term for Vietnamese people and he had refused to apologise for that for a long time. During his visit to Iraq he stated that the situation seemed encouraging and that the situation was improving. A day after that 21 children and a worker had been killed. At an electoral assembly he sang “Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran”, which is a parody of the song by the Beach Boys, “Barbara Ann”. Asked what he had meant by that, he said: “Cheer up and enjoy life”.

John McCain is the eldest political candidate known for his firm stances about every issue. In the Senate he enjoys the reputation of an independent member because he supports republican and, often, democratic initiatives. Because of his experiences in the Vietnam war and firm convictions, he is well respected by members of all parties. It is interesting that he supports the rights of homosexuals, the 2guest” programme for illegal immigrants and restrictions to the financing of political campaigns. He is one of the most vehement advocates of the war against terrorism, but supports laws on arms control and stem cell research.

Versatile actor

Fred Dalton Thompson is a former senator from Tennessee, but is famous for his role as prosecutor Arthur Branch in the series “Law and Order”. He was an attorney, a lobbyist and registered foreign agent. His candidacy is as yet not official, but has said he was considering it. His party is encouraging him to run in the election and enjoys great support for his nomination, although he is irresolute. According to a Gallup conducted in April, two thirds of Americans said they were not associating Fred Thompson with anything. His views are not generally known, but he is believed to be one of the last “true” conservatives in the party. He opposes abortion, same-sex marriages and arms control and advocates the death penalty for bringing illegal aliens to work in farming. He also voted for the war in Iraq.