Government

Andrew Giuliani Says Bloodline Qualifies Him, Runs For NY Governorship On Bring Back Royalty Platform

Birthright leadership wasn’t a good idea when America was founded, and it still isn’t today.

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Andrew Giuliani is the son of Rudy Giuliani. Andrew Giuliani thinks that being the son of Rudy Giuliani is a big deal, and he is running for governor of New York on that basis. If you are a voter in New York, please do not elect Andrew Giuliani as your governor.

First of all, thinking that being related to Rudy Giuliani is in any way a good thing should itself be disqualifying for public office. Rudy Giuliani is a national embarrassment who has spent the past five years disgracing the legal profession. I’m not saying that being Rudy Giuliani’s son should disqualify a person from public office. Being anyone’s son or daughter should not disqualify anyone from public office. What I am saying is that being Rudy Giuliani’s son, and instead of starting with, “Look, I am not my father, and I should be judged on my own merits,” you come out of the gate with basically, “Isn’t my dad great? I inherited all of his leadership abilities,” displays an acute lack of judgment that should be intolerable in a public official.

Plus, you know, Andrew Giuliani is only 35 years old. I am 35 years old. Do not elect me to be your governor either. The only government post I hold is an unpaid position on a regional parks and trails commission, and that is exactly the level of governmental responsibility appropriate for someone who is 35 years old.

Worst of all though are Andrew Giuliani’s repeated callbacks to a weird eugenics-style theory of inherited political aptitude. Giuliani called himself a “politician out of the womb” when he first announced his candidacy. “It’s in my DNA,” he went on.

I’ll concede that whatever happened to Andrew Giuliani during a childhood of being raised by Rudy Giuliani could have imbued him with some kind of unique ambition for unearned accolades, sure. But the first war we fought as a real nation was literally to get out from under the thumb of a monarch who inherited his position of authority, and I don’t think a whole lot of people are clamoring to go back to that sort of a system. Close to 7,000 American patriots died throwing off the yoke of King George III (more like 25,000 if you count those who succumbed to disease during the war), and it definitely wasn’t because they thought DNA was an adequate qualification for office.

The actual science of whether great leaders are born or made is complicated. Some researchers have determined that inherited traits do play a meaningful role in a person’s leadership qualities, or lack thereof, based on several studies of twins with shared genetics. Other scientists point out flaws in such studies, and instead highlight both the numerous historical examples of important leaders with no family history of leadership and the fact that individuals can demonstrably learn better leadership skills throughout their lifetimes.

What we do know for certain is that under either a theory of nature or nurture, Andrew Giuliani is in trouble, because, I mean, come on, his father is Rudy Giuliani. We seem to be seeing this case study play out in real time, as Andrew Giuliani claimed on Fox News on May 19 to be “the only announced candidate that actually has spent parts of five decades in politics” — remember, Giuliani is 35 years old. He then repeated the claim on Newsmax. Giuliani tried somewhat unsuccessfully to explain what he was talking about, and apparently was referring to being alive during the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s and having a father who was at least tangentially involved in politics during those time periods. Andrew Giuliani has himself never held elected office, and if you don’t let him piggyback on his father’s time in politics, Giuliani’s only government work at all seems to have been as a low-level nepotism hire within the Trump administration.

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Andrew Giuliani is probably not going to become governor of New York. Including Giuliani, there are already nearly half a dozen declared candidates for the Republican primary, with plenty more expressing an interest. Plus New York tends to be heavily Democrat in general elections. But even if Giuliani’s campaign doesn’t go anywhere, it’s problematic that he’s even getting airtime to tout what is seemingly his sole qualification for office of being Rudy Giuliani’s son. Birthright leadership wasn’t a good idea when America was founded, and it still isn’t today. And we’re the only country that actually has spent parts of 26 decades with that position.

Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.

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