Rudy Giuliani's Daughter Caroline on Voting for Joe Biden | Vanity Fair
HIGHLIGHTED QUOTATION FROM THE ARTICLE:
[W]e can hang on, elect a compassionate and decent president, and claw our way back onto the ledge.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
I may not be able to change my father's mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office.
By Caroline Rose Giuliani
October 15, 2020
Courtesy of Caroline Rose Giuliani.
I have a difficult confession—something I usually save for at least the second date. My father is Rudy Giuliani . We are multiverses apart , politically and otherwise. I've spent a lifetime forging an identity in the arts separate from my last name, so publicly declaring myself as a "Giuliani" feels counterintuitive, but I've come to realize that none of us can afford to be silent right now. The stakes are too high. I accept that most people will start reading this piece because you saw the headline with my father's name. But now that you're here, I'd like to tell you how urgent I think this moment is.
To anyone who feels overwhelmed or apathetic about this election, there is nothing I relate to more than desperation to escape corrosive political discourse. A s a child, I saw firsthand the kind of cruel, selfish politics that Donald Trump has now inflicted on our country. It made me want to run as far away from them as possible. But trust me when I tell you: Running away does not solve the problem. We have to stand and fight. The only way to end this nightmare is to vote. There is hope on the horizon, but we'll only grasp it if we elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris .
Around the age of 12, I would occasionally get into debates with my father, probably before I was emotionally equipped to handle such carnage. It was disheartening to feel how little power I had to change his mind, no matter how logical and above-my-pay-grade my arguments were. He always found a way to justify his party line, whatever it was at the time. Even though he was considered socially moderate for a Republican back in the day, we still often butted heads.
When I tried to explain my belief that you don't get to be considered benevolent on LGBTQ+ rights just because you have gay friends but don't support gay marriage, I distinctly remember him firing back with an intensity fit for an opposing politic[i]an rather than one's child.
To be clear, I'm not sharing this anecdote to complain or criticize. I had an extremely privileged childhood and am grateful for everything I was given, including real-world lessons and complicated experiences like these. The point is to illustrate one of the many reasons I have a fraught relationship with politics, like so many of us do.
Even when there was an occasional flash of connection in these disagreements with my dad, it felt like nothing changed for the better, so I would retreat again until another issue I couldn't stay silent on surfaced. Over the years other subjects like racial sensitivity (or lack thereof), sexism, policing, and the social safety net have all risen to this boiling point in me. It felt important to speak my mind, and I'm glad we at least managed to communicate at all. But the chasm was painful nonetheless, and has gotten exponentially more so in Trump's era of chest-thumping partisan tribalism. I imagine many Americans can relate to the helpless feeling this confrontation cycle created in me, but we are not helpless. I may not be able to change my father's mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office .
Trump and his enablers have used his presidency to stoke the injustice that already permeated our society, taking it to dramatically new, Bond-villain heights. I am a filmmaker in the LGBTQ+ community who tells stories about mental health, sexuality, and other stigmatized issues, and my goal is to humanize people and foster empathy. So I hope you'll believe me when I say that another Trump term (a term, itself, that makes me cringe) will irrevocably harm the LGBTQ+ community, among many others. His administration asked the Supreme Court to let businesses fire people for being gay or trans, pushed a regulation to let health care providers refuse services to people who are LGTBQ+, and banned trans people from serving their country in the military.
Women, immigrants, people with disabilities, and people of color are all also under attack by Trump's inhumane policies—and by his judicial appointments , including, probably, Amy Coney Barrett . Trump's administration has torn families apart in more ways than I even imagined were possible, from ripping children from their parents at the border to mishandling the coronavirus, which has resulted in over 215,000 in the U.S. dying, many thousands of them without their loved ones near. Faced with preventable deaths during a pandemic that Trump downplayed and ignored, rhetoric that has fed deep-seated, systemic racism, and chaos in the White House, it's no surprise that so many Americans feel as hopeless and overwhelmed as I did growing up. But if we refuse to face our political reality, we don't stand a chance of changing it.
In 2016, I realized I needed to speak out in a more substantial way than just debating my dad in private (especially since I wasn't getting anywhere with that), so I publicly supported Hillary Clinton and began canvassing for congressional candidates. If the unrelenting deluge of devastating news makes you think I'm crazy for having hope, please remember that making us feel powerless is a tactic politicians use to make us think our voices and votes don't matter.
But they do. It's taken persistence and nerve to find my voice in politics, and I'm using it now to ask you to stand with me in the fight to end Donald Trump's reign of terror.
If being the daughter of a polarizing mayor who became the president's personal bulldog has taught me anything, it is that corruption starts with "yes-men" and women, the cronies who create an echo chamber of lies and subservience to maintain their proximity to power. We've seen this ad nauseam with Trump and his cadre of high-level sycophants (the ones who weren't convicted, anyway).
What inspires me most about Vice President Biden is that he is not afraid to surround himself with people who disagree with him. Choosing Senator Harris, who challenged him in the primary, speaks volumes about what an inclusive president he will be.
Biden is willing to incorporate the views of progressive-movement leaders like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on issues like universal health care, student debt relief, prison reform, and police reform. And he is capable of reaching across the aisle to find moments of bipartisanship. The very notion of "bipartisanship" may seem painfully ludicrous right now, but we need a path out of impenetrable gridlock and vicious sniping. In Joe Biden, we'll have a leader who prioritizes common ground and civility over alienation, bullying, and scorched-earth tactics.
Speaking of scorched earth, I know many people feel paralyzed by climate despair. I do too, but something still can and must be done. As climate change begins to encroach on our everyday lives, it is clear that our planet cannot survive four more years of this administration's environmental assault. This monumental challenge requires scientifically literate leadership and immediate action. Joe Biden has laid out an aggressive series of plans to restore the environmental regulations that Trump gutted on behalf of his corporate polluting friends. Biden has a transformational clean-energy policy that he will bring to Congress within his first 100 days in office, and perhaps most crucially, he brings a desire and capability to reunite the major nations of the world in forging a path toward a global green future.
I fully understand that some of you want a nominee who is more progressive. For others the idea of voting for a Democrat of any kind may be a hurdle. Now I have another confession to make. Biden wasn't my first choice when the primaries started. But I know what is at stake, and Joe Biden will be everyone's president if elected.
If you are planning to cast a symbolic vote or abstain from voting altogether, please reconsider.
It is more important than ever to avoid complacency. This election is far from over, and if 2020 has taught us anything, it's that anything can happen.
We are hanging by a single, slipping finger on a cliff's edge, and the fall will be fatal. If we remove ourselves from the fight, our country will be in freefall. Alternatively, we can hang on, elect a compassionate and decent president, and claw our way back onto the ledge. If I, after decades of despair over politics, can eng[w]age in our democracy to meet this critical moment, I know you can too. +
Caroline Rose Giuliani, daughter of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani wants you to know something about Donald and Rudy! Oh, and she is voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris!!!
Rudy Giuliani's daughter Caroline is voting for 'the opposition' against dad's "Donald"!
A damn good article! Do you have the time?
Watched Caroline Rose Giuliani on TRMS. She is smart, successful in her own right and understands the peril. In these times she is a woman of strength and conviction.
There are just to many people speaking out. I truly hope a per cent of the 30 something per cent do not exact punishment on those who are patriotic and warn of the danger to our democracy.
She stands up for herself and her worldview. I can respect that! Because her father, Rudy, is playing second fiddle to a cult of personality president.
HEY! All you youths who don't want to live in a "bland" shithole of a nation with "dippety-do" and brycreem hairdos: SPEAK UP N STAND UP NOW!!!
Dippety-do....? Brylcreem....?
Man, I didn't know you were as old as dirt.....
( Yes, I do remember Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and the Baja Marimba Band. )
HA!
I am so old that I patented dirt.
Ah, you went there. . . and now it all comes back to me! Before you click the link - does anybody remember this song by its title alone?
Sure do! But this one is my fave:
Ahhhhh! Oh my, my, my! I love it. I was young at that time; so I did not learn the title. But always loved the arrangement and its "open, soft, melody." And oh that trumpet sound alone is what stuck with me.
The song rushed back to me on the opening trumpet bars. First time to see the video today. STELLAR! We born at a 'golden time of music.'
I remember it well.
"The LGBTQ+ filmmaker slams the GOP, Amy Coney Barrett, and the Trump administration, urging votes for Biden and Kamala Harris."
People this is a good 'egg' article: come. read. discuss.
We're not the ones you have to convince CB. It is those that won't venture outside of the Fox/Hannity/Breitbart bubble. I'm not convinced they are reachable because first, they have to admit there is something wrong inside the bubble.
My sister, former staunch republican now independent admits to being in that right-wing talk radio world for years. It wasn't till I pointed out that as a strong professional woman, she was voting for the same group of people that wanted to keep her subjugated to men by paying her less money for her work, and wanting to take away her right of choice on what she could do with her reproductive system.
Hi FlyNavy!,
It is amazing and I guess important for a woman and others to see if she/they can stand apart from their individual self and be objective about the treatment they receive from others.
However, it soon becomes apparent different types of us have individual and collective needs and desires which can be reckoned with in society. If we can just get those who hamper us to get out of the way once and for all!
For example, conservative men (like Trump wants to be perceived to be) are 'pining away' and altogether intercommunicating about women and abortion. As if any man can truly understand the 'forces' at work in the makeup of a girl or woman who has to create bone, tissue, and mind for another being through her own elemental self! Men have no womb. Men knead nothing together to be added to the population inside themselves and issue it forth!
Yet, conservative men would have you believe that some women consider abortion 'sport.' That a girl or woman would play villainously with any birthing experience and the emotional state of being of the other participant (the male half) in some macabre game. Women who abort their child have by large operate on grander reasonings than placing a child in themselves merely to see it meet a tragic ending.
Your spot on CB.
I've always contended that most points of view are largely determined if someone has testicles, or ovaries.
Happy Friday my friend!
You will have those who capitalize off the exploitation of women, wages, workers, a multiplicity of races, ethnic groups, culture!, homosexuals, and even climate change (which is share by all) to lap up the largess from 'campaigns' and long treatises which thrust millions into abject poverty and wholly misery for start to finish of life here in 'merica! This ought not be!
We need to reject those who will not let us breath apart from what they supply as our 'worth.'
Happy weekend to you!
Boy, do I feel sorry for her having that as her dad. There was a time when I used to respect Mr. Giuliani, but now he has become a parody of himself. So sad to see. Worse when you know for who.
He treated his wives and children, um, deplorably!
It's a free country.
Is it?
It certainly is in my neck of the woods. Don't know about yours.
She is a pretty girl. She must take after her mother. Can you imagine Rudy's ugly assed mug on a woman? She would look like the time Rudy got in drag for Trump.
I would do just about anything to un-see that.
You should see the video.
Dolled up as only New York couture could be! Shout out to the late and fabulously great Phyllis Diller!
Royalty!
Ha!!
That's my 'queen'! Her 'hi-ness' Phyllis!
Not only was Phyllis Diller a brilliant comedienne, she was a concert-level pianist and and had her own custom-built harpsichord. Truly an exceptional talent.
I tried to post the link, but I don't know what I did wrong while trying.
Now you have set me up for an adventure. Youtube - thank goodness! I didn't know any of that about Phyllis! It does make a measure of sense, as most of stars were diversified in the 'golden age' of television!
Can we help you? Just ask, Paula! Just give us something to go on and we can lend a 'finger'!
Yes she was. Incredibly funny.
I remember seeing her perform a very serious harpsichord recital on a television broadcast one time. I don't know what may be on Youtube. It would be fun to find out.
I actually did it once before so I don't know what I did wrong this time. I used the insert link thingy but this time I failed. It was the video of Rudy in drag for a charity event kissing up to Trump.
Donald Trump seducing and motorboating Rudy Giuliani.
There may not be any dinner invitations for some time after this shot.
It is for the greater good. Children have done this before in this country. I am sure you remember the hippie era, when kids told their parents and leadership, this you plan for me - is not properly who I am! The youth of the sixties got involved in conscientiousness thinking about themselves and the surrounding world - so much so that they individually and collectively rebuked raw (unieluded) capitalism.
This is Giuliani's daughter chance to rebuke her father for his presentation on the world stage: She does not want his vision of a world where oppression wins out against innocent, powerless, associates and friends.
I heard her interview on TRMS. She was very impressive and made her case strongly. I thought she was terrific.
I 'clipped' the tail end of it that day. I need to locate it and post it here. Or, if you can-Help! (Chuckles.)
Our planet cannot survive four more years of this administration's environmental assault.