Goodbye, Rudy Giuliani!
Have you ever known somebody who had a reputation as a pretty great individual? They always inspired a bit of awe because they were a solid and authoritative person. And one day, something happened. They made the wrong decision. They may be made a series of bad choices. And in the blink of an eye, this person went from inspiring admiration to inspiring scorn and derision. That is precisely what’s happened to Rudy Giuliani.
Rudy is a man who was known at one time as “America’s Mayor.” After 9/11, many were even in awe of him. So what happened? Why did “America’s Mayor” choose to waste his life becoming a Trump sycophant? Why did he willingly, almost gleefully, let himself be turned into a caricature, a punchline? Why did he become the person whose home is now being raided by the FBI?
I don’t believe Rudy was ever the great guy many pegged him as. His history with women was nasty. He was known to have a temper. He could be mean. Perception is so interesting. I think many saw what many wanted to see with Rudy.
Putting someone on a pedestal is always a bad idea. But when this country is in a position of extreme vulnerability, we tend to make this mistake. People have feet of clay, though, and always fall off the pedestal. In the case of Rudy, I believe all he is doing is showing us who he was all along.
Rudy Giuliani was never who people thought he was. He wore a mask. And he was assigned traits that he didn’t have. All that has happened is that the mask has been taken off, and with that vanishing mask, the person who successfully hid behind it is now exposed as the person he has been from the beginning.