Posted on 08/12/2003 9:52:14 AM PDT by DrMartinVonNostrand
I have slowly come to the conclusion that California needs Arnold. Republicans need Arnold, and above all, California Republicans need Arnold.
I had been leaning towards McClintock, and I must admit, I made that decision before Arnold threw his hat into the ring. I welcomed the move when he did, but I still had reservations. I had gotten pretty excited over McClintock's vision, particularly his desire to void the Davis energy contracts and his general desire to stick it to the Democrats. I was also justifiably concerned at first about Arnold's talk of handing the treasury over to "the children".
But one has to be able to discern politics from policy. Everyone who wants to win elective office has to pay lipservice to "the children". It is the national passtime of politicians. I think when Arnold says "the children should have the first call of state Treasury" it is followed by an unspoken qualifier of "before illegal immigrants, welfare recipients, and special interests." He is simply putting forth his priorities, and they lay in stark contrast to Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante's. He is quite savvy, so he isn't going to come out and say it in those words. He knows highlighting what is his priorities gets much better press than highlighting what isn't. He wants to reassure the soccer moms who have been frightened by Davis' threats of cutting funding to schools that he will be looking elsewhere to cut.
Arnold is very mindful of the hurdles he faces by running as a Republican in such a liberal state, so he will take extra measures to make traditional Democratic voters feel comfortable voting for him. It is what he has to do right now if he wants to win, and it seems to be working brilliantly.
Some conservatives will argue against Schwarzenegger because he opposed the impeachment of Bill Clinton. But Arnold understood the articles of impeachment that were brought were a pretty weak justification. Right or wrong, they were too easily construed as a right-wing lynching. He recognized it as too divisive and knew it could only further poison the political atmosphere and ultimately damage the Republican party.
Perhaps if Ken Starr had the convictions to pursue the serious matters of Whitewater, Chinagate, Filegate, or the murder of Vincent Foster, then Arnold would have seen it differently, just as the rest of America would have. But clearly Starr had no will to do so. It's hard to understand why, but perhaps he didn't want to expose that level of corruption in the highest office out of the long-term best interest of the American political system. Exposing Clinton's ties to the Dixieland mafia and Red China could have brought the entire government to its knees. It would have been a short-term victory for Republicans, but just as Nixon understood when he covered for Kennedy and Johnson over the Pentagon Papers, the long-term damage to the nation as a whole would have been far too great. Anyways, had Clinton actually been removed from office as a lame duck on those flimsy charges, we would have a President Gore in office right now. Arnold knew, just as everyone else did, that this was not going to happen considering it required a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Surely he understood that impeachment was a lose-lose proposition for Republicans so it was a mistake to go down that road. It was important for him to remain above it all for the sake of his own political future.
Some will argue that what we need right now is someone sort of financial wizard to fix the budget, and Arnold just doesn't qualify. But the truth is we really only need someone who can admit that Gray Davis has made some huge mistakes. Anyone but Gray Davis will do.
I hate to admit it, but the whole budget crisis is being about as overplayed for political reasons as the federal deficit in the '90s was (and is again). When it comes down to brass tacks, I think even the Democrats will bite the bullet and fix it. Yes, I know you're cringing, I am too, but it's the truth. The issue here isn't that the Democrats are incapable or even unwilling to fixing the budget. It's merely about how they want to fix it: the usual liberal approach of skyrocketing taxes. Either way, California isn't going to drop into the ocean or become a third world nation.
As far as Arnold not being a "social conservative", neither am I, and neither is California. A social conservative is not going to win a statewide election here for a long time to come. I fit in more along the lines of a fiscal conservative, just as Arnold is, and a "Constitutional conservative" with libertarian tendencies. Piety is not a prerequisite for my support, and too much of it may even lose it. I don't begrudge anyone their religious beliefs, but I do belive strongly in Jefferson's "wall of seperation between church and state". I also believe in strict interpritation of the First Ammendment, and that freedom of religion also entails freedom from religion. I realize those of you in the religious-right do not agree because this doesn't reinforce your personal religious beliefs, but not everything should be about our own personal whims and narrow agendas. Defending our own freedom as individuals must always be a higher objective. Otherwise it may be you they come for next. The Constitution protects everyone, or it protects no one. I think there are a lot of people on both extremes who forget that sometimes.
Even though some will say for these various reasons that Schwarzenegger is not the ideal conservative candidate, it is important for everyone to be pragmatic and pick their battles wisely. Right now we should be looking at long-term goals. An expedient victory in the recall of a conservative candidate by a 20 percent plurality is going to be counterproductive in the long-term. What are you going to do when Bill Simon is elected and the drive to recall him begins October 8th and qualifies three weeks later?
Electing Arnold, who can come to office with a true mandate and bring California together, will pay off big in the perception wars. Conservatives will never get their agenda anywhere in California as long as it is taboo to even vote for Republicans here. The longer Democrats have a complete lock on the state, the further left we will drift. Even if Arnold can't change the course right away, he can at least slow the momentum.
Personally, my goal is the destruction of the Democratic party and the liberal agenda far more than it is advancing any conservative single-issue. I have far more hate for left-wing Democrats than I have love for right-wing Republicans. I would be happy simply with a return to sanity at this point.
You can't walk a mile until you take the first step. For right now we all need to be concentrating on the jouney one step at a time or we will never reach the final destination. You have to at least open the door, which is now closed and locked here. It seems like a lot of right-wingers around here would rather rant and rave and pound on the door in futility than grab it by the handle.
I think I've finally figured that one out. For the death-before-electibility crowd, it's not about advancing their cause on earth, it's about earning a place in heaven.
As for the rest of us, we have to make a decision: do we want a small victory, or a huge defeat?
Oh, it's done playing out is it?
Did we kick Davis out or did he manage to squeek by?
If Davis was booted, who did we pick to replace him?
Did Republican voter registrations go up after the recall election, or did they drop off?
Did this help or hurt Bush in the 2004 election?
Did we manage to finally defeat Barbara Boxer?
I must have seriously overslept because I seem to have missed the out come of all these things.
By rights, this would indicate that it *IS* time for RINOs to support conservatives. We scratched your back, it's time to scratch ours.
To quote the Smiths, "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby".
Help us out more by NOT SHOOTING THE PARTY IN THE HEAD, and support Arnold. Hopefully, he isn't going to need your support, but if he does, then you have just guaranteed a Liberal-Democrat-Bustamante victory.
With Arnold as Governor we will greatly increase the Republican image and numbers, and that in turn will help elect more conservative candidates in the future.
But then again, it seems like you don't want that because it may threaten the far-right's hold of the party at gun-point.
Legislating "health" is what liberals want to do, not right-minded conservatives.
Besides, that would blow my plans for the weekend.
Well, this is a shift in tone. You started out this thread as a doe-eyed, if reluctant, Arnold supporter, after having previously favored McClintock.
Now you're taking the position that the far-right holds the GOP at gunpoint?
Are we to understand that you were, until yesterday, a willing accomplice to that, or were you just duped by those gunslinger right-wingers?
Kern voting chief tired of Gardner demands
Dean Gardner campaign workers continued to investigate possible voting irregularities in the 30th Assembly District race Monday to determine whether they want to challenge the election results finally announced last week.I need better evidence of voting fraud that a statement from a sore loser.Supporters of the Republican candidate, who lost by 265 votes with all ballots counted, were poring over voting documents in all four counties of the 30th District, said his lawyer, Tim Mills.
As they did so, the rancor between Mills and Kern County Auditor-Controller-County Clerk James Rhoades intensified.
Rhoades, the county's top election official, said he was "fed up" with Mills "trying to run my business."
Rhoades said Mills has treated his staff so poorly that he's beginning to question his own party allegiance. It was hard to tell whether Rhoades, who is retiring in January, was joking.
"I'm a Republican," he said. "At least I was until last week."
Al Gore still thinks that Republicans stole the election from him.
If you want to believe that the Dem/Rep breakdown is actually 50/50 in California, that's your prerrogative.
I need better evidence than a statement from a Sore Loserman. A conviction of 20% of California voters for voting fraud would be a good start.
The fact is that in 2002, the California registered voters were:
Democrats 45%
Republicans 35%
independent 15%
other 5%
/dowd
OK, I'll drive.
To call you an idiot would be a gross injustice to the mentally impaired.
My "buddies"? Surely you don't think I am pals with all 193 other candidates on the ballot, do you?
Now, I supported the recall, and I support it still. But as it has been repeatedly pointed out, the recall couldn't have qualified had there not been widespread support far beyond only the conservatives. The conservatives may have "bought" the recall, all Davis lackeys would say, but they do not own it.
It belongs to all Californians, and it seems like that's the part that you're not getting here.
In California...the "far right" doesn't have even a tenuous grip on the Republican party.
I beg to differ. I consider the "far-right" to be anyone whose main issue is abortion and social issues. So to distinguish from mainstream conservatives are concerned primarily with economics/fiscal policy.
If the the "far right" didn't hold the party at gun-point, then why did a proven hands-on fiscal manager like Riordan lose out to a light-weight delegater like Simon in the primary, all due to his stance on abortion?
It's funny to see you Liberals..."
So in my time here I've been called everything from a shill for McClintock, to a shill for Arnold/Karl Rove, from being a political operator to being an amateur, from being a pragmatist to a "RINO", to now even a liberal.
Looks like you've tried attacking me from every angle.
Great! That only proves my effect.
Kern County Deputy District Attorney Michael Yraceburn said he can't talk about the results of his inquiry because it won't be finished until around December.Yraceburn and Sandy Brockman, head of Kern County elections, said they wouldn't be surprised to find isolated cases of fraud.
Brockman said her office diligently investigates questionable registrations and believes the voter rolls are "pretty clean." She relies on the public to bring forth cases of voter fraud, she said.
She had a couple of things to say about Gardner's belief that 37 percent of newly registered Democrats in his sample cast fraudulent votes.
"We can't substantiate that claim because he's never given me any evidence for me to investigate regarding that," she said.
Brockman added: "That's saying 37 percent of our voters are dishonest. I don't believe that."
"I think the biggest surge of inquiries was after (Schwarzenegger's) announcement," said Cathy McClue, Fresno County's assistant registrar of voters. "A lot of the callers think they have to be registered Republican to vote Republican."
You obviously don't know a thing about what the mainstream of the GOP is. You're too busy paddling about in the inlet where the sewage overflow pipe enters the river.
In 2000 the delegates to the National Convention, chosen by the activists in their own states, were overwhelmingly pro-life--well over 90% would be my fairly well-educated guess. In addition to being pro-life, that same group of people have a solid grasp of conservative economics, unlike yourself.
It is you and Arnold and Riordon that are out of step.
Yes, you have been quite effective at illustrating the faulty thought-patterns of liberals.
My thanks.
It's not as though Conservative Republicans are at fault for long decades of Liberalism in California.
It's been the consistent compromises through the years by RINOs that have allowed California to sink as low as it has...maybe it's time for something different.
Or maybe it has nothing to do with politics at all. Ever consider that?
Perhaps it is just the basic progression of society. California has always been on the cutting edge of American cultural change.
Liberalisation is part of the natural cycle of civilizations. That is a historical fact, proven without fail.
Did you ever consider that maybe you can't legislate society into a direction it's not ready for?
Or backwards from where it's already departed, for that matter.
You have to evolve with it or die. Like it or not.
Some of us recognize this and understand what it takes to at the very least remain viable in an ever-changing society.
I noticed that.
For some its easier to name-call than to exert themselves mentally.
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