Posted on 12/18/2004 12:56:18 PM PST by yonif
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested in a German newspaper interview, that the US Republican Party should move "a little to the left", a shift that he said would allow it to pick up new voters.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has taken an unorthodox approach since winning office last year - standing by a promise to toe a conservative line on fiscal matters while veering leftward on social issues such as gay rights and the environment.
In an interview with Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, Schwarzenegger said: "The Republican Party currently covers only the spectrum from the right wing to the middle, and the Democratic Party covers the spectrum from the left to the middle."
"I would like the Republican Party to cross this line, move a little further left and place more weight on the centre," he was quoted as saying.
"This would immediately give the party 5 per cent more votes without it losing anything elsewhere."
Schwarzenegger was guarded on suggestions that he harbours presidential ambitions, saying only that a debate on whether the constitution should be amended to allow foreign-born citizens to run was "overdue".
Schwarzenegger became an American citizen in 1983, 15 years after he emigrated from Austria.
He has said he'd consider running for president if such an amendment passed, but has also taken pains to say it shouldn't be created specifically for him.
"I would like people to remember me as someone who raised standards, wherever I got involved," he was quoted as saying.
"I brought bodybuilding from nothing, I made the action film a genre, and the same goes for politics - I want to do things that no one believed possible. I would like to bring people together as governor."
I voted for him. I didn't say I'm crazy about him, but would Kerry have been better? I don't think so. I voted Bush and will hope for someone better next time around.
And he's done it with warp speed, Cap'n... Some Americans don't even realize how far left he has veered.
I agree with your notion that there were leftist tendencies by the government domestically which brought Bush more votes from people who otherwise may have been contemplating on voting for Kerry in the elections. I personally think that as history progresses, at least domestically, every new government of the US will move further left.
Ultimately, I think history will show that Arnold hurt the GOP more than he helped it. He will cause more division within Republican ranks than his left of center policies are worth.
RINOs and NASCAR drivers! :)
...
The ones who are especially clueless are the ones who actually believe he is "rightwing."
Nope, wrong, wrong wrong.
Thanks for the advice, Governor, but keep that strategy contained in California. You'd lose a lot more than would be gained elsewhere.
Farewell.
Both US parties I see as moving to the left domestically at different speeds. The Democrats are doing so faster, but the Republicans are not far behind. As new governments take power in the US, more and more services and other domestic decisions will be expanded by the government, no matter which party is in power. Take for example certain Republican Party backings of domestic policies today. Go back decades years ago and see that even the mainstream of the Democrat party wasn't even dreaming about doing that.
Well....who knows. I would have expected Dubya to be more a small government guy than Clinton but he wasn't. Who knows what Kerry would have done? If he had been elected, I suspect the GOP might have grown some backbone as it did during the early Clinton years. Right now, it is just a rubber stamp for Dubya's big government policies.
Another one term governor.
How much farther to the left do you want it? GOP: The party of big government.
what we are looking for are results, and allowing the president to continue
I hope it ain't so. I always liked Arnold, but not if he's going to turn commie on us.
On what basis, (other than meaningless words) do you think that the GOP is moving more "slowly" to the left? Certainly, if we use Dubya's policies as a guide (e.g. faster welfare spending increases than Clinton) it would seem to be the party that is moving faster in that direction.
and arnie can stuff his celerety status too
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