Center-Left Republicanism's Collapse (Schwarzenegger's messageless moderation isn't selling.)

The American Prowler ^ | 4/29/2005 | George Neumayr

[nickcarraway]

In an interview with a German newspaper late last year, Arnold Schwarzenegger urged the GOP to adopt more liberal stances, identifying that as the key to a winning political formula. "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," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "I would like the Republican Party to cross this line, move a little further left and place more weight on the center. This would immediately give the party 5% more votes without it losing anything elsewhere."

But Schwarzenegger's theory of a successful center-left GOP is running aground in California. On many issues Schwarzenegger has governed exactly like a center-left Democrat, the most egregious example being his drive to use billions of taxpayer dollars to clone embryos for experimentation. According to his strategic theory, this amorphous Republicanism that swirls somewhere around the political middle should make it easy for him to collect supporters from that vast and ignored pool of moderate Democrats and Independents.

Is that happening? Not if his slumping polls numbers are any indication. The California press are reporting that his poll numbers look as anemic as Gray Davis's. Only 40 percent of Californians, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, approve of his job performance, and half of Californians think he is doing his job poorly.

The numbers suggest that California Democrats (including the moderate ones he was suppose to poach so easily) are, instead of happily gnawing on the liberal bones Schwarzenneger has shared with them, growling for larger and larger portions and enlarging their pack. Schwarzenegger's centrism, in other words, is not neutralizing the Democrats but galvanizing them, signaling to them a weakness that they can exploit.

They have been able to control the premises of the debate against him, knowing that his center-left Republicanism is basically a passive, defensive posture which says: I want to finance everything you Democrats do but just a little slower, a little more responsibly. Spending battles will not be won under that wavering flag, especially in a state where almost every media outlet is in the tank for the Democrats and portray even the tiniest cut as draconian.

These media outlets are now busily attributing his slumping numbers not to the hesitancy of his agenda -- that he is getting mired in feckless, me-too debates with Democrats -- but to the few elements of conservative reform in it, as if he would be enjoying skyrocketing popularity if he surrendered to the Democrats completely on matters like education spending. To cement this idea as the conventional wisdom, journalists are quoting Democrats who voted for Schwarzenegger but are now terribly disappointed in him.

"I'm a Democrat who voted for Schwarzenegger," Wendy Bokota said to the Los Angeles Times. "Like everybody else, I voted without being really informed about the issues. I believed people when they said Gray Davis really was causing problems. I thought Schwarzenegger had the ability to make change -- and he does, but he's trying to do it on the backs of education."

Quotes like this underscore the hopeless task center-left Republicanism seeks to pursue -- trying to appease unappeasable voters. Ever time it tries to quench their appetite just gets larger. On Wednesday Schwarzenegger accepted the resignation of his secretary of education, Richard Riordan, once the Golden State's premier Republican In Name Only. Riordan was being eaten alive by hack teachers, the fiercest, most benefit-conscious ones in America. He has been reeling ever since he bizarrely informed a 6-year-old girl named Isis last summer that her name meant "dirty, stupid girl" -- an offense less appalling to the unions than the very mild reforms he suggested.

"This is part of cleaning house," Barbara O'Connor, a political communications professor at California State University Sacramento, said to the San Francisco Chronicle. "The poll numbers show that [Schwarzenegger] has clearly alienated large segments of his base."

Notice her reference to "his base," implying that it is essentially liberal. Might the problem be that he has tried to stretch his base so wide he doesn't even have one?

In looking for a base around the political middle that doesn't exist, Schwarzenegger is finding himself standing alone, unable to advance an agenda without energized Republicans to lend a hand. His blithe prediction that the party can move "left" and gain "5% more votes without it losing anything elsewhere" is being put to the test in California and so far it has failed.

[strategofr]

Good political lesson. Arnold has some political talent. Can he learn from his basic mistake?

[Aussie Dasher]

Arnie is off with the pixies!

Thank God he can never be GOP candidate for the White House.

[karnage]

He's a RINO.

[NormsRevenge]

must.. sleeep .. Bump for later.

Neumayr Bump

[nickcarraway]

George Neumayr Ping

[Darkwolf]

Good analysis. I like Arnie but he is governing like a movie star--if your last film was a flop, you move to something that works. That's not how you govern, because your last decision may be disliked at the moment but in the long run will show benefits.

Movie stars live by giving the public what it wants, even if years later everyone admits that "hit" wasn't so good. Politicians thrive by giving the people what they want whether they should have it or not.

But GOOD politicians define their political philosophy, and govern by it. If they get booted out, so be it. Arnie seems to be trying to keep his popularity high and he's failing, so why not just govern from the political right when, supposedly, that's what he liked about the Republican party in the first place?

[CounterCounterCulture]

Wendy Bokota: "Like everybody else, I voted without being really informed about the issues."

That pretty much sums up the typical Democrat Party member.

[A CA Guy]

He seems to be getting all these petitions going and on the ballot.
He's been very successful in the state so far.

I do think all politicians are hurt though with the price of a gallon of gas.

[Lancey Howard]

Schwarzenegger's centrism, in other words, is not neutralizing the Democrats but galvanizing them, signaling to them a weakness that they can exploit.

Once again, George absolutely nailed it. His admonition applies not only to Arnold, but to every other "moderate" (liberal) Republican.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

He's a RINO.

Ask the other side and he's also a DINO.

[Odyssey-x]

The problem with California is that the champagne left is really conflicted in California, so they'll give bad approval ratings to everybody.

They hate Republicans for their insensitive fiscally responsible and pro economic growth policies because they think that their policies will harm minorities and the poor, which the champagne liberals treat almost like zoo animals, thinking they care about them but instead living in gated communities to keep them out.

Meanwhile they hate Democrats because they screw up the economy with rolling blackouts, etc, making it difficult to afford extra champagne to keep the champagne liberals at their standard of living even though they do what the Champagne liberals love: Dolling out welfare to minorites and the poor which ends up mostly helps public employees unions.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Great article. Isn't Arnold up for re-election next year?

Hasta la vista, baby.

[goldstategop]

If we wanted a RINO Governor, we would have elected a Democrat. Arnold talks a good game about cutting spending and holding the line on taxes but so far he's failed to deliver. It might have helped if he actually PRACTICED the fiscal conservatism he preaches. He's done a masterful job of alienating both liberals and conservatives without carrying through on his pledges. What happened to his reform agenda? He's caved on, you name it: pension reform, spending reform, merit pay reform, and redistricting reform. People don't believe he's serious. That's what happens when you don't have bedrock principles to fall back on to sustain you through hard times.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[SoFloFreeper]

Imagine that.

[maryz]

Arnold talks a good game about cutting spending and holding the line on taxes but so far he's failed to deliver. It might have helped if he actually PRACTICED the fiscal conservatism he preaches.

There was a piece in National Review maybe five or six years ago that said there is no such thing in practice as a social liberal/fiscal conservative. They may run on that platform, but "something's gotta give" and it's always the fiscal conservative part!

[calcowgirl]

Michael Hiltzik, LA Times, April 25, 2005
He's a Lot Weaker Than He Looks

(snip)

All that Schwarzenegger seems to enjoy is the opportunity to surround himself with attention and pomp — the trappings of political power, the appearances before huge crowds, the slavish interviews by Oprah and Katie. He's like one of those admirals in Gilbert and Sullivan, who adorn themselves in elaborate uniforms dripping with medals but don't know the first thing about going to sea. (And don't want to know.)

Everything else about governing seems to leave him bored. Perhaps the passage of his budget bonds and a workers' compensation reform early in his term convinced him that the game is easy. But the bonds didn't solve anything about the state budget, the workers' comp reform is a work in progress, and he's achieved nothing of note since then. His lack of understanding that politics is the art of building consensus and reaching compromise over the long term explains why he retreats into name-calling and petulant sulking when he doesn't get his way, a personality trait that never has been even remotely charming and has now become tiresome and self-destructive.

It's also becoming clear why he has never articulated a coherent philosophy of government — he doesn't have one. When George Stephanopoulos of ABC News flew to California earlier this year to delve into the governor's political principles, he was so nonplused at Schwarzenegger's expressions of complete indifference to major national issues — Social Security, immigration, judicial appointments — that he was reduced to soliciting the governor's Oscar picks. This is one of the three men "shaping the future of the Republican Party," as his wife, Maria Shriver, told Vanity Fair? (The others she mentioned are Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain.)

[garylmoore]

Arnold Schwarzenegger urged the GOP to adopt more liberal stances

He wants us to cave in to their agenda? He should have run as a DemoRat if he likes their morals that much.

[goldstategop]

All of the names on the list are RINOs. Guiliani reduced crime and McCain restricted freedom of political speech. I don't see anything in the way of a great philosophy. Or could it be if you don't stand for something, people peeceive you stand for nothing? That's perhaps why RINOs find themselves in such a predicament these days. They're like the admirals in the Gilbert&Sullivan operas, buffeted to and fro by the political winds. And what was it the French author Victor Hugo once wrote about popularity? "The very crumbs of greatness!" Indeed.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[goldstategop]

If you move left, you only get the Left to hate you even more. They hate you already for not agreeing with them but they hate you even more for compromising in a vain effort to be liked.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)