Posted on 09/04/2006 10:19:40 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
I don't recall even being in a situation where the closer Election Day gets, the less likely I am to vote for the GOP nominee.
Yet, that is where I find myself vis-a-vis Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I'm one of many conservatives who voted for Arnold in the recall, despite my preference for Tom McClintock. I found the prospect of Cruz Bustamante in the governor's office horrifying and wasn't convinced McClintock could win. The stakes so too high I though it prudent to back the Republican with the best chance of winning, and so I cast my vote for Arnold. Like other conservatives, I comforted myself with the rumor we'd heard for years that Arnold was really a libertarian. So, although he was squishy on the social issues, at least he'd be hard core on taxes, spending and freedom issues. After all, he was a Milton Friedman fan!
But ever since the Governor's nauseating policy of apologizing for the special election of 2005, it's been steadily more difficult to assembly a conservative Republican rationale for supporting his re-election.
He's signed a non-aggression pact with the government employee unions, promising he will never, ever again try to rein in their power. He talks a big game about building infrastructure, but is unable to just come out and support an infrastructure plan -- the 241 toll road completion in Orange County -- that has been EIRed and is ready to go.
This alleged acolyte of Milton Friedman signs an "anti-greenhouse gases" bill that will have no impact on the climate but will have negative impacts on California's economic competitiveness. And this is the same guy who tells every Republican crowd the same story about how he left Austria to escape its stultifying socialism -- even as he signs neo-Euro socialist bills like the emissions cap. I thought we elected a Republican as Governor during the rcall - not Al Gore.
Since being beaten by the government employee unions and adopting the Stoclkholm Syndrone as his political survival strategy, the Governor easgerly signs any minimum wage bill the Democrats send his way -- even though he knows they are job destroyers. He knows this, and yet signs them with a smile, anyway.
Old arguments employed to keep conservatives in line like "he's good on judges" hold no water when it comes to the Schwarzenegger Administration. Yes, he's appointed more Republicans than Gray Davis, but Republicans expect something more than appointing more Republican judges than your Democratci predecessor did. For example, how about no appointing public defedners who are proud of their qualifications to defend Serbian war crimninals at The Hague?
The Governor signed the latest in Sheila Kuehl's endless succession of "gay rights" bills -- SB 1441. Did the Governor actually read this bill?:
The bill would also expand the definition of discrimination under these provisions to include a perception that a person has any of these enumerated characteristics or that the person is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to have, any of these characteristics.
I would really love to hear the Governor affirm that he actually read that dangerous claptrap -- nothing is objectively real because reality is nothing more than perception -- and thought it was legislation that must be signed.
Everyday, I get e-mails from the Governor's re-election campaign. And I am trying to think of a single one that has, for even a moment, made me feeel proud Arnold Schwarzenegger is my party's nominee for Governor. And I can't think of a one. What I do remember are press releases bragging how Gov. Schwarzenegger is spending more money on education than anybody ever has in state history. Yessir -- that's why I became a Republican! To throw record sums of taxpayer dollars on failed government programs.
Perhaps the reader can detect the depth of my ever-deepening disenchantment with the Schwarzenegger Administration. Not that it really matters, because the Governor will be re-elected. He's blessed with a Democratic opponent who is a living caricature of the liberal excesses of his party and who gifted the Schwarzenegger campaign with his calls for billions in new taxes.
The Governor triangulates, buys off key Democratic special interests, adopts Democratic policies, and keeps enough conservatives in line by stoking their Fear of an Angelides Planet. He will win, and the Republican Party will find itself victorious in gubernatorial race but lacking a soul.
I think it was George Washington who said that a political party without principles is nothing more than a conspiracy to hold power. I'm afraid that is what is happening to the California Republican Party under the administration of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and that is why I have gone from being a unapologetic supporter of his election in the recall to being undecided about whether I'll vote to re-elect him.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
How does not voting for a liberal Republican translates into a vote for the Dim?
Don't forget Poochigian for AG (or else we get Jerry Brown as Chief Law Officer of the State).
And, of course, vote NO on all of the Pork-Ridden Agenda 21 Bond measures (Prop 1A-1E).
Thank you for setting the poster straight, AM.
I've missed that choice on the ballot.
Is Tacit voting available on the regular ballot or does an elector have to request a special Tacit ballot?
Are Tacit ballots available to other than certified partisans?
Can I be certified as a partisan by my local, Republican Central Committee?
Can an elector cast more than one Tacit vote for a single candidate?
Please provide more information about the new Tacit voting procedure. It sounds like fun.
You're right.
How could I have ever thought
you'd let yourself be caught.
Enough, knock it off.
It isn't naivete and they ain't conservatives.
You start by offering a clear, conservative agenda to voters, regardless if the sniveling Democrats and the MSM call you a mean-old Republicans.
You don't do it by co-opting socialist ideas and alienate your supports to appeal to people who will vote for the Dim anyway.
This is why Reagan's two elections and the GOP in the 1994 mid-terms racked up landslides. That's why the GOP is often referred to as the "Stupid Party." If they just run a center-right agenda, they wouldn't be losing conservative voters.
Do you have anything to offer on the subject of the thread or are you just here
to snipe at others and make snide comments and baseless allegations?
Don't bother answering that. The posting history speaks for itself.
"The Republicans have enough votes to block any attempt of the legislature to override a veto."
When did you become the minority whip? I got a suggestion for you "conservatives". If it's purity you want, politics ain't the game for you.
As for advancing conservative ideals by electing a liberal...what did you think you were getting with Arnold? Your choice this time around is no different than last time. Keep setting unattainable goals for yourself and you're never going to be happy. Forget about electing any but a moderate Republican for governor. Under the current circumstances it ain't going to happen. We're going to have to start at the bottom and work up. Now there's a conservative approach.
This coming from an ilk, and evoking shame. Bizarre ...
Nope. Schwartnegger is a better candidate than a McGovern liberal like Angelides. It's quite easy actually.
Nice reverse pyschology there. Too bad it failed.
So in other words, CA conservatives should STFU and vote for the liberal Republican, which is really nothing more than a stay of execution anyway.
Good point, I forgot about him.
This is where conservatives should be concentrating their energies.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
All it takes is believing that (x + 0) = (x - 1).
FareOpinion can explain it for you. ;-)
Thanks for that, Billy. It inspired me to change my tagline.
"Oops, I was wrong" would have been a more honest answer.
If it's purity you want, politics ain't the game for you.
Purity is not what I seek. But I also expect a Republican Governor to stand up for at least 80% of the party platform, even if some compromise is made from there. As it is, we're losing more battles than we did under Gray Davis as the governor (R) has aided and abetted the dems in achieving their objectives.
How about that Veto pen, huh? Global Warming, Minimum Wage Increases, Prescription Drug Programs, Financial Aid for Illegal Aliens, Popular Vote Compacts, Homosexual Agenda Bills--All appropriate targets for a Veto by a Republican Governor.
They start with a handicap.
On their best day, they struggle to be validated.
They are currently experiencing a very bad hair day.
You'd be out of sorts too if you carried the burden of guilt they've heaped on themselves.
... be kind to Republicans for they have the greatest potential to become conservatives.
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