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.
"I'm one of many conservatives who voted for Arnold in the recall" ...and as such, you got what you deserved. All the real conservatives of this forum warned you that you were going to be snookered and would wind up sorely disappointed in Ted Kennedy's relative, but you voted for him any way. He's as much a Republican as Arlen Specter is.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Yep. Looks like Mountjoy is getting the Harris treatment.
That's the point. Arnold is less of a liberal and therefore should be supported in this case.
Well Dreier never had Rohrabacher's conservative credentials. Moreover, David stumped for Richard Riordan who until recently was the most liberal Republican to ever be elected in California.
Compromise? Hey pal I'm all in favor of a few concessions to the enemy Dims. After all. even Reagan compromised on some issues. But there's compromise and then there's totally bending over. I don't think CA conservatives are in favor of the latter.
Are you saying there isn't a Tacit or an Against ballot?
The CAGOP has been telling us for weeks that we should vote against Angelides and today you told use that we're probably going to vote tacitly for Angelides and we wouldn't have to leave our house to do it.
I'm so confused. Maybe I should become a blindly loyal, Republican partisans and not worry. I could mail my absentee ballot to either you or down to Burbank and you could vote for me. That would be sooo much easier.
This business of the three different ballots was so confusing.
IIRC, the ballot says "Vote for one." Apparently because he is an Independent and doesn't vote in primaries he doesn't get enough practice reading one.
Can an elector cast more than one Against vote against a single candidate?
The more I think about the possibility of casting "Against" votes, the more intriguing the possiblities appear.
In some ways, it beats NOTA.
That would be "the Simon treatment" in California.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
That might be a good thing.
Like a filthy, urine-soaked alcoholic who wakes up one afternoon in a back-alley dumpster, California must first "hit bottom" before it can truly begin on the path to recovery. Let Angelides and the socialist scumbag Democrats flush California down the toilet once and for all - - the sooner the better. Only then can California begin its recovery.
The only thing the re-election of Arnold would do is slightly delay the inevitable.
You're going to push this same canard in 2010, when two liberals from both parties will run for CA Governor, and you're going to be urging conservatives to hold the ole' nose again and vote Republican.
By supporting RINOLD, all you're doing is turning the flame on the stove down slightly that's boiling the frog.
"Brilliant strategy": "Let's burn down the village" to save it.
Now you will proceed to tell us how beneficial was Carter's and Clinton's presidency and what a great thing it was to allow the Dems to take over and control the House for 40 years and what a terrific thing it is that Republicans didn't manage to win a single statewide office in CA and that the Legislature is overwhelmingly Democrat.
What terrific Republican "victories" these are.
(/sarcasm)
Exactly. This writer gets it. Is the power of the governorship worth having a governor who shares few, if any, of the principles of the grassroots of his own party.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
I'm not confused. It was a joke--not posted to you, btw.
There is no "conservative" option.
There isn't even a "moderate" option. Liberal vs. Liberal = Lose/Lose
You gotta love those Friday night press releases.
The worst legislation signed will most likely be buried under the headlines of an SB 840 or SB 1162 Veto.
That is what you say. What you do is campaign for Angelide's victory.
Thank you DIW, for stating the obvious. Evidently some FR conservatives with their heads in the clouds were fantasizing otherwise.
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