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! )
We've joked about this line, but I have a personal reply from yesterday from one of our resident RINO boot lickers that says exactly that.
A win is a win. I'll take this over ridiculous nailbiters like W's runs.
Amazing simply amazing. Can someone get these people a good hockey team or something so they will quit mucking up Republican politics?
For you to equate those two is to deny how the Republican Party came into being, which was as a third party. Further, to equate staying home with voting third party is mathematically fraudulent. I have every intention to vote for McClintock, Poochigian, Strickland, etc. but I won't vote for Arnold.
FO says Arnold is far ahead, so he doesn't need my vote anyway. If the New Majority thinks it doesn't need conservatives, maybe conservatives should give them an opportunity to prove it.
Good question, maybe they can go "save" some other state..
Are the Anaheim Quacks available? not to duck your comment.;-)
I'm so tired of you pushing this crap.
Arnold has to EARN conservative voters' votes.
The fact that some CA conservatives won't vote for RINOLD doesn't mean they support Angelides by default.
RINOLD will win but it's a victory in name only. He will move CA further to the left to the point where even a moderate Republican (fiscal conservative, social liberal) will not be a viable GOP candidate in 2010. The Republican running in 2010 will have no choice but to run as an out-and-out liberal, and he/she will lack the star power and charisma of RINOLD, thereby guaranteeing an easy Dim victory.
IMO, those were passed as a longshot and to embarrass the Governor. Here's a partial list of 'awful' bills:
• Single-Payer Healthcare (SB 840)
• Drivers Licenses for Illegal Aliens (SB 1162)
• Student financial aid for Illegal Aliens (SB 160)
• Public Benefits for Illegal Aliens (SB 1534)
• Bilingual Education (SB 1769)
• Global Warming - Energy (AB 32 and SB 1368)
• Minimum Wage Increase (AB 1835)
• Popular Vote - Electoral College Compact (AB 2948)
• California Discount Prescription Drug Program (AB 2911)
• Homosexual Agenda (SB 1437, AB 606, AB 1207, SB 1827, AB 1056, AB 2800, AB 1160, AB 2051, AB 2920. Too late for SB 1441--signed)
• Vehicles: wireless telephones (SB 1613)
• KOCE Taxpayer Ripoff (AB 523)
• Fair Share Health Care Act (Wal-Mart Act)- Requiring large employers provide a minimum level of health care benefits or pay into a state health fund (SB 1414)
• Alternative Fuels - Requiring half of new cars sold in California starting in 2020 be clean-running alternative-fueled vehicles. (AB 1012)
How about supporting the Republican Platform and Republican candidates? Or how about proposing budget reductions, followed by vetoing destructive legislation. And of course, he could stop promoting leftist acts like the Global Warming scheme, land grabs, stem-cell research, etc. Did I mention supporting the Republican Platform?
Party loyalty is a one way street for Arnold and his Bots. Ask Dick Mountjoy.
In the comments section of this article (at flashreport), Jon Fleishman said that he voted for Arnold largely based on Rohrabacher's testimony to Arnold's "libertarian" leanings and favor of Milton Friedman. Funny, we haven't heard much from the politicians that spammed the airwaves in 2003. Dreier comes to mind.
I wonder if he is going to use this green house gas bill to force the development of a large number of nuclear power plants?
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
That about sums it up. There simply is no good choice.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Amen! Ditto everything you said. Elections are about comparative choices not absolutes. This is why our founding fathers were wise to not opt for pure democracy. Some people get emotional about elections and are not capable of calm comparative analysis.
Did he lose his line item veto pen?
Schwartzenegger is a moderate and probably would not go to bat for a conservative. Probably makes no difference since I doubt Mountjoy has a chance anyway. If the choice is between a RINO and a dem - I'll go for the RINO every time.
And there is no absolute requirement on a citizen to vote for any of the choices when they're all bad.
I guess goldstategop's number 61 is the best possible answer to that question.
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