Posted on 08/17/2003 8:54:19 PM PDT by Fred Mertz
Surprise, surprise. California’s GOP leaders are telling conservatives to shut up while the Establishment paves the way for a liberal Republican’s ascension to power. Arnold Schwarzenegger, you see, is running for governor and all “good” Republicans need to get in line behind The Terminator. That way we can win. “Win what?” you ask. Who cares? Those are just details on the road to victory.
At the present time, the Republican vote is split between four candidates—Schwarzenegger, Bill Simon, Tom McClintock, and Peter Ueberroth—causing recent polls to show Schwarzenegger neck-and-neck with Democrat Cruz Bustamante. Hence, there is great pressure for conservatives Simon and McClintock (polling at a combined 16%) to drop out of the race so that Schwarzenegger will have the clear edge.
But should conservatives abandon their principles to elect a governor who may be a Republican in Name Only? On this issue, conservatives are split in surprising ways.
National Review, increasingly a voice of compromise and concession (see their position on gay civil unions), argued that Schwarzenegger “does not merit conservative support” because he is “pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun control.”
Rush Limbaugh was even harsher. While stopping short of refusing to endorse Schwarzenegger, he cautioned his audience:
”All these conservative orgasms over Arnold Schwarzenegger are—like the ‘Gorbasms’ liberals experienced over Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev—fake. I know that (R) next to Schwarzenegger's name excites the White House, but his own words prove he's not a conservative. I call this ‘The Hollywood Syndrome,’ and it happens every time some actor-type says anything even remotely conservative. I'm not trying to cold shower anybody here, but don't look to anyone in Hollywood to validate your political ideas.”
On the other side, conservative pundit and best-selling author Ann Coulter has expressed support for Schwarzenegger, telling CNN’s Larry King:
”We don't know too much about what kind of Republican he is, but I'm impressed enough that he's in Hollywood, he's married to a Kennedy and he still calls him himself a Republican. That's good enough for me…There may be a lot of things I disagree with him about, but who cares? I mean, for example, a moderate Republican means a person is a pro-abortion Republican. So what is the governor of California going to do? They need to get their budget under control. The most a governor can do to support abortion is to put in a kind word for Justice Souter.”
Though Ms. Coulter makes an important point—the California budget is clearly the most important issue of the campaign—a governor can play an important role in crafting state abortion law. California currently has a parental consent law on the books, but it is not enforced due to a California Supreme Court decision that declared that the law in violation of the state constitution. The California governor could sign a constitutional amendment requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor or enact judicial reform in hopes of overturning the decision. Moreover, California law is quite liberal on Medicaid funding for abortion. The governor could sign legislation that would further restrict such funding.
Still, Coulter’s pragmatic point is valid—California’s next governor will be working on the budget, not social issues. David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, concurs, arguing that Schwarzenegger has the “cool” factor necessary to win:
“Even Ronald Reagan left issues like abortion on the back burner when he led California Republicans to victory. This is a state, it should never be forgotten, that has a million more registered Democrats than it does Republicans.”
Horowitz, however, does not suggest that the right-wing base should be ignored. Rather, he believes that Schwarzenegger can gain conservative support by centering his campaign around the issue of illegal immigration, as Pete Wilson did in 1994. By emphasizing that the Democrats have eviscerated Proposition 187 and have supported giving drivers’ licenses to illegals, Schwarzenegger can persuasively argue that the influx of illegal aliens has (i) increased the terror threat in CA and (ii) strained the state budget due to increased welfare payments.
To this point, little is known about Schwarzenegger’s public policy stances. From his own statements, he is probably a liberal on all the major social issues. He claims to be a fiscal conservative, but little in his past reflects this. In fact, Schwarzenegger's sole foray into the political world prior to his gubernatorial run was his 2002 cheerleading for Proposition 49, which earmarked a half-billion dollars annually for California after-school programs. Moreover, Matt Drudge reported last night that according to Schwarzenegger campaign advisors, the Terminator has not ruled out raising taxes! This is, of course, unacceptable.
If Schwarzenegger wants to win this election, he will have to win over conservatives. Thus, his campaign team needs to meet a “right-wing threshold." Pete Wilson did this in CA with his opposition to illegal immigration and racial quotas; George W. Bush has done this nationally with his support for tax cuts and defense spending. If a candidate meets the threshold, then the base won’t balk too loudly when he sells them out on other, less important issues. Schwarzenegger needs to do three things to gain right-wing support:
(1) Pledge to slash the budget deficit by cutting spending and not raising taxes.
(2) Pledge to enforce immigration laws so as to reduce the risk of terrorism.
(3) Commit to campaign for conservative candidates for the state legislature in the next election cycle so as to rebuild the state party.
Without conservative support, Schwarzenegger will lose the recall campaign. He must co-opt sufficient planks of the Simon-McClintock platform so as to force them out of the race or render their campaigns totally impotent.
At the present time, conservatives are either ambivalent or worried about Schwarzenegger—ambivalent because they don’t believe his fiscal policies will be very different from those of Gray Davis or worried because they fear that a Schwarzenegger victory will give liberal Republicans a seat at the national public policy table. Could a Schwarzenegger win lead to greater acceptance of pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-gun control national GOP candidates? Conservatives need to be reassured that this will not be the case. Furthermore, they need to be reassured that the California Republican Party will not be cleansed of conservatives and dominated by the Rockefeller-style crowd.
Unless and until Schwarzenegger articulates conservative fiscal policies, right-wingers have an obligation to continue supporting Bill Simon or Tom McClintock. Each of these candidates is committed to lower taxes, fewer government regulations, and greater immigration restrictions. If conservatives are supposed to take a chance on the liberal Schwarzenegger, they need some reason to do so. "Victory" isn’t sufficient.
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Why not? Conservatives abandoned their principles for electing George Bush 43!
I know not how my fellow Californians may vote but as for me, eat my shorts Ahnold.
Don't confuse Republicans with Conservatives. There are many of the former, but few of the latter.
Since when did wishful thinking become a serious course of action around here?
True. This is how "slippery slopes" get started. The tricky question is: how do we stop a slippery slope once it gets started? Tack strips?
I'll tell you what wishful thinking is: It's expecting Arnold Schwarzenegger to be anything but what he has always been--a Leftwinger.
It's y'all with stars in your eyes.
That's where non- Conservative Republicans come in. I mean, after all, they are the ones who are proponents of one compromising one's beliefs for the good of the party.
Maybe they'll put their money where their mouth is (mouths are?) and compromise their non-Conservative beliefs for a change.
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