Posted on 09/15/2003 1:50:36 AM PDT by ambrose
Satanic Schwarzeneggerians
By Vox Day
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
"I have gone back and forth on Schwarzenegger, so much that I almost have whiplash. But my new – my current – position on him is: To hell with him."
– Jay Nordlinger, National Review
I like Arnold, the bodybuilding evangelist and the movie star. But I have no regard for Mr. Schwarzenegger-Kennedy, the evasive politician. He's a man of the people now – give him a little more time and he'll be feeling our pain and doing everything "for the children." Fortunately, it didn't take long for Arnold to destroy himself as a viable candidate in the eyes of thinking conservatives everywhere. He was already suspect, indeed, anathema to those of us who believe in principles over party.
But he damned himself even with the pragmatists, those who care more for power, party and position than principle, with his dismissal as "right-wing crazies" those who support Proposition 54, which bans the state's collection of racial statistics on the population. How eminently fitting that a son of a National Socialist would fail to see the dangers in compiling such data! After all, without it, how can the state be expected to find those pesky Jews and Japanese in case it serves the interests of the children to round them up again?
The Republican enthusiasm for Arnold was initially based on his star power. It was nice, for a change, to see a Hollywood entity throw in with the GOP for once instead of barking mindlessly at it with the usual combination of vacuous accusations and cretinous insults. But his real support stemmed from his presumed electability, which sufficed to prevent numerous Democratic grandees from throwing their hats into the ring.
The problem is that the concept of electability is a massive crock of fumet. The Bush administration is demonstrating this truth in real-time, as its compassionate big-government neo-conservatism expands the federal leviathan at a pace faster than anyone since FDR. Would President Gore have been worse? Perhaps – but then there would be an opportunity to elect a man who actually opposed the rising tide of government in 2004 instead of surfing it like a cattle rancher gone beach-boy stoner.
Schwarzenegger, far from representing the salvation of California's Republican Party, stands for its complete immolation. He does not offer a philosophical alternative to California's self-destructive Democratic socialism; instead, he is a form of life-support for it. Instead of swearing to cut spending, he vows to beg more money from the federal government – demonstrating very clearly that this Republican is no republican!
Republicans in the state legislature have held their ground against the rapacious taxes proposed by Gov. Davis, and their obdurate political Manichaenism will allow them to do the same against Bustamante. But they will not be able to resist the same tax increases which would be proposed by a future Gov. Schwarzenegger. Furthermore, California Republicans will then be tarred by the same fiscal irresponsibility that now sticks only to their Democratic rivals, which, combined with their contemplated Schwarzeneggerian abandonment of cultural conservatives, will leave them wholly without a raison d'etre.
Pragmatism in politics is self-defeating in the long run. It is a euphemism for the slow sacrifice of one's principles. The constant substitution of "electable" moderates for principled conservatives is what repeatedly kills the Republican Party and prevents it from ever realizing even a small part of its platform when it is in power. It is particularly ironic when the electable moderates show themselves to be nothing of the sort, which in this particular case has already happened when the managing editor of the seminal National Review abjures the Great Teutonic Hope in no uncertain terms.
And those so-called Republicans who would drive a principled conservative like Tom McClintock from the race should hang their heads in shame. If they cannot fight for this candidate, they may as well abandon the battle altogether, for they are useless soldiers. It is better to spend 40 years in the political wilderness than to forsake one's soul for all the kingdoms of the world, much less four years in Sacramento.
Still worse, however, are the right-side commentators who urge conservatives to abandon their principles and line up behind this false Republican god. To sacrifice your own soul to the naked pursuit of power is bad enough, to tempt others to do likewise is not just the ultimate in negative campaigning, it is pure political Satanism.
Vox Day is a novelist and Christian libertarian. He is a member of the SFWA, Mensa and the Southern Baptist Convention, and his weekly column is syndicated nationally by Universal Press Syndicate. He has been down with Madden since 1992.
(I'm still trying to figure out if being called names by a moron really means that the opposite of the name it calls me actually holds true. One of those "chicken and the egg" things ...)
Go away, child.
There's so much wrong and offensive about this article, but I suppose the cited remark above takes the cake. Anybody writing such a thing is most certainly building a false argument.
Satanism, Naziism, rounding up Jews and Japanese. This garbage you've posted is quite offensive really.
Once again McClintock supporters show their ugly, intolerant side. Have you considered that this undercurrent of hate and intolerance might be why Tom and his mini-minions are so very unpopular? Thought not.
Pot, kettle, black comes to mind for some reason.
That's an independent point of whether McC supporters do the same (and in what manner they do so).
OK, so we're expected to behave better than you uber-cons.
Sorry, you'll get repaid in whatever coin y'all offer.
My point is not simply "You do it and we don't." My point is that name-calling the poster and name-calling the candidate reflects an animus towards conservative principles in general.
Sorry, y'all started it.
Poohbah, cinnamon_girl, strela, all the usual liberals on FR do this.
You have this habit of saying things about others on FR that one should generally avoid uttering in real life unless one has a gun in hand, in Condition One.
Now this behavior reflects the mindset typical of the feces-throwing radicals at the 1967(?) Democratic national convention more than civilized folk...but when you worship accumulation of power, then all you have left to do is smear those in your way.
Actually, it was 1968, and y'all started throwing the feces; you're just whining about the inevitable response.
They don't know, they don't care.
So firmly opposed, that I REFUSE to sign the no tax increase pledge.
When the W's admin took over the White House, they found that the previous staff had variously removed the 'W' keys from the keyboards, or glued them in place so they wouldn't work.
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