Posted on 10/08/2003 1:27:37 AM PDT by kattracks
The California recall election is a political earthquake. It is already shaping the political future not only in California but nationwide. The big losers in this election were California liberals, feminists, the politics of personal destruction, the myth that the press is not in bed with the Democrats and the image of Republicans as mean-spirited morality police. The Republican Party has suddenly become the big tent it has aspired to be but never quite achieved until now. According to exit polls 55 percent of independents and 18 percent of Democrats voted for Schwarzenegger despite the fact that the Democratic Party threw all its big guns into the state including all its presidential candidates, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jesse Jackson. Thirty-nine percent of union households voted for the Republican and thirty percent of Hispanics despite the fact the Democrat Bustamante would have been the first Hispanic governor in history if he had won. Moreover, the turnout of Republicans themselves was also obviously large with the overwhelming majority of conservatives and an even larger majority of moderate Republicans coming out to vote for him.
In short, the new governor inspires passion in the Republican base and yet hope among those who are often put off by that base. In California, Arnold has created a new Republican coalition that has raised the Republican Party from the dead and produced an electoral landslide in the process. In a state which Republicans lost by a million votes in the last presidential election (without the Democrats having to spend a penny in the state) the combined Republican vote may have exceeded 60 percent -- an electoral landslide. This is what is meant by a political earthquake.
This earthquake is far more important than the Jesse Ventura miracle in Minnesota five years ago, and only partly because California is a state many times the size and importance of Minnesota. Ventura accomplished his feat as an independent, running against the major parties. Arnolds victory is a victory of the Republican Party with enormous potential for affecting Republican fortunes everywhere. The fact that in a special election he drew numbers of Republicans rivaling the presidential turnout is a marker for the Republican future. A charismatic Republican candidate who embodies the big tent aspirations of the Republican center but resonates with its conservative base can point the way to a Republican governing majority for the foreseeable American future. And thats something to think about.
David Horowitz is the author of numerous books including an autobiography, Radical Son, which has been described as the first great autobiography of his generation, and which chronicles his odyssey from radical activism to the current positions he holds. Among his other books are The Politics of Bad Faith and The Art of Political War. The Art of Political War was described by White House political strategist Karl Rove as the perfect guide to winning on the political battlefield. Horowitzs latest book, Uncivil Wars, was published in January this year, and chronicles his crusade against intolerance and racial McCarthyism on college campuses last spring. Click here to read more about David
God fearing, law abiding people want restrictions in place. With them they can be more free than they can without them. The main purpose of these laws isn't to modify the behavior of the person that will chose to break them, they are there to stop the vast majority that don't want to break them.
An analogy is when we lock our doors. Our door bolts are not going to keep out dishonest people. They only keep out honest people.
Strategically, the key point is this: a much more powerful, broad-based and lasting coalition can be built nationally around free-market/small-government principles, than around the conservative/traditional sociocultural agenda.
Free/market/small-government principles cut across the lines of gender, socio-economic status, race and age. You get a following of people committed to a political philosophy, rather than a loosely allied coalition of disparate groups all vying for access to the public trough (which is what the Democrat Party is becoming).
...the Democratic Party threw all its big guns into the state including all its presidential candidates, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jesse Jackson. Thirty-nine percent of union households voted for the Republican and thirty percent of Hispanics despite the fact the Democrat Bustamante would have been the first Hispanic governor in history if he had won.
The actual point of contention is the abortion debate, which logically involves at least 4 individuals: the mother, the father, the child fetus, and the doctor. Thus, it is in no sense honest to say that the abortion debate is just about "consenting adults behavior" .. notice the presence of the intended abortion victim, who is neither adult nor consenting. Notice also the presence of the Doctor, a profession that is controlled and licensed in nearly every aspect of the practice of their craft. Finally please note that few abortions take place "in the bedroom". The debate is about what takes place in the operating room.
Please avoid using the bogus terms of the left to describe the political situation in these United States. It gives aid and comfort to the clueless leftists who would turn us into serfs.
As populations become more urban and the politics more evenly divided (which is a great gain in California, where they had not been divided for at least a decade), this tactic becomes more and more critical to victory. When you can get 55% of the Independents (a polar swing in California, where prior to yesterday the Indies were 55-45 the other way for a decade) and take 18% of your opposition's vote from him, you simply cannot lose.
In many states of the south or great plains or mountain west, such strategies as this are not necessary. In the more urbanized states of the east, Great Lakes and on the very wacky west coast, this is how you win.
Now Arnold must cut some unpopular taxes and relieve some unpopular business burdens to seal the deal in California. And it wouldn't be too terribly surprising to see the voters in Washington and Oregon take notice if California gets its act together. These two other west coast states are only a half-step behind California on the path to the big cliff.
I must have missed this, since when have conservatives been in favor of sex police? Why do people take the claims of known liberal liars at face value?
That's hardly the point I was trying to make. I'mnot quite sure if you took my words out of context simply because I don't adhere to your philosophy or if you honestly misunderstood what I was trying to say.
I'm not saying that individuals are too stupid to make their own choices. I never said that. I said that I'm suspicuous towards people under the influence of a CONTROL SUBSTANCE and that I doubted their ability to fully gauge their competance nor maintain the same level of self control in which they would when not under the influence of such substances.
Arnie always intended to win, and to govern. He's succeeded at nearly everything he's ever attempted (the Planet Hollywood restaurant failure is the only thing that comes to mind on the minus side), and he has no intention to fail at being governor.
It hit me while I was watching him after his victory speech, here was the sister of JFK and Bobby Kennedy, and George McGovern's 1972 running mate, all of them icons of the past that the liberals want to drag us back to, cheering Arnold on his path to the Governor's office! It must have stuck mightily in the collective craw of our enemies, to see that Arnold has succeeded in getting these people, their heroes, to love him that much.
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