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
Wrong again ~ give up while you're behind. :-/
Pray for GW and the Truth
Not too bold at all. In fact, quite accurate. In my opinion, the Dems have done so nationwide, not just here in California.
I luv hearing the moans of Liberals being crushed in the morning. Let's crush some more! Bring out the bulldozers!
"Conservatives view human behavior with a protective eye, what has worked and what is practical.
So what makes them different than liberals with the exception that they're bent on a different agenda??
Sodomy is unhealthy, dirty. It also confuses the young.
Whose advocating that the young should participate in sodomy?! Hell the young shouldn't even be practicing missonary?! What confusion are you talking about???
Conservatives view government as a competitor to the market place. Where there is a natural market for government such as national security, there is toleration of government taxes."
Errrrr..... So your saying that conservatism is about goverment control just like the libs but just in a different direction. So where does personal responsibility and freedom come into play???
How about a VP run in '04? It would put New York in the Republican column.
Yeah-Gray had um out in an attempt to bolster his chances of staying in office-lol-but that was the same big mistake others have made in the past.
Liberals must have a huge problem in learning from past experience! Ok by me! LOL
The one thing I kept noticing over and over again as various shots of Gray, in various places, with his entourage behind him was shown yesterday was the indisputable fact that all of the men folk and some of the women folk surrounding Gray and jesse jackson looked like thugs. I am constantly amazed at the meanness on the faces of the goons that slum up close to jesse, but was surprised to see the same types around Gray. Is this a dem kinda thingie?
And it was flat out funny in one sequence of videos of gray to see jesse jackson trying so hard to find a space behind gray that would get his own ugly mug front and center---too funny. Such desparation. Such publicity hunting! And such a mark of a truly small man.
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