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Posted on 10/12/2003 5:08:05 AM PDT by mhking
Claiming that Arnold Schwarzenegger's broad appeal gives a fresh edge to the GOP, Republican politicians across the country are celebrating the action hero's strong win in California. The state is a Democratic stronghold, but Schwarzenegger drew many Democratic voters -- including substantial numbers of Latinos -- into his muscular fold.
These days, the GOP needs a little good news. President Bush's poll ratings are sinking like a stone as voters gripe about the jobless recovery and recoil at the $87 billion bill the president has submitted for Iraq. Then there's that pesky investigation of a serious national security leak, which points to high-ranking administration officials.
Given the GOP's relief over the California victory, I'm a little reluctant to point out that they poured the champagne too soon. But here it is: Schwarzenegger's win means little to the Republican Party. Under that taut skin, the Terminator is a moderate Democrat.
He supports abortion rights; he backs domestic partnerships for gay couples; he supports several gun control measures, including trigger locks, a ban on assault weapons and restricting the sale of guns at gun shows. All those positions are anathema to Republican regulars, whose party has shifted to the far right during the past two decades.
(Republicans might also reconsider their glee over the economic crisis that fueled the recall of Gray Davis, who was unlucky enough to preside over both the California energy crisis and the dot-com bust.
The state's gaping budget hole -- somewhere between $8 billion and $20 billion -- awaits the new "governator," who will find it very difficult to mend.)
Had the actor chosen to run in a regular election, he would not have received the Republican nomination. His politics are too liberal for the voters who regularly participate in GOP primaries.
Indeed, Davis might have been defeated for re-election last year had he been challenged by a moderate Republican -- say, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. But Riordan lost in the GOP primary to the steadfastly conservative Bill Simon Jr.
Schwarzenegger has drawn the fire of hard-core conservatives. Rush Limbaugh criticized him in a posting on his Web site: "I know that (R) next to Schwarzenegger's name excites the White House, but his own words prove he's not a conservative." (Limbaugh later gave Schwarzenegger grudging approval.)
Commentator George Neumayr, writing in the conservative opinion journal American Spectator, described Schwarzenegger as a "middle-of-the-road Democrat." And conservative columnist George Will recently fulminated: "These Schwarzenegger conservatives -- now there is an oxymoron for these times -- have embraced a man who is, politically, Hollywood's culture leavened by a few paragraphs of Milton Friedman."
The recall was tailor-made for Schwarzenegger because it allowed him to leapfrog the traditional process of a party primary and appeal directly to the general electorate -- which is always more moderate than the extremes of either the Republican or Democratic party. And the short campaign season allowed him to make maximum use of his celebrity -- his greatest asset.
Not only did he skip over a party primary, but he also ignored the traditional media, going through celebrity talk-show hosts such as Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey. Very few candidates, conservative or liberal, could pull that off.
The nation remains deadlocked by a bitter culture war that was papered over, but hardly resolved, by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. And California remains among the states that the Democratic nominee can count on in next year's presidential election. Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall" doesn't change that.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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That said, much of what she says is true. But let's not pretend her motives are anywhere near ours...
This part is precisely accurate. Trouble is, she and her kind (Arnold among them) are on the wrong side.
If they play ball then California's situation will improve. Who gets the credit? Who cares.
Here is the rub. When California's economy improves, the US economy will if really take off.
Seems to be, it is a win/win for the Republicans.
Is it just me, or does this sound like the beginning of every editorial, article, and newstory that even remotely has anything to do with Bush, the economy, or Washington DC. I am feeling a drumbeat from the media that they all are saying the same thing, spinning the same way; that before long, even we will accept these opinions as fact.
Take a look at this editorial by Mark Steyn:
But 10 minutes after the polls had closed, the Dems and the media were once again rocketing off to Planet Bananas. Before Election Day, the official line was that the recall was part of a pattern of hardline Republican subversion of the democratic process, going back through the Florida recount to the Clinton impeachment. In an about-turn so fast poor old DNC honcho Terry McAuliffe must have gotten whiplash, the new line was that the recall reflected a voter anger against incumbents that would spell disaster for Bush next year. And even as I lay on the floor howling with laughter, up there on CNN Judy Woodruff & Co. were taking it seriously. That would be the Judy Woodruff who, like 1970s serial killer Lendell Hunter, is a native of Augusta, Ga.Clearly, someone has put this line of argument into the Democrat Talking Points, and some media outlets, ever eager to find portents of doom for George Bush, are running with it.
Arnold is what I've nicknamed a "Sports politician". He has no real republican or conservative views, but he roots for the republicans because he has identified himself as being on there team, so he supports them. Its kind of like being born in Boston, so you have to be a red sox fan, even if all the players you like are on the yankees, or if you would, if anywhere else be a yankee fan.
There's alot of those types in the world, and even in hollywood, they know that they are supposed to be democrats because of what the democratic party claims to stand for, but they don't have any of its views, just as there are dems like that, there are republicans like that. I know one girl who votes solid GOP in every election, but has all the leftist views (idiot), arnold is in that category.
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