Posted on 09/18/2003 6:58:02 AM PDT by Rabid Dog
George Will: McClintock is the Medicine that California Needs
This recall election isn't about Democrats vs. Republicans. It's about a man who will defend the law, Tom McClintock, and his opponents who defend lawlessness.
But Britain's revival was one choice away. In 1979 voters elected someone who lacked warmth but possessed a plan as radical as Britain's condition required -- Margaret Thatcher, who, it was said, could not see an institution without swatting it with her handbag.
Only one California candidate, State Sen. Tom McClintock, is, like Thatcher, a "conviction politician" prepared to discipline the nanny state. He has a Thatcherite charm deficit but -- perhaps these attributes are related -- determination to summon California, as Thatcher summoned Britain, up from infantilism.
He has her determination to revive what she called "the vigorous virtues" -- entrepreneurship, deferral of gratification, individual initiative, personal responsibility in making appetites conform to resources. Together these aptitudes can be called adulthood.
State Sen. Tom McClintock has come out of nowhere to within striking distance of Schwarzenegger and the party establishment can't seem to understand why this is happening.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it is because McClintock has pledged to defend Proposition 187 if he is elected governor.
In this recall election, all bets are off. Most taxpayers in California don't really care about party labels. They want the state's fiscal problems fixed and they never will be fixed until those who break into this country are cut off and sent home.
This recall election isn't about Democrats vs. Republicans. It's about a man who will defend the law, Tom McClintock, and his opponents who defend lawlessness
"Recall Politics Dominate the California Republican Party Convention" -- Daily Conservative vs Liberal slug fest between McClintock and Rnulled supporters.
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