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[Previous entry: "Thoughts on 'Islamofascism'"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Changing barrels"] 08 August 2003: "'Conan, what is best in life?'"
To crush your enemies, to see dem driven before you, and to hear duh lamentation off duh wimmen.Yeah, well, what with Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing his candidacy for Gubernator of California, the pundits are falling over each other "clever" movie references. "Lexington" in this week's Economist probably has the best (or least bad, depending on your point of view) of the lot, with "Running man"; "Total Recall" had been used months ago. I thought I'd better reach even further back. Going by my gut, the recall campaign against Governor Gray Davis was started for all the wrong reasons; Davis was re-elected only last year, due in no small part to the spectacular incompetence of the Republicans in fielding a candidate who was even less popular than Davis. Observers said it was practically impossible, but somehow the California GOP managed it. Under the circumstances, the degree of voter apathy was no big surprise. Then Darell Issa launched what has been called a snowball; perhaps he felt that if he had been the Republican candidate last year he might have won, or perhaps he hoped that people would be even more fed up with Davis by now, and he would now be in with a chance. Be that as it may, "Darrell Issa got run over by his own snowball," as a reader wrote in to Daniel Weintraub, a columnist on the Sacramento Bee who is running a weblog titled California Insider (link via Evan Kirchoff). There has been a rash of people announcing their candidacy, but with Arnold Schwarzenegger at last throwing his hat in the ring, Issa has ignominiously pulled out of the process he started. With Arnie's candidacy, some good may come of this whole schemozzle after all. Strange as it may sound, and tempting as it may be to be dismissive, Schwarzenegger is probably not only the most viable candidate, but may also be the best available man for the job. By all accounts, he is a liberal republican; he's pro-business (though not necessarily pro-big business), but tolerant on social issues such as gay and abortion rights. He's no political neophyte, either; he's been active in the Republican party for well over a decade and he's good friends with Richard Riordan. Riordan, a former mayor of Los Angeles, is another liberal republican of note in California (in fact, he was widely expected to run in the forthcoming election), and Schwarzenegger may well gain the use of his campaign machine. And while Schwarzenegger may not be professional politician, many Californians feel that it was professional politicians who got the state into the mess it is in in the first place. In this regard, Arnold is the consummate outsider: he has political acumen, but he's not a professional politican. He doesn't need contributions from special interest groups, he's got all the money he needs; in fact, he's militated against vested interests and "politics as usual." He's an immigrant done good, whose attitude is that all immigrants want to do is work their butts off to make a better life for themselves and their children in time-honoured American fashion; this is likely to resonate with California's immigrant population, who have been snubbed by the GOP over the past ten years. Critics have been quick to point out that Gustav Schwarzenegger, Arnold's father, was a Nazi party member, but it should be noted that the primary reason that this is public knowledge is because Arnold himself approached the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles (to which he donates money on a regular basis), requesting they conduct a full investigation. The Center could find no indication Gustav had been involved in any atrocities; I would surmise that perhaps Gustav's joining the Nazi party was motivated by opportunism rather than ideology. Various sources corroborate the story that Jörg Haider, former leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, was visiting the Center and was incensed to see his portrait on the "Wall of Shame" (next to Idi Amin) and said he'd "complain to Arnold." After examining Haider's record, Schwarzenegger called him to tell him that, yes, his picture belonged on that wall. By all accounts, Schwarzenegger has gone to great lengths to break with, and make some restitution for, one of the more unsavoury periods in Austrian history. And if nothing else, his candidacy is likely to rekindle some interest among the Californian electorate in a political process which for too long has been uninvolving. I'm kind of hoping he'll be pro-ferret (you know, after doing Kindergarten Cop...). Still, if the Gubernator isn't quite what you're looking for in a candidate, how about Georgy Russell instead? I'm betting she's going to make a clean sweep among geeks in the Bay Area, especially single males. |
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