I Cogitate
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Arnold--Footnote or Main Chapter?
I have just never been able to warm up to Arnold Schwarzenegger politically. But I'm trying..
I think this is due to the abuse of the California recall process that got Schwarzenegger into office. Perhaps if he had gone mano-a-mano in a general election rather than taking the girlyman approach, I’d feel differently.
While no fan of Gray Davis, the ultimate empty vessel-in-the-gray-flannel-suit, there was no legitimate reason to recall him. He had beaten Republican Bill Simon, hadn't lied under oath or used a cigar inappropriately, and hadn’t traded arms for hostages or conspired to cover up a pathetic burglary at Republican national headquarters.
So, how has Schwarzenegger performed?
His state's workers compensation system changes are lowering rates--a plus for California businesses although it remains to be seen how this will benefit injured workers.
He has jumped into the morass of issues surrounding cruel and unusal correctional officers, and conditions in the state prisons and California Youth Authority. Davis was the primary suckler of correctional officer campaign contributions and made reform a ‘no-fly’ zone.
His fairhandedness on environmental issues and political appointments is heartening. He appears to be one of the few Republicans who believe a clean environment and a healthy business climate are not oxymorons.
To his credit, he recently has shown that nothing is or should be off the table for discussion, including public education, political redistricting and state pensions.
But what keeps my fire for Schwarzenegger lukewarm is that I actually believed he was going to create a Third Way in politics by forgoing enormous political campaign contributions from corporate donors and end the dirty money, closed doors and backroom dealing.
As he has put it: "Any of those kinds of real big, powerful special interests, if you take money from them, you owe them something."
But first he has to stop the very practices he has so rightly condemned. He has to turn away contributions from the agriculture conglomerates, the entertainment industry, financial institutions, high technology corporations, real estate developers, HMOs and medical insurance companies. He has not done so to date.
Otherwise, he just becomes too much of another ho-hum
politician, emblazoned with a scarlet letter P.
Now there is a group of Californians who are pushing to amend the United States Constitution to allow individuals born in other countries to run for the presidency of the United States, after being U.S. citizens for 20 years. Call it the Arnold amendment.
It is too early to tell if such an amendment will gather the necessary momentum for passage, especially by 2008.
If Schwarzenegger became eligible, it’s likely the Republican faithful would shun him. His recent proclamation that the national Republican Party needs to become more representative by moving to the center didn’t sit well with the GOP right-wing, nor did his embrace of the California ballot initiative boosting stem cell research.
But someone like Schwarzenegger, who fails the right-wing litmus tests proffered by radical clerics like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson has potential as a Third Way candidate—if he chooses to do.
He could create a very viable third party, as no other recent candidates such as Ross Perot or John Anderson have been able to do.
We certainly need a genuine alternative political party, one that doesn't give the disenchanted the usual feeling that any third party vote is a waste.
Schwarzenegger would bring tremendous name recognition, the level no other third party candidate has enjoyed. Members of the mass media would stampede vying for the coverage opportunities. In addition, more than enough individual political contributors would amass the fortune necessary for the opportunity to change politics as we know it.
Obviously, the constitutional amendment is a major roadblock to any of these musings.
Moreover, Arnold, your personal constitution also needs a makeover. The opportunity to live a script unwritten in modern times is beckoning. Forget the silly tale of Soviet tanks in the Vienna of your youth and the verbal body-slams of opponents. Go for it. Be someone different. Someone more than a colorful footnote. Be better.
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