hell freezes over.
WARNING: I am about to give high praise to a Republican. Breathe deeply and rest assured that I am not on drugs of any kind.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a good governor. That’s right, I said it. And, I’ll say it again: the Governator is doing a good job.
I know, I know. I hated the idea of him as Governor as much as ANYONE. As a good blue-stater I turned up my nose at the idea of some anti-intellectual simple-minded movie star thinking he could be involved in politics and was repulsed by my fellow Californians for voting for him. In my snobby train of thought, it was just further evidence that voters are stupid.
As it turns out (so far at least), I was the stupid one. Blinded by elitism, it never occured to me that the man could do a good job.
Ok, why is he doing a good job? you wisely ask. I’ll give you three pieces of evidence and a single cliched, but important, word: LEADERSHIP
EVIDENCE #1: When asked in an interview for 60 minutes how he would rate himself on his first year in office, he sat back and through for a second and gave himself an 8. He then, mater-of-factly said: “I think I fell short on some of the things. Probably the communications with the legislators.” He went on to explain that he wished he would have been able deliver a balanced budget.
I know, it seems strange to be excited by such a mundane thing. But think about it: Question: “How’d you do?” Answer: “Pretty well, I screwed up this thing and wish I could have done better.” Bush’s answer to how he would rate himself would be something like “I don’t do that, that’s your job.” I hate that bullshit, just tell us what you think.
Schwarzenegger isn’t afraid to be honest. I don’t mean that he’s completely up front about everything, that would just be dumb, but he doesn’t play the bullshit “I’m saying something but I’m not saying something” game. Other politicians worry about saying things like this because they are afraid it will become news “Governor admits mistake” or some bull. He doesn’t care, because he would just say “everyone makes mistakes, it’s time California had leadership that admitted theirs and learned from them.” Because of his popularity, people would swoon. Also, because he doesn’t think it’s particularly newsworthy, news people don’t think they’ve caught him in some slip up or something.
Need another example? Checkout this out:
As for his endorsement of President Bush, he later joked that it got him a cold shoulder at home, saying, “There was no sex for 14 days.”
Whoa, he might be a normal human being.
EVIDENCE #2: He is going to make sure that districts in California are finally fairly designed by an independent panel of former judges. Read the LA Times editorial.
Power hungry legislators have made the districts more and more ridiculous, more and more single-party and more and more entrenched in the last ten years. Single party districts make the primary the whole campaign and therefore push both parties to the extremes(away from working together or being productive) and gives power to partisan special interests (quashes independent action and thinking). Also, they essentially remove public political debate, which is healthy and builds community.
Further, he’s told the legislature that if they don’t like it and won’t pass it, he’ll go over their heads, call a special election and let the voters decide. He’s basically saying “I dare you, challenge me to a public debate over whether or not what you’re doing to this state is horrible and dishonest. We’ll see what happens.” You know what that’s called (take note California dems)? LEADERSHIP
EVIDENCE #3: He’s going to finally reform California’s AWFUL prison system. And, believe it or not, he’s going to move it AWAY from our horribly unsuccessful (and immoral) “crime and justice” model and towards a system that focuses on rehabilitation. Now, I don’t know enough about the issue to know whether or not his proposal is perfect, but HE’S MOVING THE PRISON SYSTEM TO THE LEFT, with no apologies.
Democrats (like our former Governor) we’re SOO scared of touching the prison system, despite how broken it is, because they were afraid to be labeled weak, soft on crime or whathaveyou. The Governator, for reasons that are both obvious and pretty funny, doesn’t have that worry.
As always, I reserve the right to change my mind if he doesn’t pull some of this stuff off or tries to push for something too conservative, but if he maintains his current path of productive moderate reform, I might vote for a republican for the first time in my life. MIGHT.
Comments
I will forever be the little bugger in the back screaming: “He wasn’t elected because anyone could have predicted this sort of leadership (though some smart people considered the possibility). He was elected because he said ‘I’ll be back’ in a famous movie. We got damn lucky.”
Let’s all just keep that in mind when Keanu Reeves runs, eh? Whoa.
MAYBE he’s doing a good job, but the only reason he’s able to do any of those things is that he has special political capitol. He was a movie star, and that means he doesn’t have to worry so much about politics, but I wouldn’t exactly say he’s a great leader. Also, he endorsed Bush, and he did it in a way that was totally demeaning to democrats and women. He definitely sold out to the right wing in that speech. Even his comment about getting the cold shoulder is kind of sexist and inappropriate. And let’s not forget his sexual harassment. I don’t care who he has sex with, but I do care if he’s harassing women. I would be sad if you voted for him, but I would be sadder to think that the California democrats couldn’t find someone who you found a little more appealing.
As a liberal, I’m always frustrated by people who parrot liberal hack talking points. For the most part, that’s exactly what this is:
1. Criticizing where his political capital came from, instead of considering what he’s done with it, is pretty silly and exactly the kind of one-dimensional elitist thinking that kills liberals. It’s the same thinking that causes liberals to dismiss the President as “dumb.” If he’s so dumb, how come he kicked the crap out of us?
2. I did not like that he endorsed Bush. I’m not sure what “selling out to the right wing” or “demeaning democrats is.” It sounds very terrible, and anyone who does it should be shot, but I have no idea what that means.
3. Saying his wife wouldn’t have sex with him is demeaning to women? If anything, he’s saying that she has control of him.
I’m not some big supporter of the Governor, but I’m also trying to think critically, as opposed to just throwing around partisan, liberal and simple-minded declarations. This is about logic, not rhetoric.
PS: The sexual harrassment accussations are awful and are the reason I didn’t vote for him the first time.
PPS: Who do you want? Why?
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