Posted on 12/14/2006 1:13:10 PM PST by calcowgirl
William E. Saracino is a member of California Political Review’s editorial board.
My last three columns have excoriated Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a) refusing to give any help to any other Republican on the ballot, even his fellow moderates; and b) practicing a phony “bipartisanship” — one that consists of caving in to Democrat demands while virtually every Republican legislator opposes him. The reaction from both critics and supporters of the governor has been basically the same: “Well, what did you expect?”
What I expected was a Gov. Schwarzenegger whose actions would match candidate Schwarzenegger’s positions. Candidate Schwarzenegger sold himself as fiscally conservative but socially moderate to liberal.
Call me naive, but I expected Gov. Schwarzenegger to take positions that would be fiscally conservative but socially moderate to liberal. What we got, especially last year, was a Schwarzenegger whose fiscal policies were arguably further left than his social positions.
I was among a sizable minority of conservatives in the state who supported candidate Schwarzenegger in the recall. Virtually all of us did so because Schwarzenegger and his team made a hard sell on this “student of Milton Friedman” and his fiscal conservatism.
Here’s what candidate Schwarzenegger himself said in an introduction to the Friedman’s video series “Free to Choose”: “The more the government interferes and intervenes and inserts itself into the free market, the worse the country does. But when the government steps back and lets the free enterprise system do its work, then the better we do, the more robust our economy grows.”
Some of us were silly enough to believe Schwarzenegger actually meant what he said. It’s clear now that he could not have meant it. His top three “bipartisan” accomplishments of 2006, those bringing him rave reviews from the national media and Democrat pundits, are raising the minimum wage, imposing price controls on pharmaceuticals, and smothering California businesses with what can fairly be called Soviet-style mandates in the name of fighting “global warming.” The governor “interfered, intervened, and inserted” government into the free economy to a degree that would make Fidel Castro’s central planners blush.
Milton Friedman would be aghast at all three actions. He certainly would give an “F” to any “pupil” of his who thought them economically efficacious. Now I suppose it’s possible that when candidate Schwarzenegger said he was a “student of Milton Friedman,” he actually meant someone else. Perhaps there is a socialist Milton Friedman who owns a steroid store near Gold’s Gym. But if he meant the real Friedman, we are left with three explanations: either candidate Schwarzenegger lied to us, or he never understood Friedman at so much as the most rudimentary level (and, of course, by implication must have been babbling words he didn’t understand when he recorded the “Free to Choose” introduction), or has changed his mind since becoming governor.
There is simply no plausible way to reconcile governor Schwarzenegger’s actions with candidate Schwarzenegger’s words.
Sadly this about-face on economic matters has precedent with Schwarzenegger. Candidate Schwarzenegger pledged to “blow up the boxes” in state government. His bi-partisan “California Performance Review” commission gave him hundreds of suggestions about how to do just that. But Governor Schwarzenegger turned tail and ran — dare I say, rather like a “startled deer”? — at the first sign of opposition to implementing even the smallest portion of the program he asked his commission to prepare for him. The number of recommendations implemented stands at exactly zero.
Candidate Schwarzenegger promised to use a broom to “sweep clean” from state government its many high-paying but seldom-meeting boards and commissions. Governor Schwarzenegger has spent much of the past two months appointing out-going aides to exactly the boards and commissions he promised to abolish.
Candidate Schwarzenegger promised a breath of fresh air, draining the swamp that Sacramento had become. Governor Schwarzenegger has emerged as simply another politician, happily inhaling the swamp’s fetid atmosphere, eagerly cutting deals to feed its alligator inhabitants. This, I admit, I did not expect.
The debate between Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides was a snoring bore. A debate between candidate Schwarzenegger and Governor Schwarzenegger would be fascinating. Maybe this can be arranged for the upcoming Republican state convention?
another swamp drainer,, NO.
Where have we heard that one lately? ;-)
He shares much in common with the lead dems,, agendas and such.. but you see what passes for conservative with some folks these days... no surprise really
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
That's our gubbie. :-(
Look at the mans wife and his in-laws.
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