Posted on 09/15/2003 1:50:36 AM PDT by ambrose
Satanic Schwarzeneggerians
By Vox Day
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
"I have gone back and forth on Schwarzenegger, so much that I almost have whiplash. But my new – my current – position on him is: To hell with him."
– Jay Nordlinger, National Review
I like Arnold, the bodybuilding evangelist and the movie star. But I have no regard for Mr. Schwarzenegger-Kennedy, the evasive politician. He's a man of the people now – give him a little more time and he'll be feeling our pain and doing everything "for the children." Fortunately, it didn't take long for Arnold to destroy himself as a viable candidate in the eyes of thinking conservatives everywhere. He was already suspect, indeed, anathema to those of us who believe in principles over party.
But he damned himself even with the pragmatists, those who care more for power, party and position than principle, with his dismissal as "right-wing crazies" those who support Proposition 54, which bans the state's collection of racial statistics on the population. How eminently fitting that a son of a National Socialist would fail to see the dangers in compiling such data! After all, without it, how can the state be expected to find those pesky Jews and Japanese in case it serves the interests of the children to round them up again?
The Republican enthusiasm for Arnold was initially based on his star power. It was nice, for a change, to see a Hollywood entity throw in with the GOP for once instead of barking mindlessly at it with the usual combination of vacuous accusations and cretinous insults. But his real support stemmed from his presumed electability, which sufficed to prevent numerous Democratic grandees from throwing their hats into the ring.
The problem is that the concept of electability is a massive crock of fumet. The Bush administration is demonstrating this truth in real-time, as its compassionate big-government neo-conservatism expands the federal leviathan at a pace faster than anyone since FDR. Would President Gore have been worse? Perhaps – but then there would be an opportunity to elect a man who actually opposed the rising tide of government in 2004 instead of surfing it like a cattle rancher gone beach-boy stoner.
Schwarzenegger, far from representing the salvation of California's Republican Party, stands for its complete immolation. He does not offer a philosophical alternative to California's self-destructive Democratic socialism; instead, he is a form of life-support for it. Instead of swearing to cut spending, he vows to beg more money from the federal government – demonstrating very clearly that this Republican is no republican!
Republicans in the state legislature have held their ground against the rapacious taxes proposed by Gov. Davis, and their obdurate political Manichaenism will allow them to do the same against Bustamante. But they will not be able to resist the same tax increases which would be proposed by a future Gov. Schwarzenegger. Furthermore, California Republicans will then be tarred by the same fiscal irresponsibility that now sticks only to their Democratic rivals, which, combined with their contemplated Schwarzeneggerian abandonment of cultural conservatives, will leave them wholly without a raison d'etre.
Pragmatism in politics is self-defeating in the long run. It is a euphemism for the slow sacrifice of one's principles. The constant substitution of "electable" moderates for principled conservatives is what repeatedly kills the Republican Party and prevents it from ever realizing even a small part of its platform when it is in power. It is particularly ironic when the electable moderates show themselves to be nothing of the sort, which in this particular case has already happened when the managing editor of the seminal National Review abjures the Great Teutonic Hope in no uncertain terms.
And those so-called Republicans who would drive a principled conservative like Tom McClintock from the race should hang their heads in shame. If they cannot fight for this candidate, they may as well abandon the battle altogether, for they are useless soldiers. It is better to spend 40 years in the political wilderness than to forsake one's soul for all the kingdoms of the world, much less four years in Sacramento.
Still worse, however, are the right-side commentators who urge conservatives to abandon their principles and line up behind this false Republican god. To sacrifice your own soul to the naked pursuit of power is bad enough, to tempt others to do likewise is not just the ultimate in negative campaigning, it is pure political Satanism.
Vox Day is a novelist and Christian libertarian. He is a member of the SFWA, Mensa and the Southern Baptist Convention, and his weekly column is syndicated nationally by Universal Press Syndicate. He has been down with Madden since 1992.
Quit ducking and bobbing, Arnie-bot. Come back to the issue. Where does Gov. Arnold get the money to fund his social liberalism?
And he certainly found them.
This wasn't a ba-da-ba-da-ba-da Porky Pig moment. He strung toether a series of intelligible statements on a common big government tax-and-spend theme. The "do everything for the people" conclusion was perfectly congreunt with everything he said before it. It was the proverbial cherry on top.
Now, where is Gov. Arnold going to get the money to pay for these things, being a "fiscal conservative" and all?
Are his Arnie-bots going to pony up as a kind of campaign contribution?
Where does Gov. Arnold get the money to pay for his precious big government social liberal programs?
The answer, of course, is that he will pull the money from the pockets of the taxpayers. And being a "Republican" he'll be able to do it more destructively than any democrat has been able to do it.
This is your brave new Arnie-world. Arnie-Care: new and improved big-government tax-and-spend fiscal conservatism for the masses.
Really it's just dreaming and fantasy. Believe you me, I wish it wasn't this way, but California is too pooped out to elect a real conservative such as McClintock. The votes just ain't there and never will be. Just look how the RATS easily pushed through driver's licenses for illegal aliens. That's how sad it is. If I were a California voter I would vote and work for Schwarzenegger to at least make a dent and get some Republicanism/conservatism going. As it is California is just a black hole for Republicans and conservatives
I don't want to play verbal volleyball with someone as belligerent and wound up as you seem to be, but I will do you the favor of posting Schwarzenegger's own words:
I am firmly opposed to raising taxes. Californians are already overtaxed. California has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation, and just about everything a Californian does today is subject to one tax or another. From the moment you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night, the tax collector is there to take a share - at your home, in your car, at the gas station, at the restaurant, and just about everywhere else you go and everything else you do.
It's unfair to accept the notion that hitting taxpayers up for more money is the answer to our state's budget and economic problems. Politicians in Sacramento should find a better way to turn things around – not simply shift the burden of their mistakes onto the backs of taxpayers.
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