Posted on 09/30/2003 12:14:04 AM PDT by jagrmeister
"An Open Letter to Tom McClintock Supporters"
It seems like an eternity that we've been under the yoke of the Davis administration. Maybe you feel the same way too. When the recall petition began circulating, we responded. All told, 1.6 million of us said we were fed up with the entrenched politicians. Together, we showed how populism can work when we join forces. So here we are- a week till Election Day. And you, the supporters of Tom McClintock, hold in the balance the fate of California. Your choice determines whether we throw off the chains of the Davis-Bustamante regime or condemn ourselves to three more years of it. It's a substantial charge and I know that you won't take it lightly.
Tom McClintock is a fine statesman and has run a solid race. Undoubtedly, he's a rising star in the GOP. But this is not his time. From the Los Angeles Times poll conducted from September 6th to the PPIC poll released on September 17th, Tom lost 4% of his support and is polling at 14%. This is half the support level of Schwarzenegger and Bustamante. Because polls show he lacks momentum, Tom has no realistic chance of winning. Tom will be back for another statewide race, perhaps even running for US Senate next year against Barbara Boxer. We can count on that. But for now, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the one Republican who can win this race. The reason that conservatives such as Bill Simon and former California Republican Party chairman Shawn Steel have endorsed Arnold is that he alone can deliver us from the misery we've suffered under Davis-Bustamante rule. And these conservatives know that Arnold will uphold conservative principles in opposing driver's licenses for illegals, rescinding Davis's tripling of the car tax, and opposing partial birth abortion. It's essential to realize that Arnold shares your values, he's on your side, and he needs your support to remove Gray Davis from power and keep Cruz Bustamante from seizing Davis's throne.
A Bustamante victory on Election Day would be disastrous. The first thing Bustamante would do as governor is increase taxes on us by $8 billion. This is the promise he made under his infamous "tough love" program. And since Bustamante hasn't showed the slightest interest in curbing spending, we can expect one punitive tax increase after another. And let us not forget Bustamante's ties to the racist organization, MEChA, whose slogan is "For the race, everything. For everyone else, nothing." Bustamante's commitment to border enforcement will be zero. He backs the bill giving driver's licenses for illegals despite the fact that terrorists could slip through this security loophole and gain valid US identification. As bad as it's been under Gray Davis, Cruz Bustamante would be worse. We cannot risk electing him to office. Yet this will be the result if we split the vote between Arnold and McClintock. The time has come to unite as a party. Recently, the "father" of the recall, Darrel Issa, endorsed Schwarzenegger for governor. If it were not for Issa's heroic efforts, this recall may have not come about. At the endorsement event, Issa said, "I want to reach out directly to Senator McClintock's supporters and appeal to them to join me in voting for Arnold Schwarzenegger. We worked hard together to make this recall a reality. We must be united in these final days to ensure its ultimate success." Issa's message is simple: We can win but we must be united to do so. Democrats are united behind Bustamante; we must unite behind our strongest candidate. Voter anger at Davis and Bustamante gives Republicans a unique opportunity to prevail in this election, but unity is essential if we are to fulfill the recall's promise. When the Founding Fathers were debating about measures to confront the British, Benjamin Franklin said memorably, "We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately." Let's bear that in mind. The consequence of voting for McClintock at this stage is a three-year hangover that will be the Cruz Bustamante administration.
We the people have it in our ability to remove the Davis-Bustamante regime from power. But your support is needed. Arnold, and more importantly, California, needs you.
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Bob Chandra is a Bay Area Republican activist. He was involved as a strategist for Linda Rae Hermann's campaign against Mike Honda for California's 15th congressional district. His email address is bobchandra(at)comcast.net.
Well, that's where you lost me.
Actually, you lost me quite a bit before that, but that stuck out like a sore thumb.
Populism? Give me a break...
Surely you jest?
Yeah, but he didn't then try and put a Tory in charge of the army...
Many of us are single issue voters and will not compromise on that issue. To me, my right to keep and bear arms is 100% of what I want. From Arnold, I get 0%. I have been given no reason to believe that he would not sign any of the bills that Davis has signed.
If you have the fortitude to change the California Republican Party platform so that it aligns with Arnold's stand, then you will increase the percentage of Republicans who will vote for Arnold. And perhaps attract enough Democrats to the part to make up for people like me who will leave.
Maybe McClintock doesn't believe that Arnold will be a capable governor. What would indicate that this is the case? Because he's a former Mr. Universe? Because he was once the biggest movie star on earth? Because he says he's a Friedman fan while simultaneously embracing Warren Buffett?
Arnold's only impact on the state of California to this point is promotion of a measure that spends rather than saves. That's not much to go on when the idea is saving the state money, not finding new ways to spend money once it actually starts coming in.
I am chagrined at the high level of hatred between Arnold and McClintock supporters. I have to say that I find most of this hatred emanating from the McClintock camp. I never disliked McClintock, even though I found Arnold a bit more appealing. McClintock to me was a very appealing alternative, a strong second place. The electability issue had something to do with that, of course.
Yesterday, I was called a "cult member" by an Arnold supporter who seconded a post comparing McClintock to Jim Jones, the People's Temple pastor who directed a mass suicide of over 900 of his followers. The day before that, someone requested posting of the unflattering photo of Tom in which he -- in the poster's opinion -- "makes him look mentally retarded."
As for Tom's electability: I am not saying he will win, but the idea that his candidacy was dead on arrival before Arnold cast his shadow on the race is nonsense. Click here. Consider his near-stunning upset ten months ago.
And so I am a bit baffled, and a bit angered, by the hatred and hostility directed at Arnold. Yes, he's a bit liberal on many social issues. So effing what?
You apparently aren't from California...either that, or you just aren't paying attention.
This is about more than just his liberal social values. It's about his steadfast reluctance to display any true understanding of the complexities of California's condition that may have. He or his people always make reference to a future time when his populist slogans are going to be fleshed out, but when they are, they are still disturbingly vague. He has scarcely given a satisfactory contemporaneous answer to a question that requires more than a sound bite.
Sly references to his motion picture roles and bodybuilding career are entertaining, but we aren't voting for him in the MTV Movie Awards. This is serious business, and Arnold has far from proven that he is ready to take this monumental task on. We could assume that his heart is in the right place, but he is constantly bobbing and weaving so that we can't check his head.
Governors do not have the power to change our national, court-mandated abortion policy. Everyone here knows that -- indeed, when a pro-life candidate is running in a state, many pro-lifers will point out to liberals that it doesn't matter what the candidates abortion position is, since a state official has very little latitude to change the law -- but suddenly McClintock supporters are behaving as if Governor Arnold Schwarzengger is going to advance the pro-choice position in California.
As long as liberal Democrats dominate the legislature, they will pass wacked-out measures to benefit the gay, immigrant, and abortion activists. The difference between those bills becoming law and dying is often the Governor's signature or veto. That's why, for instance, the bill allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses failed the first two times it made it to Davis' desk. But now, Gray needs the Hispanic vote, so he signed it.
If there was a conservative in the Governor's chair instead of Davis, Proposition 187 (limiting services to illegal immigrants) wouldn't have been gutted like a fish and rarely enforced. After opponents got enforcement suspended by a judge while the libs sued saying 187 was unconstitutional, newly inaugurated Gov. Davis -- who opposed the measure, but became the defendant of the suit after being sworn in -- cut a deal with the opponents, who then dropped the suit. The measure was hijacked by the left in broad daylight.
Arnold voted for 187, true, but it seems like he is running away from it out of fear of the Hispanic bloc.
Regarding abortion -- while Arnold is pro-choice, how pro-choice is he? Is he content not to try to stop abortion in the state? Or, would he give tacit approval to a scheme similar to N.Y.'s RINO mayor Michael Bloomberg's newly minted requirement that all ob-gyn students in NYC hospitals take abortion courses to increase the number of abortion providers?
Well, lessons are important, yes. But more important that lessons & payback is actually winning elections, actually putting our candidates into office so that the public can see real conservative policies working-- successfully...
...If you ever want to change the minds of Californians, you've got to elect a Republican as Governor (or Senator). Only then can the people begin to learn that conservative principles work. "Working in theory" or "working on paper" does not cut it with electorates. They need to see actual policies actually implemented, and actually working.
And to do that, you need to actually elect someone who is conservative. Or at least conservative on the biggest issues.
Who is "our" candidate? Let me remind you that Dick "Honorary Democrat" RINOrdan was the Bush White House's fair-haired boy last year. California Republicans didn't choose Riordan -- he was forced down our throats by Karl Rove and the money men behind the CA GOP, and we all just spit him back in their faces.
Dick Riordan ran L.A. for two terms, and endorsed the more liberal of two Democrats running off to replace him when he was termed out. So how was conservatism's cause advanced by Riordan? Trick question -- it wasn't! And the GOP establishment (aka "country club Republicans") wanted him to be Governor!
And I wonder if that isn't the real agenda here: To keep conservative ideals blissfully uncontaminated by the dirty compromises of the real world, so we can all admire how wonderful they seem to work in the laboratory or in the think tanks or in position papers, never having to risk seeing them succeed or fail in the real world.
"Seeing them succeed or fail in the real world" means getting "them" -- not a pale, flimsy substitute -- implemented.
Even Free Republic is being overrun by liberals pretending to be conservatives.
They swoon over a movie star who is a liberal and mock the true conservative.
They charge those us who hold tightly to principle as selfish and not team players for the liberal varsity squad.
I'm frankly sick of the groveling of the unprincipled. It is not conservatives who continue to march this country toward destruction. It is the collaborators and sell-outs who drag us into the sewer.
Ross Perot was a rich amateur with vague ideas and no experience. McClintock got more votes than any CA Republican who ran for office in 2002. If anyone should be compared with Perot, it's Arnold.
McClintock has a vendetta against the "country club Republicans," who have spurned him in the past. He loves the feeling of power it gives him to have them twisting in the wind, begging him to drop out. A classic case of cutting off one's nose to spite his face, because no matter the outcome, his political career is finished.
You don't know jack.
As I have said before: If there is any hatred of the "Country club" Republicans coming from McClintock, he is simply hating them back.
Oh god, not that dribble again...
You TomBots keep misunderstanding the controller results. Liberals, moderates, and independants WILL vote for someone they view as a strong, compentant conservative in a specialized skill position such as controller. They don't worry that the conservative (and his ideology) will be in a position to affect the things they hold near and dear.
They WILL NOT vote for that person for a general policy setting post like governor, for the same reason.
So, the number of votes Tom got for smart bean counter DO NOT translate into an equivilent number of votes as governor.
A good example of this is Miguel Estrada. Clinton appointed him for a post specialized post because of his expertise. BUT(!), Estrada was strongly opposed when considered for judgeship, where his ideology could be acted on in a broad way.
Why are most TomBots just so ignorant of real-world politics?
Is that a serious question?
Wow.
ca·pa·ble adj
having capacity or ability; efficient and able
having the ability required for a specific task or accomplishment; qualified
I am tired of others trying to paint non-Arnold supporters as 'single issue voters' or telling me that Arnold represents 75% of what I want in a new Governor. The other night, I made a long list of the things that I like/don't like about Arnold. Frankly, other than star power and the ability to rally the press and raise money, I came up with nothing positive.
Notwithstanding a perceived lack of capability (by me and the rest of the 2 Million+ voters), his liberal social policies say one thing to me... he can't solve the fiscal problems of the state. Things like hydrogen highways and 'doing everything for the people' is what got this state into the problems it has now and is just as scary as Bustamante.
For months, Arnold supporters have spent their time brow-beating McClintock and his supporters with the 'Tom can't win' mantra. The Gallup poll demonstrates that wasn't true. If Arnold wanted my respect or vote, he should earn it. He hasn't done anything to garner support of loyal but concerned Republicans. Instead, he painted them as 'right wing crazies', said 'the public doesn't care about details', and continued to run to the left. I value my right to vote and do it with great thought. I also resent others telling me what to do with that vote.
On October 7th, I will not be voting for Arnold Schwarzenegger. If that results in a democrat being in office, perhaps next time the GOP leadership should take more care in selecting the candidates they back. They certainly have not represented most of the Republicans I know, who also find Arnold an unacceptable choice.
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