Arnold—once a witty, canny guy; now just another clueless, knee-jerk liberal

Chuck Norris writes at TownHall:

With his thick Austrian accent, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quipped in his commencement address at Emory University this past week:

“I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend. But with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me.”

He may be saying it for chuckles, but his point is meant seriously. Right in step with the rest of the liberal elite, Schwarzenegger is declaring that there’s no difference between legal and illegal immigration. He’s saying that if we prevent people from illegally entering and staying in America, that is somehow a threat to legal immigrants. The man’s a fool. He doesn’t know what America is about. He is walking proof of my idea that liberalism lowers a person’s effective IQ by one standard deviation.

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Stephen T. writes:

You know what’s really bothering Arnold? He’s been very publicly made to look like a “girly man”—a term he used to employ to describe liberal politicians—by the governor of Arizona. The person who had the fortitude to do what everyone in California knows needs to be done, and what our own governor doesn’t have the nerve to do, turns out to be a WOMAN. So now he tries to dismiss it by making stupid jokes about it, to try to make it go away. By vivid comparison, he now looks like a timid wimp who cowers and kowtows to illegal Mexican nationals while a mere woman just a few hundred miles away in Phoenix isn’t afraid to speak up loud and clear for the people of America.

LA replies:

Liberalism not only reduces people’s effective IQs by one standard deviation, it turns macho men into weaklings and cowards.

A. Zarkov writes:

I know someone here in California with a son on Arnold’s staff. He tells me that Arnold won’t listen to anything negative about illegal immigration. Let’s remember a few years ago California had some bad weather which caused some crop failures resulting in agricultural unemployment. The state granted emergency unemployment benefits, and as I recall Arnold supported giving benefits to illegals. Actually Arnold was always a knee-jerk Hollywood liberal—a true RINO.

Let’s also note that Arnold commutes every day to Sacramento from his Los Angeles mansion by private jet. Then like the other rich Hollywood liberals, he whines about global warming, admonishing the public to reduce their “carbon footprint.” While Arnold merely commutes, actor and Scientologist John Travola collects private jets, including a Boeing 707, and has his own private airport at his home in Florida. Despite all the carbon he spews out, Travola gives lectures on global warming, seeing no contradiction between what he says, and what he does. This pattern gets repeated over and over again among rich liberals. They hold themselves apart from the larger community, which they actually despise.

LA replies:

I don’t think it’s correct to say that Arnold was always a kneejerk liberal. If he had been, he wouldn’t have had a reputation (before his political career began) as a conservative.

James P. writes:

You wrote:

“I don’t think it’s correct to say that Arnold was always a kneejerk liberal. If he had been, he wouldn’t have had a reputation (before his political career began) as a conservative.”

Arnold was always a Republican, but this only means “conservative” in comparison to the rest of Hollywood.

It’s hard to imagine an actual conservative wanting to join the appalling Kennedy family, or being acceptable to them.

James N. writes:

One of the things that has happened as our politics becomes increasingly tribal is that one-word expressions serve to mark tribal membership.

“Arizona”, “Katrina”, “Halliburton”, “Bush” all brand the person who deploys them for effect as a member of the in-crowd. If you listen to “comedians” like Bill Maher and Jonathan Liebowitz (Stewart), they do this all the time.

If the slogan can substitute for the argument, the battle is won before it is fought.=

Sage McLaughlin writes:

In your thread about the Governator, you write that “I don’t think it’s correct to say that Arnold was always a kneejerk liberal. If he had been, he wouldn’t have had a reputation (before his political career began) as a conservative.” Maybe, but I don’t know. The standard for what constitutes a “conservative” these days is so far to the left that a woman like Laura Bush, who supports abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action, open immigration, and Elena Kagan’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court, is widely assumed to be very conservative. She has a conservative “reputation.” But she’s a knee-jerk liberal.

It’s very easy to sound conservative when one doesn’t have to hold a real office or make any real decisions, or when it doesn’t cost you anything to make some conservative-sounding statements. I suppose my only point is that Arnold may have had a conservative reputation, but in today’s world that doesn’t mean much. I mean, after all, so does Charles Krauthammer. I bet if the reputedly conservative Bruce Willis were to become governor of California, it would be much the same story.

LA replies:

I didn’t say that Arnold was the proverbial to the right of Attila the Hun conservative; I just said that he wasn’t a knee jerk liberal.

A, Zarkov writes:

As I recall, Arnold always supported homosexual marriage, global warming, abortion rights, tolerance of illegal aliens, and California’s generous welfare system. To name a but few liberal causes. In 2006 as governor he signed the nation’s first gap on greenhouse gas emissions. I’ll grant that he was always lukewarm about raising taxes, but he signed the tax increase bill last year. In 2006 the uber liberal mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, said, “[H]e’s becoming a Democrat [ … H]e’s running back, not even to the center. I would say center-left.” I suppose that in the past he didn’t deserve the modifier “knee jerk,” but he was certainly liberal. His reputation was that of a “moderate” Republican, but as we all know that’s a code word for a liberal Republican. I also grant that he’s not a loony as the California legislature, but that’s not saying very much.

N. writes:

I’m trying to think of something in the history of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s past that stands out as a conservative position or action or policy and can’t really come up with one. I guess one could say that some of his movies were culturally conservative to some degree. As Governor, he’s not been all that different from, oh, Grey Davis so far as I can tell.

Help me out, here. What’s ever been conservative about this guy?

LA replies:

I said that he was thought of as conservative, prior to his political career. But I guess he was friendly to free enterprise, pro defense, up on America, up on life. And he voted for Reagan. There were various things that marked him as a conservative rather than a liberal in our lexicon, but none were so pronounced that they actually created problems for him with liberals.

N. replies:

You wrote:

I said that he was thought of as conservative, prior to his political career. But I guess he was more friendly to free enterprise than the left, more pro defense, more up on America. And he voted for Reagan. There were various things that made him not a typical liberal, but none were so pronounced that they actually created problems for him with liberals.

I agree that he has been more friendly to free markets, and more pro-defense. I’d forgotten he voted for Reagan. Perhaps he was able to be that way in Hollywood in the 1980’s, when there was less hateful ideology than we see now. So … ok, a middle of the road more or less conservative. Moderately fiscally conservative, socially left-conservative, that sort of thing.

I guess I was wondering if he had done anything in office or prior to office on any of the social, or fiscal, issues. I vaguely recall he tried to push through a sort of sane budget in his first year in office, but that pretty much failed. Likely he was rolled over by the old pros in the Legislature.

Frankly, I hope that his political career is over at this point.

LA replies:

‘I don’t think you have anything to worry about on that score. As far as his standing with California voters and his future in politics is concerned, it’s Hasta la vista, baby.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 18, 2010 01:17 AM | Send