Great piece by Mark Steyn about the Arnie Californian triumph, making entirely justified fun of the Euro-sneerers.
California’s problem was that it was beginning to take on the characteristics of an EU state, not just in its fiscal incoherence but in its assumption that politics was a private dialogue between a lifelong political class and a like-minded media. It would be too much to expect Le Monde and the BBC to stop being condescending about American electorates. But they might draw a lesson and cease being such snots about their own.
Steyn also makes the point that Arnie won not just with his classically American Immigrant biography, but with his better policies. He says he’ll cut taxes and get the Californian economy moving again. It was policy what did it. This is what the EUro-media don’t get or refuse to get. And they wouldn’t, would they?
Is Arnie telling the truth? In my opinion the best summary of his victory came from an anonymous Californian voter interviewed on Brit TV during the last few days. I have no idea when this was, or for what programme, or what the guy does for a living. But I do remember what he said. He said: “I rolled the dice. Gray Davis was the devil I know, and I know he’s running the state diabolically. Arnie says he’ll do better. I hope he’s telling the truth. My reason for being optimistic is that so far he’s done a damn good job of running his own life with fiscal effectiveness. Maybe he’ll do the same for California. I sure hope so.” Those were not the exact words, but that was the substance of it. It was impeccably logical, utterly clear-eyed. GD was a guarantee of ghastliness. Arnie has been competent being Arnie. Maybe – no certainty was expressed here, only the rational hope – maybe he’ll be competent enough to do what he promises for California. It was a democratic rerun of the Parable of the Talents, in other words. “Thou hast been faithful in a small thing, viz: being Arnold Schwarzenegger, so now we’ll make Master of a Great Thing, viz: Governor of California. And as for you, you idiot, you lose everything.”
If Arnie messes up, as Steyn makes clear, prattling away in a funny voice about how he made good as a funny voiced immigrant won’t save him from public obloquy.
Maybe we at Samizdata.net go on about this Arnie election too much here, when we ought to be telling all you Americans things you don’t know, British things.
Maybe my next posting will be about that Conservative plan to have a locally elected “Sheriff”, instead of every police force everywhere no matter how insignificant being controlled by London, and of how disdainful everyone has been about that. “I mean, my dear, who knows what ghastly people will be chosen?” I say “everyone” will be disdainful. Maybe the voters will quite like it. Although electing a Sheriff is another thing Americans know more about than we do, of course.
I know that we’re not supposed to be this gung-ho about democracy here. But if the choice is between US-democracy and EU-plutocracy – US-democracy being the system that allows body-builders etc. to become plutocrats as well and sort things out if the regular plutocrats do nothing except steal and swank around and mess things up like they do in EUrope – then I say US-democracy is often better.
Arnold has said that the most influential political thinker in his life is Milton Friedman. Arnold gives his liberal friends copies of Friedman’s book “Free to Chose” as gifts. He has been doing this for 20 years.
For Arnold to place Milton Friedman in such a position is all I need to vote for him.
In my opinion, Milton Friedman is the greatest economist of the 2nd half of the twentieth century.
The fear of Arnold’s election meaning something isn’t that the voters in Calif. are just stupid celebrity worshippers, although there certainly were some of those, but that citizens who are not professional politicians might be able to energize the populace in ways that the careerists cannot.
If one looks at any number of recent elections, going all the way back to Jimmy Carter in 1976, the recurring message is that the ordinary voter is very tired of politics as usual, and the career politicians who get elected over and over again, regardless of their efficacy.
Perot and Nader were the deciding factors in the ’92 and 2000 elections for pres. Ventura captivated enough of the discontent to become governor of Minnesota. This kind of volatility is very upsetting to the pols, who like to have things sort of parcelled out in advance, without wildcards showing up in the deck.
What happens if Warren Buffet decides to run for Pres., for example. Or Bill Gates, Colin Powell, or someone who is still on the sidelines but very interested, like Giuliani. The utter blandness and PC driven vapidity of most current candidates for any major office means that someone with an actual personality could upset the carefully laid plans of the back room boys as to who should go where and get elected to which office.
Why, the wife of some ex-pol might get ideas, like Hilary or Liz Dole. I mean, what would the kids following in daddy’s footsteps do if just anybody could run only because they’re interesting, for god’s sakes. There’d be hell to pay, for sure.
Perhaps Arnie is really a libertarian. If he values the ideas of Milton Friedman, who knows, he may be just the thing for California. The best way to change something is often from inside. Calling yourself a Republican may make more sense than adopting some other lable.
Is this what Blair did with Labour in order to get rid of the loony left? Once in power there was a time when I was convinced he had stolen most of the Conservatives policies but unfortunately he is a tax and spend socialist afterall.
Lets just hope that sometime soon we will get an effective opposition in the UK. With the unpopularity of the government now even IDS should be able to get some support. Although he is such a non-entity this may be a bit of a long-shot.
I would find it very interesting to know more about:
“Maybe my next posting will be about that Conservative plan to have a locally elected “Sheriff”, instead of every police force everywhere no matter how insignificant being controlled by London, and of how disdainful everyone has been about that. “I mean, my dear, who knows what ghastly people will be chosen?” I say “everyone” will be disdainful. Maybe the voters will quite like it. Although electing a Sheriff is another thing Americans know more about than we do, of course.”
I would find it fascinating to see what types of avenues are available, at your local level, for people to get involved. What sorts of entrenched systems are you up against, etc.. Instead of talking in generalities, a specific example would be best and you seem to have one.
I’ve enjoyed learning about other countries’ political systems and how they work out down to the lowest level. (Because it’s at the lowest level you can start making changes.)
Comment on Arnie’s win…
Seems most media I’ve seen or read is hoping & expecting for Arnie to fail. There are many in the US that have been practically foaming at the mouth with rage that he won.
I want to see how he handles governing in such an extremely hostile political climate. In order to turn things around in California, cuts will have to be made. How he’ll get these approved by the California legislature, mainly Democrats, I’m anxious to see.
The legislature has an incentive to put as many road blocks in his way as possible. There’s a group in California saying if Arnie doesn’t show some real progress (ill defined) within 100 days, they’ll start a recall for Arnie.
It was heartening to read the widespread alarm and disdain with which Arnold was greeted by most of the European press. The disdain was not for Arnold only, but for Californian voters in general, and for all Americans. Reminds me a little of the reaction when Ronal Reagan was elected governor of California. “An actor ! imagine the horror ! an actor ! what does an actor know ?”
I don’t know if Arnold will turn out to be a good or mediocre governor – there are good reasons to hope he will be good, but the spectacle of the distraught left was sheer bliss to watch.
Having made my choice in the October 7’s recall election, I knew that recalling Davis was not going
to change the political, economic and most importantly the immigration problems in California.
Of all 135 people running for the “Gov.” only one
spoke out on illegal immigration and actions to stop
the importation of poverty from Mexico and the
exportation of dollars to Mexico: Joe Guzzardi.
But let me tell ya, it felt pretty damned good to vote for him. To hell with polical hacks and their
entourages.
M Halbert
Was watching one of the news shows Sunday where they reflect and pontificate on the week’s events. At the end, one of the commentators said he was very pained because he feared the US had become a laughingstock among the nations. Nations he mentioned most were France and Germany.
Why had we become a laughingstock? Arnie was one. Iraq was the other. He went on and on about strengthening our UN ties, not acting alone, etc.. the perfect leftist lament these days.
I kept shouting at the TV; which didn’t seem to have any impact on his statements, that I could care less what the opinions of some nations were. Since when did we elect a governor or decide on national defense policy because some nations may wag their fingers?!! WHO CARES!!
We have too many thin skinned people in the US. Unfortunately many of them work for our national media outlets.
But let us not neglect the wider implications and (slightly) farther horizons. See also this.
In my opinion, Milton Friedman is the greatest economist of the 2nd half of the twentieth century
Ah yes… the importance of money supply control… oh… whoops…
He was an economist of the 2nd half of the twentieth century, that much is certain.
My wife (who came from a Hollywood showbusiness background) pointed out that Arnie parlayed the money earned from his bodybuilding business into a successful real-estate business, long before he became Conan.
In other words, he’d felt the pinch of malevolent California regulations against business, himself.
Just in case the Brits don’t know, here’s an example.
To open a restaurant in Los Angeles requires something like thirty-seven permits of varying types and degrees of oppressiveness.
Over the state border in Las Vegas: three — business licence, food & beverage licence, and liquor licence (the last being optional, of course).
So Arnie promised to repeal the car tax, cut the deficit, expand education spending, and not raise taxes! Good luck to him.
As for the general/nationwide “impact” of his election, if there is any, it’s probably that a Republican politician firmly rooted in the 1970s “counterculture” managed to win an election. Thanks to the Christian Coalition etc. it has never happened before. So the election of Arnold Schwarzengroper just *might* be a slow signal that the GOP is moving away from social conservatism and bigotry e.g. with regards to homosexuality and the personal lives of politicians. That is something we all should be happy about.
MARCU$
Dave O’Neil comments “Ah yes… the importance of money supply control… oh… whoops…”
Milton Friedman, like all other thinkers, isn’t correct in all his ideas.
Friedman’s ideas on getting government out of the way of business and privatizing government schools were radical ideas when they were proposed. In the 1950’s Keynes was king and Friedman was a wacko. Today, Keynes is heading towards histories trash heap and Friedman’s ideas are ascendant.
Today, Keynes is heading towards histories trash heap and Friedman’s ideas are ascendant.
Perhaps on school vouchers, but most of the other economic stimulation exercises we see applied by governments are distinctly neo-Keynesian and not monetarist.
Keynes has a lot of life left in him, in my opinion.
I’m still waiting to see if vouchers work. Privatisation has a rather patchy history globally.