[IP] Now voters have only themselves to blame -- Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Now voters have only themselves to blame
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Crotchety Californians, after months of virtually thought-free
deliberation, have decided there is nothing wrong with their state that a
homicidal futuristic cyborg with a Teutonic accent can't fix.
As for the rest of us, it's time to first consider the possible
ramifications of The Governator.
Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of America's largest state this week,
lifting a groping paw to the controls of what some define as the fifth
largest economy in the world. Two-thirds of the people who voted for him
believe he will not have to raise taxes to rectify a $10 billion budget
deficit. They are psychotic. One academic has called it "a rescue fantasy."
This is what happens when you get out the vote.
Coupla years ago in Minnesota, they got out the vote big time. Millions of
veteran nonvoters flocked to the polls in the goobernatorial race. They
elected a pro wrestler. Tuesday in California, they got out the vote.
Millions who rarely, if ever, vote, by a 64-36 percent margin preferred
Kindergarten Cop to Cruz Bustamante. Bustamante had labored under the
ridiculous notion that as lieutenant governor, he was somehow more
qualified than Arnold.
Forty-four percent of those exit-polled said they'd made up their minds
more than a month ago. In other words, when actual issues were put on the
table in the past few weeks, they'd already tuned out. This is what passes
for citizenship in the 21st century.
The best case scenario for the Schwarzenegger administration is for Arnold
to go down in history as the most important (if nowhere near the most
competent) governor in history, important because Arnold was somehow the
one pretend politician, in our hour of darkest ignorance, who awakened
Americans to what's become of our civic life, our public discourse, and to
where our sprawling national apathy has led us.
Perhaps some 25th-century history book (if they still have books) will have
a chapter titled "The Schwarzenegger Phenomenon: America ends its long
dazed journey into cluelessness." Yes, and perhaps a weasel will win the
Nobel Prize for physics.
The worst case scenario, and a scenario eminently more plausible, is that
elected officials nationwide will become substantially more skittish about
making difficult policy decisions for fear of triggering a recall, that
they will never really be able to stop campaigning and that the bitter
political partisanship that exploded and ruptured the legislative process
during the Clinton-Lewinsky affair will continue to steamroll any attempt
at reasonable negotiation on and careful resolution of public issues.
The recall election that brought down Gov. Gray Davis and inserted Arnold
was a small-time Republican fantasy until millionaire San Diego legislator
Darrell Issa threw a few million dollars at it. Some 48 hours before polls
even opened, California Democrat Zoe Lofgren warned of an instant
retaliation recall. And, Lofgren told The New York Times, "I don't think
there is any way to stop it."
Democrats may have no choice. Republicans have gotten so adept at
challenging elections, it's hard to imagine that a close presidential
election next November that doesn't go Bush's way won't be thrown into the
courts again.
This is tragic, but while the politicians engage in the most divisive
public rhetoric, the public and the media have no moral base for objection
because they are both immensely culpable in the enabling climate. In
America today, most serious public issues are debated by parties on the
extreme opposite edges of those issues. The moderate and often perfectly
sensible people in the middle, the vast majority that could enact viable
compromise, are instead watching "Everybody Loves Raymond."
In California, in Pennsylvania, in Washington, D.C., and in so many other
places, there simply is no centrist constituency.
To quote the great social observer and comic George Carlin, "You know the
one group I never criticize? Politicians. Politicians are put there by the
public. Garbage in, garbage out. You get the leadership you deserve."
The media are equally bad. The thunder you hear in the distance is from
hordes of short-attention-span editors and producers and reporters and
columnists fleeing California, lest they be required to illuminate the
complex economic issues that brought the Schwarzenegger Phenomenon to the
table in the first place, rather than just provide a shameless conduit for
celebrity culture.
Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot become president but only because he wasn't
born in the United States. If he could run, he could win, even if he knows
nothin' about nothin'. We've already proven that.
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Gene Collier can be reached at
<mailto:gcollier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>gcollier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or 412-263-1283.
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