As I write this, my fellow Californians are likely electing Arnold Schwarzenegger our new governor. It's like November 2000 all over again. People are so stupid. I know I'm not supposed to say or think that. I'm supposed to respect other viewpoints, recognize that the other side has a legitimate set of beliefs, and that I should respect them just as I'd want myself and my beliefs to be respected.
Yep. It's sure hard to hold onto that set of ideals right now. Because it's very hard for me to believe that there's any clear or rational thinking going on here. Just vague, and frankly bratty, impulses and moods. "I'm sick and tired of paying taxes!" "I feel screwed over!" "Arnold is strong and he'll be able to stand up to those stupid politicians in Sacramento." Never mind that nobody can seem to explain exactly what Arnold can really do.
And yes, Grey Davis screwed up with the energy crisis, and yes, he takes too many contributions from special interests, and yes, he's not a super warm and likable guy. (Even his next door neighbor joined the pro-recall forces. She wants him out of her back yard.) But the more I hear about Arnold, the more repulsive I find his personality as well. It's a real shame other people don't notice this mean streak in him. It's not about sex, it's about pushing the weak around. This editorial says it all for me...
Even his friends have portrayed Schwarzenegger as a bawdy man who thrives on being the center of attention and is not above demeaning someone for a laugh. These accounts of public groping and grinning — in restaurants and offices as well as on movie sets — are more about being top dog than about sex. They are different only in degree from the mean-spirited "practical jokes" Schwarzenegger practiced at the gym to humiliate fellow bodybuilders.Maybe that's what voters want this time: to have the class bully on their side. His fans seem to want Schwarzenegger to stride into Sacramento and mop up the floor with that loser legislative crew. Perhaps they think muscle and meanness is what it takes to wring gambling money out of federally protected Indian tribes, arm-wrestle employee unions into giving back benefits they've been promised and undo unpopular taxes.
Problem is, a man who describes humiliating waitresses, secretaries and stuntwomen as "playful" seems an unlikely champion of the little people, including those who would vote him into office.
("Muscle and Meanness", Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2003, www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/ la-ed-arnold3oct03,1,3478360.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials)
I will keep trying to understand why this happened, and I sure as hell hope that the Democratic party learns something from it and behaves differently in future, because they must have really sold their souls to get this out of touch. But I'm having a harder and harder time understanding what I'm doing here. Which is really sad, because I was born here and love California...
