Schwarzenegger Goes Native

My latest L.A. Weekly column:

MAY 6 - 12, 2005

Dissonance

A Bad Vintage
Arnold uncorks the old Pete Wilson whine

By MARC COOPER                   

There’s nothing to feel smug about in the sudden fall of Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I do mean fall.

Arnold went as low as you can get last week, when he uncorked yet another vintage magnum of Pete Wilson’s bitter anti-immigrant whine.

First, there was Arnold’s dumbkopf statement of a couple of weeks ago about “closing down the borders.” When he hustled to pull back the quote and insisted that — as an immigrant himself — he got a little tongue-tied and didn’t mean to be so draconian, a lot of folks gave the big Austrian hulk the benefit of the doubt.

But after last week, when Arnold unleashed two more xenophobic grunts in one day, it’s time to give him full credit for his political idiocy. Last week Arnold popped up on KFI as a guest on the extraordinarily mean-spirited John & Ken Show (these are the vituperative, ranting clowns who think it’s funny to mockingly hand out government cheese to the homeless). First, Arnold badmouthed a billboard put up by local Spanish-language TV that provocatively suggested that L.A. was part of Mexico. Unable to bring about any of the crucial reforms he’d promised the state, the Governator instead bellowed that the sign was offensive and should be immediately taken down. Now, wouldn’t that change all of our lives?

No sooner had John and Ken stopped cackling in agreement over that brilliant program proposal than the governor let loose his second volley, when he praised the already-collapsed Minuteman Project as having done a “terrific job.”

The governor’s flack tried to bat away the ensuing backlash by saying Arnold was merely responding to a question he had been asked and that he wasn’t going out there with some aggressive agenda on immigration.

The truth, however, is more unsettling. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported over the weekend, it was Arnold’s staff who called up the radio show and pushed their guy onto the air. And even Arnold’s increasingly inept and Keystone Kop–league staff know that John and Ken are all about bashing immigrants — that’s about all they do every show.

Despite all the public disavowals, the new anti-illegal-immigrant thunder coming from the governor is calculated (at least to the degree that his staff had to take off their shoes to count out the moves in this strategy).

It’s desperation time for Arnold, and with even chunks of his base starting to slip, a couple of the geniuses around him figure they’ve found a new way to polarize the electorate in their favor. Or, better said, the old Pete Wilson way.

You will remember that Wilson’s riding of the anti-Mexican horse got him elected in 1994. The second thing it did was help wipe out the California Republican Party four years later.

All of which means that Arnold’s current penchant for stirring up the muddy politics of race was hardly inevitable. When he was campaigning to replace Gray Davis, Arnold was not “Pete Wilson With a Smile,” as Democratic Party lackeys portrayed him. Wilson was (and is) a sorry has-been who destroyed the state Republican Party. Arnold was not the cat’s-paw of Wilson’s old team. On the contrary, Schwarzenegger simply hired a lot of the old Wilson crew because they were a ready-made team of political professionals.

No one nowadays seems to know who is in charge in Arnold’s shop, so I’m not about to speculate. Yet, it seems rather obvious that some of these relic Wilsonites have convinced Arnold that they have found the path back to popularity and sent him out swinging.

I wouldn’t worry that any great wave of racism is going to be set off by the governor’s remarks. People who subscribe to the Minuteman theory that Mexico is secretly plotting to take back California by salting it with Mexicans hardly need Arnold’s endorsement of their views.

No, the first victim of Schwarzenegger’s folly will be Schwarzenegger. A year and a half ago, he was enormously popular among Latino voters, who, indeed, helped him crush the hapless Cruz Bustamante. In these voters’ eyes, Arnold has turned himself — overnight — into . . . well . . . Pete Wilson, but without a smile.

Nothing to celebrate here. Arnold has now definitively squandered a once-in-a-century opportunity to reform the state’s corrupt political system. Running as a Republican, the supposedly independent-minded Schwarzenegger could have pulled a Nixon-Goes-to-China and rattled both parties by standing up to the special interests (beyond only Indians, nurses and teachers).

Instead, Schwarzenegger turns out to be heading up one more mediocre, slavishly pro-business Republican administration prone to pandering to nativists. It’s a loser for him. And a loss for the entire state. Hasta la vista, Arnold.

Comments

[green democrat]

I actually think the mood in the country (including in California) towards immigration (legal and not) is changing, turning right.

I also think the mood in the country (including in California) towards economic issues is changing, turning left.

Schwarzenegger may well be tapping into some genuine populist, anti-immigrant sentiment out there, and may not face the kind of backlash poor, poor Pete suffered, but it's unlikely to help his right-wing economic agenda.

[George Anderson]

I agree with most of what you have to say regarding our Govenor. However, some mention of the fact that he is really a part-time Govenor should be made.
As a Brentwood Resident, I see him almost daily. I can say with certainty that much of his time is spent here in Los Angeles mostly at his personal Santa Monica office.
It is hard to develop much of a relationsip with the legislature by avoiding time in Sacramento.

[Marc Cooper]

Green Dem: Im not sure ur right about the first proposition. I think there's a good sized swath of the public that would support an earned legalization program. what's missing is political leadership.

George: u bet! Thanks for joining in.

[green dem]

"Im not sure ur right about the first proposition. I think there's a good sized swath of the public that would support an earned legalization program."

I would. But historically there have tended to be a few decades of robust immigration followed by a backlash and a few decades of curbs on both legal and illegal immigration. I'm not saying it's rational, just that it may be starting to happen again.

[reg]

I think Green Dem is right that there's increasing sentiment to deal with illegal immigration, but surely in California launching half-baked rhetoric that's as evasive of pragmatic policies as it is certain to sound offensive. I tend to be what Green Dem would probably consider "right" on the immigration issue, but Arnold's antics come across as demagogic idiocy...something he's become expert at. After all this is the guy's whose response to the California budget crunch was to "Smash The Car Tax!", complete with a Hollywood car-smashing stunt. I thought Gray Davis was a piece of shit, but I'd take him over these Steroid Stuntman in a minute. Even Jesse Ventura was a more authentic Popcorn Populist than Arnold.

[reg]

Corr: ...but surely in California launching half-baked rhetoric that's as evasive of pragmatic policies as it is certain to sound offensive DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE POLITICALLY OR PRACTICALLY.

(Lost my train of thought. I'm sure that surprises no one.)

[reg]

The thing that is most mystifying about this latest turn of Arnold's isn't that he's looking for an issue to demagogue since his policies and popularity are starting to tank, but that he's chosen a path and rhetoric that's certain to alienate many of the Latinos he so successfully courted in the recall. Maybe he sees the writing on the wall if Villagarosa (sp?) becomes mayor of LA, and is looking to shore up his reputation with the traditional GOP base. Stupid...but the only way I can figure it, other than as Marc implies him simply becoming a puppet of Wilson's dregs. I think his ego is bigger than that. Also, where's Maria in all this ? She gets touted as some kind of power behind the throne tugging Arnold away from the more crackpot constituencies of the GOP. But that may just be PR. I'll toss in, just for lingering bitterness sake, that I'll never forgive Jay Leno or Queen Oprah their shameless whoring for this goon.

[Jim Rockford]

Marc -- with all due respect I think you're off base. Pete Wilson did not destroy the California Republican Party, Partisan districting that guaranteed safe seats and thus hard-right socially conservative Republicans did. Prop 187 was popular and if you'll recall passed fairly widely. I know it's Liberal Dogma that people love immigration and hate any attempt to keep lots of low-cost nannies and gardeners out of the state. However, reality is that lots of illegal aliens cost a lot in social services (easily checked out by visiting an Emergency Room) and depress wages for blue collar labor.

The Media and Liberal dogma conflicts with the direct economic interests of blue collar State residents. They depend on State Services more (overwhelmed by lots of poor immigrants) and get hurt by lots of labor competition. After Pete Wilson left, there were no more nominees hitting the sweet spot of socially liberal (pro-Abortion, pro-Stem Cells, etc) and fiscally conservative.

Arnold isn't stupid. People don't like, particularly post 9/11, the suggestion that this is Mexico. Being against that ad is like being for Apple Pie and Mom. The LAT took Arnold to task on this, suggesting that the ad was just in fun and Arnold was demagoging. Rule of thumb ... anything that the LAT suggests is dead wrong. People also are just plain ticked off by suggestions that illegals get drivers licenses or that we can't control the border.

Of course we can control the border. All it takes is money and will. I've said this many times, the current status quo is not sustainable. It's inherently unstable, and Liberals just cede control over the issue if they don't get behind the economic and social interests of legal residents of the State. The electorate is still overwhelmingly white and blue collar, despite disparity in ethnic makeup of the state. Recall, illegal aliens don't vote, Leftist/Liberal attempts to change this to the contrary.

This isn't racism, or evil. LAT today had an article about how the NPD, a far right political party that is neo-Nazi gains in East Germany as both mainstream SPD and CDU parties won't address economic concerns, particularly the flooding of low wage labor from Poland and Russia.

Arnold played this card because Democratic Latino pandering paints them into a corner far away from real economic and social interests of most voters. No Democrat can stand up for blue collar people, say that this IS indeed California USA and not Mexico. This is enormously popular outside of the literati.

[reg]

"This isn't racism, or evil. LAT today had an article about how the NPD, a far right political party that is neo-Nazi gains in East Germany as both mainstream SPD and CDU parties won't address economic concerns, particularly the flooding of low wage labor from Poland and Russia."

Isn't that somewhat of a contradiction..."This isn't racism...neo-Nazi gains".

And doesn't it prove that it's doubly important for politicians NOT to address this issue demagogically, but pragmatically with a minimum of rhetoric, building alliances across the center and across ethnic lines, and with an attention to fairness so there's no perception of scapegoating.

[too many steves]

I find this fascinating on a whole bunch of levels but also in a "it-doesn't-affect-me" sort of way as I live near Boston.

Is there a red-state/blue-state sort of dynamic at work in CA? On a few of my visits there - business takes me there often - I noticed that there are many, if you will, California's. There is big, metropolis CA: LA/San Diego and SF/Oakland/San Jose, and then there are all the agrarian areas (low margin, high volume crops), the upscale wine aress, and the massively rural mountain and resort areas. I'm sure I'm missing some.

So it seems to me there is a much broader diversity of interests, economic and social, than you will find in most other states. As a counter example, southern New England (MA, CT, RI) might as well be one big city/suburb. Sure, there are a few farms, rural areas and such, but the largest percentage of the population consists of people who are either city dwellers or suburbanites (Boston, Providence, Hartford, Worcester, even NYC). And that's across three or four states (if you count southwestern CT commuters to NYC).

So, can some of Arnold's difficulties (and seemingly incoherence on some issues) be a result of CA's economic and social diverstity and his attempts to speak to (or pander to, if you prefer) them all?

[Michael Turner]

Ahnuld doesn't spend much time with in Sacto because his strategy from the beginning was to go over the legislature's heads. It was working, for a while. Hey, at least he's located *somewhere*; Pete Wilson seemed to think that his sunblessed San Diego was the one place where all was right with the world.

As for the "several Californias" perception, it's hardly original. Far Northern California got together with some Southern Oregon counties in 1942 to try to form the State of Jefferson. It's been a kind of running joke ever since, though there's still some serious anti-Sacramento thinking there.

And as a native of the SF Bay Area, trips to LaLaLand give me culture shock. ("Who are all these people whose faces are a few shades darker than their hair?")

There are at least four Californias, maybe seven. I've often felt that California should be two states, Northern and Southern. Admittedly, if some such commonsense partition were ever initiated, the centrifugal forces might become hard to control; sooner or later, Humboldt County would try to secede utterly and become the Republic of Sinsemilla or something.

[too many steves]

So, does the multiple California reality act as the prime catalyst with Arnold's gubernatorial inexperience and naivete to result in the observed ineptitude and drop in popularity?

[Woody]

If the left really wants to get outraged by Gov. Schwarzenegger, see how he teamed up today with President Bush to mix church and state! You can *pray* that it doesn't get worse.

Here's what the governor did,
http://tinyurl.com/akxg2
and, if you live in California, here's where you can go to do something about it.
http://tinyurl.com/7h7mr

Act now. This is important for our nation.

[reg]

Too many...you forgot to mention that big bright spot in California where Republicans have held sway and proved how good they are at managing things - San Diego.

And Woody...Every day has been a day of prayer in California since Arnie was elected.

Joking aside, isn't it offensive to you as a Christian to have some opportunistic pols and the Colorado Springs contingent of scribes and pharisees turning prayer into an Oprahfied faux-spiritual commodity. WWJD ????

[Rich]

I must say I've been pretty surprised by Arnold's demagoguery; given his acting credibility, I expected a much subtler speaking out of both sides of his mouth, as in: "I love you Latinos (thanks for voting for me), but 9/11 changed the world blah blah let's work together at securing our borders". Hell, even George W. knows how to pander to Latinos while pursuing his underlying agenda of keeping the cheap labor supply flowing steadily, without overtly angering much of his red-state/blue-collar base. Although I suspect, as Jim Rockford has astutely pointed out time and time again, that we have a very interesting division in this country concerning immigration which may very well damage Bush's credibility among blue collar voters: to wit, illegal immigration in the end hurts the working class, and a growing awareness of Bush's unwillingness to seriously confront the roots of this problem is going to be trouble for pro-cheap-immigrant-labor Republicans who take the red-state/blue-collar vote for granted. So, in sum, while I think Arnold screwed himself with his ham-fisted comments on immigration, maybe (though I doubt it) he has had a Rockfordian premonition that Bush's hypocritical strategy ain't going to work in the long run, especially among voters who suffer the negative effects of illegal immigration in very direct ways.

[Mavis Beacon]

Check out Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias. Some friends were involved in this cool (and very arty) project. http://www.insmogandthunder.com/

Sure, California is a big state with a very diverse population. Anti-immigrant bashing that may go over well on the other side of the grapevine will kill a politician in LA. But I think Green Dem is correct that California, and the country at large, is ready for a tougher immigration policy. It just can't be heralded by nasty remarks about some of the hardest working, poorest people in our country. You can be respectful of these people while taking action to limit illegal immigration. Bush actually does a pretty good job talking the talk, but he's way too beholden to corporate interests (and desperatly wants to endear his party to Latinos) to craft a real policy.

[Michael Turmon]

Too many - There is a multiple californias reality, but I don't think Arnold's outbursts have special regional appeal. Tempers are much hotter about this issue as you get closer to the border, is the main regional effect. (Think: angry San Diego suburbanites vs. San Francisco leftist utopians vs. South SF Bay libertarian one-worlders.)

The economy and culture of illegal immigration is now inseparable from the overall CA economy so it's hard to break down at all (regionally or otherwise). There are definitely some class and ethnicity breakdowns. But you can be surprised by second-generation immigrants (or even zero-generation ones like the governator) wanting the ladder pulled up. In this regard it's one of the more complex issues out there and not well-suited to talk radio bluster. It makes social security reform look like child's play.

[rosedog]

Excellent piece, Marc. Hope it turns out to be prescient.

About "May 5, Prayer Day".....Way to go Arnold. Perfect strategy to reach out to the Latino community whom you've just alienated on the John and Ken show: Declare a brand new official, government sponsored "Day" on…………. CINCO DE MAYO (!!!!!!!!!) That'll sure show those guys who put up that Los Angeles, Mexico, billboard who REALLY runs the state, by gum!

Dear God. (<---Praying urgently without benefit of a special Arnold enforced "day.")

All that and xenophobic immigration policy statements, not to mention CLEAR ID skating through Congress: WWJD indeed. The ironies fly fast and furious.

(So, Reg, is demagogue really a verb? If not I’m sure it should be. ; - ))

[too many steves]

Got it. Sort of the NIMBY effect as applied to immigration? By that I mean it is similar to the objection to development of the new 30 house subdivision by the folks who live in the 15 year-old 30 house subdivision.

Reg: so is San Diego the Florida of California with better weather and fewer climatological disasters? :0

[reg]

Sure "demagogue" is a verb...otherwise I wouldn't have verbed it.

[rosedog]

"Sure "demagogue" is a verb...otherwise I wouldn't have verbed it...."

Damn, Reg! You got me to spit coffee all over the cat again!

[Rich]

Deriving new verbs from nouns: a very productive and fascinating word formation process in the English language: ink (a contract), butter (the bread), ship (the package). But in fact, according to the OED "demagogue" has been in use as a verb since 1656 (intransitively--1890 transitively), and as a noun since 1648. So demagogue away!

[Woody]

reg wrote re. Arnold's prayer day: "...isn't it offensive to you as a Christian to have some opportunistic pols and the Colorado Springs contingent of scribes and pharisees turning prayer into an Oprahfied faux-spiritual commodity. WWJD ????"

No, and I don't agree with that characterization of the proclamations and the people behind them--plus, I'm not offended at every turn like a lot of people you may encounter. I think it's good to remember our nation's religious heritage and to take time to be thankful for what we have and to pray for the future of our nation. It sure beats holding "Hands across America" where you just feel good and have "no prayer" for significant change. I honestly believe that President Bush is sincere when he makes this National Day of Prayer, where I would have had doubts if Kerry was the one doing it.
___________________

This is a good day for this joke. Try not to be offended yourself. This outdoes your what the President, your governor, and the Minutemen have done together.

"A big earthquake with the strength of 8.1 on the Richter scale has hit Mexico. Two million Mexicans have died and over a million are injured. The country is totally ruined and the government doesn't know where to start with providing help to rebuild.

The rest of the world is in shock.

Canada is sending troops to help the Mexican army control the riots.

Saudi Arabia is sending oil.

Other Latin American countries are sending supplies.

The European community (except France) is sending food and money.

The United States, not to be outdone, is sending two million replacement Mexicans."

[wil]

Let me be one more voice to note that there seems to be a definitly rightward turn against illegal immigration, especially from people on the left. I noted this a few weeks ago in the Letters to the Editor section of City Beat mag where a few people wrote in denouncng illegal immigration from a left point of view. (It empowers big business etc.) Then I had a recent discussion with several friends of mine I've always considered liberal and they held the same view. I think you're going to see a noticeable shift on this issue in the next couple years. How that plays out for Arnold is beyond me.

[rosedog]

Rich, thanks for OEDing the verb/noun info. (The nearest American Heritage didn't go that far.)

(I've gotten "angst" past a few editors as a verb. Cheered me up.)