California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't know it, but
in his Inaugural Address this past week, he exemplified
perfectly what is wrong with today's Republican Party. In his
address, Schwarzenegger stated:
"There are growing numbers of independent voters in this
state. In fact, if the current trend continues, they will
outnumber each of the major parties in 20 years from now. They
like some of the Republican ideas. But they also like some of the
Democratic ideas..."
"At one time, the greatest public policy innovations came
from the liberals, such as during the New Deal. Then the most
innovative ideas came from the conservatives, such as Ronald
Reagan. It is time we that combined the best of both ideologies
into a new creative center. But this is a dynamic center that is
not held captive by either the left or the right or the past.
Centrist does not mean weak. It does not mean watered down
or warmed over. It means well-balanced and well-grounded. The
American people are instinctively centrist…so should be our
government. America ’s political parties should return to the
center. They should return to the center where the people
are."
Arnold couldn't be more wrong. Today the people of this country
are more divided than ever between Conservatives and Liberals.
The fact that many are registered as "Independents" does not mean
they are "Centrist", it generally means that they are disgusted with
both Democrat and Republican leadership and no longer want to be
associated with either.
We have Conservatives who want to preserve the constitutional
principles and ideals of capitalism, individual freedom and
responsibility, and minimal government interference, that our
country was founded on. Then there's the Liberals
who always want to change it into a more socialist touchy-feely
state of government rule and dependency - a "nanny state" not unlike
that of Communism where the government takes responsibility
for (and consequently control of) everyone.
"American citizens aren't smart enough to run their own lives, we
need government to do that for them".
Many Conservatives feel they are no longer represented
by the Republican party and moderate Democrats feel they
are no longer represented by the Democratic Party, both of
which have been moving to the left. As a result, many former
Republicans and Democrats have registered as independents.
That does not mean that they have become "Centrists" as Arnold
suggests. It's not the people's values, but their parties that
have changed. Arnold is pandering to moderate Democrats and
just like the US Congress did, is ignoring the Conservatives.
For the past 50 years, and particularly over the past 30 years,
our government has been moving to the left and away from our
founding principles mainly due to a Democrat controlled congress
(except for the past decade) and that Democrat Congress has allowed
a leftward trend to be set and permitted
unconstitutional corruption in Congress to become acceptable
practice which even the Republican Congress of the past decade
continued with. Congress has gone way beyond what the
Constitution authorizes them to do and taxpayer money it
authorizes them to spend. This recent "Republican
Congress" was a real disappointment to Conservatives.
The perception that Conservatives want to move the country to the
right is just plain false. If there is any desire to move it to the
right, it is only to correct and compensate for the reckless
and destructive moves to the left over recent decades.
Conservatives only want to restore the country to where it belongs
and preserve American ideology and legacy. Conservatives want
keep America as the unique beacon of freedom in the world that
it used to be. They don't believe that European type socialism
is the right direction for America to move in. Conservatives
don't want to change America as the liberals do, they want to
preserve it as it was intended to be.
When Arnold says: "Centrist does not mean weak. It does not
mean watered down or warmed over. It means well-balanced and
well-grounded", all he's really saying is that we should
continue to move even further to the left and to continue to
compromise with those who want to change the country further away
from it's founding principles. In other words, we should strike a
happy medium between American principles and those of Marxism.
If that isn't a weak and watered down approach for a
Republican to take, I don't know what is. Schwarzenegger went
to Sacramento to fight the "gurley-men" but turned into a wimp when
they insisted on getting their way with compromises. On
the other hand, in Arnold's case there is little else he can do
other than to veto all legislation from the liberal California
Legislature and get nothing done. Republicans in Congress
don't have that excuse. But it's an insult to
Conservatives for Arnold to now shove this Centrist idea in our
faces when he was the only hope Republicans had
for California.
Arnold went on to say:
"No one ideology can solve prison reform or immigration reform
or any other of the challenges facing us. It will take the best
ideas of everybody, everyone. It will take creative thinking. It
will take negotiations. And it will take letting go of the
past".
These reforms he's talking about wouldn't be necessary if the
Left hadn't tampered with those systems and fouled them up in the
first place. They used to work just fine until the Left
decided they were too harsh and strict and felt we should have more
compassion for criminals and trespassers/invaders into our
country.
What was wrong with the ideology that criminals should be
punished and immigration laws should be enforced? How do you
bring together those who believe in that ideology and those who want
to do away with it? We compromise by saying we'll punish
criminals - but only a little, and we'll protect the borders -
but only a little. In the end, nothing is accomplished but
they did their job and passed legislation. Now it's off to the
local bar to celebrate. Tomorrow they'll come back to solve
another important issue for the little people who depend on their
wisdom and guidance to get through life.
We used to enforce immigration laws - not any more. We used to
have great schools for our children - not any more. We used to have
a prison system that was a deterrent to crime - not any more. We
used to have free enterprise without excessive government
regulations - not any more. We used to have a strong national
defense and pride in our country - not any more. These are just a
few examples of the failures that moving to the left has brought
upon our country.
I have one answer for Gov. Schwarzenegger and like minded
"Republicans" who think compromising with the left is the answer to
all our problems. We have beer drinkers and we have wine drinkers.
Let's merge the beer industry with the wine industry to create a
50/50 beverage we can call "Brine" and offer it in place of both
beer and wine. That way we'll have a consensus drink that
nobody likes. It will be just like the legislation we're getting out
of our governments.
Let's say you and your spouse own a car that needs a paint
job. You want to paint it blue and your spouse wants to paint
it red. Do you compromise and both agree to a purple
paint job? More likely, you will discuss it, maybe even fight
over it, but eventually one of you will win and the car will be
painted either red or blue. Today's Republican "leadership" is
afraid to fight for us and find it easier to just compromise with
purple colored legislation.
A caller to a morning radio talk show the other day said it
best: "We did not elect Republicans so that they could
compromise with Democrats. We elected them to represent us and
our values." That is something the late Republican Congress
never understood and now it cost them the control of
Congress. Will they learn anything from this? Or will
they just continue to blame their loss on the war in Iraq so
that they never have to be seen at fault?
Newt Gingrich had the right idea with his "Contract with
America", and because of that, he was smeared by the Left and driven
out of office. But for 8 years, that Republican controlled
congress followed his recommendations and balanced the budget, even
leaving a budget surplus in spite of having to work with President
Clinton. They stuck to their conservative principles.
Then came the 2000 elections with President Bush taking the
Whitehouse. Congressional Republicans figured now they could
get away with anything they wanted and began adopting many of the
corrupt policies practiced by the Democrats in previous
decades. They abandoned the "Contract with America" and began
not only compromising with the Dems, but actually acting like them.
It took them only 6 years to loose the support of their
Conservative base and get voted out of power.
Unfortunately, this never happens to Democrats. Their base
has no moral problems with corruption in government or
counter-American and constitutionally
questionable legislation. As long as Democrats offer them
"free stuff" from the taxpayers, they're happy and continue to vote
for Democrats. And to keep the Democrat base loyal to them,
they have divided the country into minority groups and promoted
their diversity and victimism to keep them convinced that they need
Democrats to fight for them and protect them from the evil
Republicans who would not respect their minority group status
and try to unit them as simply "Americans".
So when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he's going to unit the
Right and the Left in a "Centrist" group, that's like driving down
the road with two people in your car. You come to a fork in
the road and ask "should we go left or right"? One says go
left and the other says go right, but you say "no, we'll compromise
and go straight". You car goes off the road, crashes into a
gully and everyone is killed, but at least you worked
together and stayed to the center before you died.
