ANALOGY WARNING: I have been told by those closest to me that when I try to wind up a lengthy analogy, sometimes I miss the mark. That said, I am going to try to equate the Governor’s behavior with California Democrats to a football game. Wish me luck:
Imagine that we are all on the same football team, and that is the middle of an important game. We’re all on the field, intent on scoring an important touchdown. Suddenly, our quarterback, who without doubt is our leader out there on the field, receives the ball, and to the amazement of everyone on our team (including the team boosters in the bleachers) he takes the ball, turns around, and runs about 30 yards towards our own goal line, and downs the ball! The reactions of the football players on our team is, as you can imagine, mixed. Some are shocked, some are dismayed — others, speechless.
When we rehuddle, we ask the QB why he did that? His response? He says, "I’ve decided that we need to change our priorities as a team. No longer should our goal be to score points and win the came. Rather, our goal should be working together to make the game entertaining for those watching on television. The spectators like to see touchdowns! And after a long time trying the hard way to score touchdowns by going through our opponents to get to their goal line, it dawned on me that if I help them, it would simply be much easier for help them score on our own goal line. I know we will lose the game, but the spectators will be happy, and I will certainly be named the MVP of the game!"
[Note, I tried to find a photo online of a football receiver downing the ball to put in this post, to no avail. If someone sends me one, I will insert it and give them credit!]
The last few days, the Governor has been in Washington, D.C., and as a large part of that trip, he has been touting ‘bipartisan’ (or as he likes to say, ‘post-partisan’) accomplishments back home. That said, I would hope that everyone understands that what we have here in California, is what I refer to in a rather tongue-in-cheek way, Arnold’s "Bi-Partisan Party of One" — which is to say that he is the ONLY Republican who is participating in this lurch to the left — and it seems to be rather disingenuous to call it anything other than what it is — an influential Republican Chief Executive who is literally capitulating on major policy items that have been pushed for many years by the liberal Democrats who control California.
I am dubious about compromise on important public policy issues almost all of the time anyways, given that my position is that government is too big, and spends too much, and the deals offered to Republicans in California never seem to be couched in whether we compromise in shrinking government a lot or a little — we’re always on the Democrats’ side of the field, debating whether to have massive expansion of government programs, or more modest growth.
I think that it is naive of Governor Schwarzenegger to go back to Washington, D.C., and think he is going to excite Republicans by parading a complete and total lack of ability to get Democrats to move on any substantive Republican issues back here at home. None. Where is the meaningful tax relief? Where is the regulatory relief? The Governor is being hailed and embraced by liberals far and wide for his embracing of their policies, and is getting amazingly positive coverage from the liberal main stream media. It’s no wonder!
But I can tell you that, for me personally, it is terribly disappointing. The Governor not only has stopped fighting for the things in which I, as a conservative Republican believe, but he continues to apologize for having pursued many of them in the first place (the ones he promised to fight for when he garnered by support over my good friend, Senator Tom McClintock, in the 2003 recall election).
If my analogy above could keep playing out in my ideal way, the coach would quickly bench the errant quarterback because you cannot win the game by helping the other team score touchdowns. And when these touchdowns equate, in the real world, to massive increase in government responsibility and spending on one end of the field, and meaningful return of freedom and liberty to Californians at the other end, it is too bad there is no ‘coach’ to take Arnold in the locker room and remind him whose team he is on.
As a player on the team, I employ our QB to help us to win. It’s not an easy task to be sure. But it’s an impossible one without him!
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