On Arnold Schwarzenegger Having Become Governor of California

• October 13, 2003
• James Skemp
• article, political

Unless you've been lying in a coma, or spending an extraordinary amount of time playing such games as Sid Meier's SIMGolf™, SimCity 3000™ Unlimited, Age of Empires II, Solitaire, etcetera, or, if you're just reading this (perhaps) long after I've written it, you probably heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger (see Running Man, Terminator, Terminator 2, Terminator 3, Kindergarten Cop, Total Recall, etcetera) has become, according to the masses of Californians that went out to vote, the next Governor of California, taking the place of the recalled (the second in the nation) Governor, Gray Davis (I personally keep thinking it should be Gary, but... interesting name I suppose). There's a lot going on with this, Arnold becoming the next Governor, and I've put off writing this page for that reason, as well as for a few other reasons... Anyways, even though I live in Wisconsin, I figured I'd tackle a few of the things that I've thought whilst paying attention to this. Here goes :)

1) Schwarzenegger the Running Man: From the Beautiful Lips of Sandra Bullock

First, let me discuss my feelings towards Arnold Schwarzenegger, while he was running. As I'm sure many of you are aware, Sandra Bullock, in Demolition Man, discusses Schwarzenegger. For those few not aware of the beautiful Sandra Bullock's line, let me fill you in on the basics (watch the, great, movie for the exact quote - she's wonderful in the movie, she truly is...). The important part of Sandra's dialogue regarding Schwarzenegger is that Arnold Schwarzenegger, at some time in the movies past (and our future, merging the two lines together) Arnold Schwarzenegger became the President of the United States ('Burn Bushs - Bring in Schwarzenegger...). One of the properties that an individual looking to be elected President of the United States needs to have is the property of being born in the United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was not born in the U.S., would be unable to be elected President. However, if such a property were no longer required, then Schwarzenegger could be the next President. According to some (perhaps many) the law laying down such a restriction is no longer really applicable, and could be removed if so desired (perhaps a wrong choice in words, but...).

What I'm trying to get at is that I had great hopes while following the news - I felt that Sandra Bullock couldn't be wrong, since she just seems so right. Of course, when some news came in about Schwarzenegger's attitudes towards women (very near the time when people were going to be voting) I thought that it might be close, and that Schwarzenegger probably wouldn't make it in, based on the fact that a split for the Republican's could mean a Democrat win. Please note, I'm not a Republican, and I'm not a Democrat. I used to be a Democrat, then I was a Libertarian, now I'm just me. I believe that a person should have their own philosophy, and they should stick to it. After all, that's what we all do anyways - take pieces of ideas/belief structures and assimilate what we like, not assimilating what we don't like - so why try to confine myself to someone else's system? Anyways, I wasn't seeing it as a party win, I was seeing it as Sandra Bullock being correct and intelligent in matters concerning what she knows.

2) Schwarzenegger the Terminator: Hollyweird? Only if you think that giving power to the people in politics is unusual

Second, I'm getting bored of this. I'm not a political science person, and, well, anyways. Schwarzenegger was elected, by the people, to be the next Governor of California. I'm not going to go into the various concerns of whether Davis should have been recalled. I'm not going to talk about the tyranny of the majority, or about the stupidity of the masses when they get together. I have high hopes for Schwarzenegger, very high hopes. Do I think he can help California? Well, he's certainly got some great ideas on how to do it. The only real thing I can do is keep up on the news, and, if given the chance, let others know about my views (which I'm doing here, rather poorly ;)).

3) Want to Keep up-to-date?

It should be noted that, as with any bit of news, there hasn't been all that much talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger these days, in the nationwide sense. Since I'm in Wisconsin, I don't often get the chance to read a California paper. However, I suppose the lack of news is also a good thing, since we would be hearing about anything that was going horribly wrong is things were going horribly wrong, one would think...

• http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/recall/
  • The Mercury News had a great Recall 'package'/section with lots of news regarding Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately, it’s been removed.

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Notes: Remember that on November 17th, 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in - now it's time for Arnold to either shine, or cry ...

November of 2004 Update:

Unfortunately, most of the information has been removed, regarding this issue. Governor Schwarzenegger has been in the news a few times, especially when Bush was making his rounds in California. He was also in the news a few months (?) before when he saved a drowning man. California isn’t in drastic problems (at least the national news isn’t discussing it), so he must be doing a good job. Personally, I hope that he’s able to continue in politics for as long as he desires, even if he is a Republican.

Created: October 13th 2003
Modified: October 24th 2003; November 8th 2003; November 17th 2003; February 13th 2004; November 13th 2004; February 5th 2005