By Woody
For the last couple of years, I've been constantly wondering what the hell a
conservative really is. Dubya's offenses against anything that could be reasonably called Conservatism are legion: busting the federal budget, eroding the Bill of Rights, waging war a needless in Iraq, et cetera. If it were up to me to label Bush's political philosophy, it would be called Recklessness.
Now my confusion has been relieved. Seeing how Arnold Schwarzenegger has
been received in the right wing press, I now know for sure what the sole requirement is for being embraced as a conservative in this country: Cut, or at least cap, taxes on upper income voters.
That's it. Cut or freeze taxes for millionaires and well-off suburbanites, and all else is forgiven. You can manufacture trashy pop culture, grope and harass women, support abortion rights, flirt with fascism (wait a minute, that really is right wing), support gun control, whatever you like. Just don't tax the wealthy, and you're in the club. Strip away the ideological ornamentation, and the conservative movement and the political party it controls is just a giant machine to takes in campaign donations and foundation money, and spits out tax cuts.
These are strong statements which require documentation. It has arrived in the
form of the October 20th issue of the archconservative Weekly Standard. Although the words "Arnold Uber Alles" are on the cover, the content is only slightly ironic. They love Arnold and they want you to know it. Consider this from Fred Barnes, "His life as an immigrant in America is a story of fulfilling almost impossible dreams. As governor, he can achieve yet one more audacious goal by keeping his promise on taxes, restraining spending, and taming Democrats." Arnold's spokespeople couldn't have asked for a better press release if they wrote it themselves.
One recent bit of irony on the Weekly Standard's website (The Daily Standard)
was probably unintentional. On October 10th, Katherine Mangu-Ward slammed NPR for
"obituary relativism" because they compared Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to Elia Kazan. Since the quotes from Arnold praising Hitler came out, I have gotten in several arguments about whether it is acceptable for a politician to admire certain qualities of Adolph Hitler (the Fuhrer's good side, so to speak). According to the Weekly standards, it is apparently acceptable to admire the personal talents of Hitler, but not those of his cinematic pitchwoman.
Publications of similar ideological stripe have also joined in the chorus of praise. In the National Review Online, Larry Kudlow (10/10) asked "If you're a conservative, what's not to like?" Later in the piece, he says that he is "confident that Arnold Schwarzenegger will rejuvenate conservative politics and its influence on the nation."
Any examination of the conservative press has to include The Wall Street Journal.
Consider what Daniel Henninger, the deputy editor of the editorial page, had to say on October 10th. Although he labeled Arnold a "moderate" he makes clear that conservatives consider Arnold to be in the club:
Some 65% of self-described "very conservative" voters picked Arnold. More to the
point, what about the "religious right" and the womanizing? I talked about this with Rev. Rob Zinn, first vice president of the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church near San Bernardino in Southern California. He says the turnout among evangelical Christians for Mr. Schwarzenegger was "huge" and wholly pragmatic: "A lot of evangelical Christians thought if they didn't vote for Schwarzenegger, Bustamante would win. Arnie was not the best, but they voted for him."
There you have it. Even evangelical Christians could overlook not only Arnold's
pagan lifestyle but the fact that they disagree with him on a long list of political issues. About the only thing that they agree with him about is that they're tired of paying high taxes on their SUV. Apparently, that's enough.
A bit further to the left is Andrew Sullivan, who deserves a key to the state of
California for the services he has done Schwarzenegger in his blog. Sullivan has been particularly helpful in the area of nonconsensual groping (a.k.a., sexual assault), going to great pains to explain how, all appearances aside, Bill Clinton's transgressions were way, way worse than Arnold's. Sullivan is not normally a GOP flak, but he made an exception for Arnold. The wagons have been circled.
It is comforting to think that Republicans will pay a price for their hypocrisy. I am not really sure. The GOP conservative base may have simply convinced themselves that California is a loony liberal red-light district where sexual and political sins don't count. One thing is for sure: The Democrats can abandon any residual embarrassment they may feel over the Lewinsky affair. Bill Clinton's real sin was taxing the wealthy.
