Why Arnold Schwarzenneger Must Go
Jonathan King
July 15, 2005
I am an unapologetic conservative who has voted that way in every election for president and governor since registering to vote for the first time in 1974.
This means that I have voted for Republicans in our national elections because that party and its leaders have been right on every national defense issue since long before I entered adulthood. Cold War service at isolated military observation posts along the old Iron Curtain and missions to Korea clarified in my mind who our enemies were and who was best suited to confront them. In all cases these men were Republicans.
The reaction by most in the once great opposition party to the magnificent way George W. Bush has waged the Global War on Terror since 9/11 has reinforced my partisan outlook. The number one priority of our federal government must be the national defense. No other issue comes close to being as important for any rational thinker. President Bush understands this. The Johns --- Kerry and Dean --- and the Democrat party's base do not.
At the state and local levels of government the national security equivalent is public safety. Until recently, Republican candidates for governor have been on the right side of this issue as well. Public safety can not exist without law and order. Governors George Dukemejian and Pete Wilson were strong law and order advocates.
Although I didn't vote for him, so was Gray Davis; who continued the public safety policies of the two Republicans who proceeded him. There was little doubt he would because Davis had a strong anti-crime record as a moderate, traditional liberal member of the legislature. Today, crime rates in California are the lowest in more than a generation as a result of the way these three men approached law and order issues.
Although I had already voted against him twice, I initially opposed the recall of Gray Davis. My position was that there was absolutely no new information available about Davis when the recall petitions were circulated that was not known to any rational person of average intelligence during the 2002 election.
In fact, I felt that my Republican compadres were acting like emotional Al Gore Democrats by seeking to overturn a legitimate election result. As a result, I didn't sign the recall petition and planned to vote against it until Davis began shamelessly pandering to the looney far left fringes of his Democrat party base.
Being a Republican in Big Blue California means often voting for lost causes. I now wish my vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger had been one of those. From the instant he took office Arnold has demonstrated --- by both his words and actions ---that his views concerning public safety march in lockstep with those of the most radical Hate-America-First activists in our society.
There is no other way to explain his decision to demonize the prison officers who stand between the public and over 160,000 convicted felons doing time in state penitentiaries. There is no other way to explain the adoption of a "Parole Model" that treats drunk in public arrests of parolees with drunk driving convictions as trivial, or drug use by very violent felons as something that is best "treated" in the community.
Schwarzenegger has signed legislation making it legal for illegal drug users to purchase syringes in drug stores. He has removed legal prohibitions against giving food stamps to felons convicted of drug crimes. Arnold's Board of Prison Terms has paroled more convicted murderers serving "life" sentences in his short tenure than were released in the twenty years before he took office.
Finally, a governor who is proudly dismantling the forces of order as he changes the primary mission of the prison and parole service from one of protecting the public to one of rehabilitation of violent criminals in the community is out of step with the primary purpose of government in a free society.
Arnold won't get this conservative's vote next time. A careful reader will notice I haven't mentioned one "labor issue"
This means that I have voted for Republicans in our national elections because that party and its leaders have been right on every national defense issue since long before I entered adulthood. Cold War service at isolated military observation posts along the old Iron Curtain and missions to Korea clarified in my mind who our enemies were and who was best suited to confront them. In all cases these men were Republicans.
The reaction by most in the once great opposition party to the magnificent way George W. Bush has waged the Global War on Terror since 9/11 has reinforced my partisan outlook. The number one priority of our federal government must be the national defense. No other issue comes close to being as important for any rational thinker. President Bush understands this. The Johns --- Kerry and Dean --- and the Democrat party's base do not.
At the state and local levels of government the national security equivalent is public safety. Until recently, Republican candidates for governor have been on the right side of this issue as well. Public safety can not exist without law and order. Governors George Dukemejian and Pete Wilson were strong law and order advocates.
Although I didn't vote for him, so was Gray Davis; who continued the public safety policies of the two Republicans who proceeded him. There was little doubt he would because Davis had a strong anti-crime record as a moderate, traditional liberal member of the legislature. Today, crime rates in California are the lowest in more than a generation as a result of the way these three men approached law and order issues.
Although I had already voted against him twice, I initially opposed the recall of Gray Davis. My position was that there was absolutely no new information available about Davis when the recall petitions were circulated that was not known to any rational person of average intelligence during the 2002 election.
In fact, I felt that my Republican compadres were acting like emotional Al Gore Democrats by seeking to overturn a legitimate election result. As a result, I didn't sign the recall petition and planned to vote against it until Davis began shamelessly pandering to the looney far left fringes of his Democrat party base.
Being a Republican in Big Blue California means often voting for lost causes. I now wish my vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger had been one of those. From the instant he took office Arnold has demonstrated --- by both his words and actions ---that his views concerning public safety march in lockstep with those of the most radical Hate-America-First activists in our society.
There is no other way to explain his decision to demonize the prison officers who stand between the public and over 160,000 convicted felons doing time in state penitentiaries. There is no other way to explain the adoption of a "Parole Model" that treats drunk in public arrests of parolees with drunk driving convictions as trivial, or drug use by very violent felons as something that is best "treated" in the community.
Schwarzenegger has signed legislation making it legal for illegal drug users to purchase syringes in drug stores. He has removed legal prohibitions against giving food stamps to felons convicted of drug crimes. Arnold's Board of Prison Terms has paroled more convicted murderers serving "life" sentences in his short tenure than were released in the twenty years before he took office.
Finally, a governor who is proudly dismantling the forces of order as he changes the primary mission of the prison and parole service from one of protecting the public to one of rehabilitation of violent criminals in the community is out of step with the primary purpose of government in a free society.
Arnold won't get this conservative's vote next time. A careful reader will notice I haven't mentioned one "labor issue"
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