The Everlasting Drama Of Democracy In This Republic.

Eric Renderking Fisk | October 15th, 2003

Talk about a Roller-Coaster Ride...

As a result of all those years of seeing the Saturday Night Live routine with “Hans and Franz” I can almost hear Mr. Schwarzenegger now… standing on the stage trying to work up the crowd during his gubernatorial inauguration: "Listen to me now, think about it later and remember it always... I am here to pump - [claps hands] YOU UP, CALIFORNIA!"

No doubt, I’m glad Mr. Schwarzenegger won. And as I speculated in the rant earlier that touched on this subject before, the Governor of Wyoming is probably calling Jackson Hole’s most famous resident and asking: “Hey, buddy… am I doing ok, I’m doing alright, right? We’re good?”

I’m also glad Grey Davis lost and was humiliated. Davis under-reported his states problems and ignored the wishes of the people during his last campaign. Any politician who misrepresents the people’s needs, the condition of the economy and state affairs to the constituency need to be taken out of office, regardless of the party.

I am getting to the point where I’m just getting sick and tired of ALL career politicians on both sides. I don’t care if you’re with the elephant or the donkey. Many of the career politicians need to experience the gut sinking feeling of getting a pink-slip… starting with the Harvard drop-out turned “Submarine Captain” turned Senator- Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts. If anything here is true, I’m becoming more anti- incumbent.

I hope this recall election is a foreshadowing of the things to come.

Yet if I were a voter in California I would have liked to have known more about Arnold’s view on the issues and how he would vote on many controversial subjects that plague states such as California. Being a non-career politician is a good start, but what’s his plan? What is he going to do to unite both parties and get this job done? What is Mr. Schwarzenegger going to do about the illegal immigrants pouring into his state while they are slapping the faces of those who entered this country the legal way? California, especially the San Francisco bay area where I used to live a few years ago, has a national and global reputation of run-away social programs such as cash for bums, needle-exchange programs and such… Schwarzenegger has to address these types of issues.

Regardless of the answers to these questions you have admit… he has a great work ethic. Imagine this guy comes to this country and had nothing. Built a life for himself, got involved in the community, ran for Governor AND WON. It’s an amazing story… it’s going to make for a great movie.

Again, I hope this sends a correct message to career politicians.

New Era?

The real winners were the voters and the people of California. The real losers were the trash-talking leftists and media juggernauts who under-estimated Mr. Schwarzenegger and the voters. I truly believe people turned out in record numbers to take their state back and send a message to the rest of the country. I hope the era of elitist bureaucrats is finally over for BOTH sides.

I don’t care what these nitwits think, I don’t care what they feel, I don’t want to hear them emote about partisan politics. I want to know how they are going to vote on ISSUES and how they are going to preserve the Constitution instead of treating it like an obstacle. These circuses called debates are of no help… the juggling monkeys and clowns who call themselves candidates have been throwing out one-liners as if they’re pitching ideas for bumper stickers at an ad agency. We don’t care about what they think about each other, we want to know what they are going to do. Fixing and performing is not about feelings. It is about doing and accomplishing.

The Democrats need to wake up. They have to come back to the center. The Democrats represent the “common-working class” people as much as I represent South American cat jugglers. What happened to the party of the Roosevelt’s, Harry Truman and Jack Kennedy? They wouldn’t recognize their party if they were alive today. It is now a party that belongs to the radical progressives out to force change in the American landscape with one un-elected federal judge’s ruling at a time.

This crop of Democrats need to learn to do less social engineering… more representation of the people while Republicans need to prove they are not out for just big business. If neither party straighten out… a third party may be a better answer. 

The Vilification of “The Other Side”

A lot of the media blitz against Arnold these past few weeks and of the current president for the past few years has been demeaning. There is a lot of talk of these men being unqualified and too stupid. It is the kind of error that can only come back and bite someone in the fanny, underestimating your opponent. It’s all so unfair and wrong.

In elementary school, I had my head handed to me when I was making jokes about Jimmy Carter being a retard. Sure, he might be a southern hick with a thick accent and he made a mess of the embassy hostage situation in Iran back in 1979, but have I ever been a Naval Commander? Have I or could I ever win a seat in the Senate or the Congress? Will I or could I ever be elected to be President of The United States? Am I able to read and retain a novel length set of documents and retain what I’ve read through to the next day or for as long as I need that information – Jimmy Carter was known for reading and retaining a lot of information and didn’t hit the hay at the end of the night with out reading a few hundred pages. Carter was far from being a dolt or an idiot. The same can be said of our current President, regardless of whether or not you agree with his politics.

My hubris is the same of the other pundits of today… just because someone doesn’t agree with your political slant doesn’t mean they are stupid. Because they pronounce words differently does not make them retarded or ignorant. Accents and pronunciation does not dictate or indicate intelligence. Anyone of you who have an MBA from Harvard or has flown fighter jets for the National Guard as George W. Bush has is free to e-mail me and challenge me on my position.

This segment of my rant was brought on by a comment on one of the forums I contribute to when someone mentioned that our current President may be a fan of the Indiana Jones series. If you’re one of those people who say, “Oh, I hope that George W. Bush isn’t an Indy fan”, I have rotten news for you.

Republican’s like good movies and good music just as much as you do. Conservatives are real people too. Like a lot of you leftists, I like to drink, I like to smoke cigars and I like to party just as much as you do. I love nature, I love to hike and I recycle… and I’ve PLANTED more trees this year then any or all of you will do in a lifetime. Conservatives have feelings just as you do.

Because someone doesn’t hold your exact ideology doesn’t invalidate his or her standing as a human being. I don’t wish any non-believers that I encounter on these forums dead because they are atheists. I don’t skip posts just because an agnostic doesn’t believe in the same things I do. Everyone has a different point of view and it would be a shame to ignore it. For a group of people who say they stand for diversity and inclusion, some liberals sound like the most prejudiced bigots I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.

Having common interests such as movies and music is what keeps a lot of us from killing each other. It may be contradictory to say this in a web-site that celebrates rugged individualism, but I’m ashamed to say we’re too busy putting labels on each other as we’re over-looking the issues that really count. We’re too willing to define ourselves and stick with like-minded individuals that we’re losing opportunities to have honest debates on real solutions. It’s such an easy cop-out to say “the world would be a better place if everyone just thought and acted the way I do”, yet it’s easier to find ways to fix the problems then trying to change the way people think and feel about ideology.

Every living human being shares the same issues and concerns and agrees 90% of the time on how problems should be solved yet we insist on dividing ourselves over the final 10%. Politicians thrive like parasites on this type of partisan division and in this man’s option- one more of their kind being out of a job is a good start...