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Learning to Love the Governator

8/23/06, 12:33 pm EST

Who is the most effective progressive politician in America? I’ve got news for you, he’s not a Democrat.

Who else can trump this record:

  • Negotiated an informal climate accord with Great Britian — after comparing those who doubt global warming to members of the flat-earth society — committing the world’s 12th largest greenhouse polluter to Kyoto-like cuts by 2010, all while echoing Al Gore: “You can build a great economy and you can take care of the environment at the same time.
  • Signed a landmark bill to put solar panels on one-million roof tops statewide, forcing utilities to buy back excess power, and mandating that developers offer solar on all new homes by 2011.
  • Worked accross the aisle to negotiate a hike in the state’s minimum wage to a highest-in-the-nation $8 an hour.

And that’s just the last month. From a politician who brought the state back from the brink of bankruptcy, is now overseeing the strongest economic expansion since the dot-com boom, and has taken the lead in the push to rebuild the state’s levies and other degraded infrastructure. Oh yeah, and a commander-in-chief who told Bush to shove it when asked to deploy even more National Guard troops to the border to shore up the president’s support with his xenophobic base.

Ladies and gentlemen: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a true progressive.

Well, at least until he breaks Phil Angelides‘ pencil neck in November.


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Comments

Jubal | 8/23/2006, 2:04 pm EST

Oh I guess being a sexist anti-Semite isn’t so bad, as long as they agree with you politically?

Thanks for revealing your movement’s utter lack of scruples.

EyeRoller | 8/23/2006, 3:23 pm EST

And, he’s also been progressive enough to use the lamest excuse ever–”it’s for the courts to decide”–to justify his veto of LGBT civil unions!

Hallzee | 8/23/2006, 4:42 pm EST

As a conservitive stuck on the Left Coast I can tell you that Arnold is doing a great job out here in CA.

He has worked with the Leftist Government in CA which if they had their way Grey Davis would still be in office and this state would be in financial ruins with me and everyone else out of work. Fortunatly, that is not the case.

In order to survive out here in this melting pot / fruit bowl it is impossible to make everyone happy, including Boxer and Fienstien. So you have to do what Arnold is doing and that is reaching across the isle at the risk of being called a progressive.

Angelides is Dead Man Walking.

C Co... aka I Smell Propaganda | 8/23/2006, 5:27 pm EST

I don’t get what you want liberals. If Arnold had a “D” next to his name on TV, I think you’d like him more than almost anyone.

See what a Moderate can do under the right circumstances? This is how we need to approach the future of our country.

Arnold in 2016! (Give it a few years for speech theraphy, a Constitutional amendment, getting back into shape, etc.)

Joe | 8/23/2006, 5:40 pm EST

Sexist, maybe. Anti-Semite, FAR from it. Major funder and proponent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Also, the future model of political leader. A vigorous moderate.

Dan | 8/23/2006, 6:37 pm EST

Rolling Stone’s political coverage is creepy.

The Sun | 8/24/2006, 5:18 am EST

I disagree with this.

When Arnold firs took office, he laxed all sorts of environmental policies on chemical disposal and completely undid all of Davis’s educational spending (most notably The Governer’s Scholarship). I especially like the increase in tuition costs to attend a University of California. If it is the best public university system, then it should be monetarily well-fed – econimic crisis or not.

FromaFar | 8/24/2006, 8:17 am EST

Sending troops to the Mexican border in the first place shows his willingness to go along with Bush’s proposals. Lest we forget Arnold’s meetings with Ken Lay about energy policy that conveniently took place before the recall election storm began brewing. Lastly, is this the same progressive who spoke of admiration for Richard Nixon at his RNC 2004 address? No doubt his wife is a great help in setting a tone on progressive issues, but the larger context needs to be considered before he is deemed a progressive. R.S.’s post was only put up to try to prove that Democrats are lazy/not working to earn it. Are you sure?

Lost in Hollywood | 8/24/2006, 4:09 pm EST

Progressive? Are you kidding me? If you call laxed imigration reform and contracting the living wage state jobs oversees, progressive, then you are right. Progressively dumping the economic hard working middle class infrastructure in the toilet. What about the vast polution in his own state? Hello, L.A, aka Smogville, U.S.A. Keep on dumping you $4 a gallon gasoline into your F350 people. Don’t forget to write it off! The Governator doesn’t know shit about the hard working americans that founded this country.

andy | 8/25/2006, 8:18 am EST

Dan,

If by “creepy”, you mean mindless, paranoid, devoid of facts, and utterly bigoted towards anyone with a different point of view, you are correct.

Tim Dickinson is pathetic.

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