Cross-posted from “Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris: ‘I will always be an American before I am a Republican’” by @Powderhorn@beehaw.org in !politics@beehaw.org
“I will always be an American before I am a Republican,” he wrote. “That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I’m sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don’t recognise our country. And you are right to be furious.”
Let me be honest with you: I don’t like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren’t any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime.
Spoken like a true republican.
Democratic administrations are better with the economy than republican administrations in virtually every case for the last 75 years. Plus, don’t forget that Clinton not only balanced the budget during his term, he left office with a projected budget surplus that Gee Dubya threw away with his tax cuts for the rich and unfunded wars.
As for crime, crime rates have been steadily dropping for decades and continued to drop under the Biden administration. In fact, violent crime rates are near a 50-year low!
MAGA is fascism, full stop. That’s not just my opinion – if you can read this list with honesty and not conclude they’re fascists, you’re lying to yourself:
- Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
- Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
- Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
- Supremacy of the Military
- Rampant Sexism
- Controlled Mass Media
- Obsession with National Security
- Religion and Government are Intertwined
- Corporate Power is Protected
- Labor Power is Suppressed
- Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
- Obsession with Crime and Punishment
- Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
- Fraudulent Elections (or claims thereof)
It’s outright fascism. That is not hyperbole. And fascism is always a suicide cult. It destroys everything it touches, including itself.
7. Obsession with National Security
I think they’ve quietly dropped this one, since they don’t seem to mind Trump being owned by a Russian dictator, his son-in-law getting two billion dollars from the Saudis, or Trump stealing classified documents and casually leaving them lying around for foreign agents to help themselves to.
MAGA is just another level of republican. Like in dragonball, MAGA is nearly the final form, but the final form is fascism.
Excerpts from a short piece, called “Back to the Wall,” by a famous writer; abridged:
The individual soul is under attack…
Ten years ago it may have been inconceivable that the great sweet “cassaba melon” as it was called of “American Century” prosperity was really a great psychic hoax a mirage of electronic mass-hypnosis…
The choice given - or CHOSEN? by us between an oldfashioned politician…, which is to say conservative, and an outright Authoritarian rightwinger? We never had a choice between middle and left, we were always stuck between middle and right. Finally it becomes too much to fight. But the stakes are too great to lose…
To live in a country which supposedly dominates the entire planet and to be responsible for the outrages of ones Own country! Woe to the Germans silent under Hitler woe to the Americans silent now.
Not a matter of Policy, rational discourse etc.
Things no longer merely out of proportion, things are UNREAL. Manipulating the unreal from centers of power - how can the soul endure?
Movie blather, news broadcast blather … social blather of a totally maladjusted tribe engaged in struggle to retain power-dominance and control over an entire planet (nay an entire solar system!)
He also mentions a “synchronistic putch.” The writer is called Allen Ginsberg and this piece was published 1966.
Which is to say, the Overton window has been shifting for a long time and Nazism has never been truly defeated, only forced to hibernate. And certainly not just in the US. At least that’s my pessimistic conclusion at this point.
Spoken like a true republican.
That aside (I’m not arguing or disagreeing on that point): he is putting country over party which is something very, very few Republicans are capable of doing and even fewer are actually doing. On that alone, I can throw him some respect.
And he is speaking language that will make voting for Harris more palatable to at least some Republicans
This is the biggest thing. If he were to actually tell the full truth here, he’d be less successful in getting his message across to the people who listen to him. Full truth is the ultimate goal, but we’re so far from it that for half the country it’s an impossibly huge leap to go from where they are now to the truth in one bound.
I didn’t see anyone claiming otherwise. Still, I would bet money that polarized/partisan voting is a much bigger issue with Republican voters.
Meh. I’d happily return to the ideological difference of the 90s / 2000s where maybe some facts don’t support beliefs. But we’re in a very different ballgame now.
And the fact that he’s endorsing Harris instead of just saying don’t vote for Trump is commendable. Many of my Republican friends that reject Trump can’t stomach voting for Harris. It’s apparently a very big bridge to cross for them.
Frankly it’s the kind of endorsement that is more helpful. If a moderate Republican retains the rhetoric but otherwise rejects Trump, well that might sway moderate Republican voters. If he declared the entire party was mistaken, well he loses those folks and only appeals to the folks that were already in the Harris column.
A republican saying that the Democrats are still bad, but Trump is uniquely worse and has lead the Republican leadership to lose its way, that might appeal to some people that thought to vote r no matter what, even if they had doubts about Trump.
I’ll throw in with the other replies. Everything in this comment is political discourse from 2006. Disagreeing with the opposition’s policy and at most suggesting that they’re dishonest about it.
Right now we’re worried about the GOP and their figurehead bringing about one-party rule and loosing the military on their domestic opposition.
I’d want to wind the clock back too, even if it means having to eye roll at conservative rhetoric like this now and then.
he left office with a projected budget surplus
It wasn’t a projected surplus, it was an actual surplus for his final two years. I suppose you could say it was also a projected surplus, but Bush II and Dick “Reagan Proved Deficits Don’t Matter” Cheney took care of that right quick.
violent crime rates are near a 50-year low!
I wonder fear how much this could change in the near-future. :(
See that’s an immigrant who actually embraced the culture he moved to glares at elon
I would pay a lot of money to see Arnold beat up Elon in a cage match. Despite the age gap, it wont even be close.
Heh, I would’ve paid to watch Zuck beat his ass, but he chickened out of that one.
I truly wish we had more politicians that behave in this manner. It should never boil down to my political party versus yours. There shouldn’t be any sides to governing this country.
Don’t you miss the days where presidentak candidates stood up for each other … When GOP McCain defended Obama against outlandish rumors he was a secret Muslim. Seems like those days are long gone.
That’s because none of the candidates were Russian assets.
In this election it’s almost as if all of them are Russian assets except one.
Except RFK, right? Right? Or maybe except Bernie?
I mean, OK, Kamala is not an asset, she’s an equal partner. Trump is an asset.
And “Russian” should be replaced with some international network of thieves and murderers.
I think people should behave in this manner and we would live in a better world.
Imagine if we banned parties. Made lobbying illegal and funded all of the campaigns for qualified members paid for by the government. Encouraging government figures to campaign less as it saves taxes for their constituates.
No way that government will have a majority to make this happen anytime soon. Interesting idea though.
He did some dumb god damn shit in California back in the day, and he’s doing the obviously right thing now that things are so different. We gather every partial win and stand together against the limpdicks.
Vote.
Noice. Call Arnold whatever you want, he’s no MAGA ass-kisser.
He’s an interesting character. I don’t agree with a lot of his ideas but they feel like they come from a genuinely altruistic place. The antithesis of maga.
Seriously, he’s another Republican I’d trust to actually want to do the right thing even if I disagree on how.
Interesting parallel to us in Massachusetts with Romney. A blue state electing a Republican governor and generally being happy with it. Also you wouldn’t expect much from an actor or vulture capitalist, but they deliver
