Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris: ‘I will always be an American before I am a Republican’
Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris: ‘I will always be an American before I am a Republican’
The former Republican governor said that he was backing the Democrat because a Trump victory would mean ‘four more years of bullshit’
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.”
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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!
Spoken like a true republican.
I'll take that over whatever MAGA is.
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.
Once he’s back in office, though, this will be one of their main foci again. They’ll go all in on Patriot Act II, barring all foreign entry on the grounds of national security. They basically say that now, just with different words. No more asylum seekers, no more immigrants (which will crash the economy, and they’ll somehow blame that on immigrants, too).
They'll still sell our land to the Chinese.
But they would nationalize that land in a few years. Great money maker. You can resell the land again too.
The man literally said he would start deporting millions on day one.
Oh they let more than that drop. Remember just earlier where they said democrats/government engineered the hurricane, yet at the same time humans cannot affect the climate?
MAGA is just another level of republican. Like in dragonball, MAGA is nearly the final form, but the final form is fascism.
I disagree, but only because I equate MAGA and facism. They look exactly the same to me, MAGA just hasn't had the opportunity to exercise their fascist views in full.
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.
Religious extremism.
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.
This is a very good point. That line of my post above was a visceral reaction to the whole both-sides are the same argument he's using, but as you say, whatever it takes to get people to feel okay about vote=ing for Harris is worth it.
He also stood up during the insurrection and was very vocal against it
You are absolutely correct here.
I didn't see anyone claiming otherwise. Still, I would bet money that polarized/partisan voting is a much bigger issue with Republican voters.
He very specifically mentioned this to be a Republican trait. Also, this is about politicians, not voters.
At least he's never put on a red hat, or in any way spoken in favor of the blond antichrist. That's at least something.
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.
This is one of those situations when you just nod and take the endorsement.
"Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!"
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.
You're right, but I think the point they were trying to make was that dubya inherited a surplus.
violent crime rates are near a 50-year low!
I
wonderfear how much this could change in the near-future. :(well if we start legalizing mushrooms and continue with lead free paint and environmentally perserving economies it might continue to drop! (mushrooms are a natural antidepressant people, get on the funky town ride)
I'm not familiar with all his policies, but he's been good on gerrymandering which is my pet issue, and which I think is key to making progress on pretty much every other issue.