HAIGHT SPEECH

Today I’m reading this regarding Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante. The article isn’t really about them, but contains an interesting quote:

Schwarzenegger also responded to criticism from Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante that he is anti-immigrant, saying the fact he is Austrian-born makes him “the poster child for immigrants.”

“I don’t need to get a lesson from anyone else about immigration because I’ve been there,” he told the AP. “Whereas other candidates are maybe sons of immigrants, but I’m the true immigrant, OK? So let’s just make that clear.”

This illustrates one of the many things I hate about Bustamante, and one of the many things I like about Arnold.

Arnold is well-documented as being opposed to allowing illegal aliens to have benefits that are properly reserved to citizens and legal residents. This includes things like unemployment insurance and healthcare, fighting document forgery (i.e. Prop 187, which was approved by California voters and then scuttled by the court system and the direct intervention of Gray Davis), driver’s licenses (thanks to Gray Davis’ intention to sign “Driver’s Licenses for Illegals” SB 60 today), and accommodating non-English-speakers in government venues.

This, of course, somehow makes him anti-immigrant in the minds of people like Bustamante, La Raza, La Voz de Aztlan, and other activist groups. The charge is, obviously, stupid. Arnold was born in Austria and came to the United States in 1968, when he was 21 years old. He wasn’t fleeing from something. He was seeking opportunity in the world of professional bodybuilding, and the United States was the place to do that.

But Bustamante’s accusation brings up something that has been apparent to me for a while now, which is the tendency (and the deliberate attempt, I think), to make the world “immigrant” equal the word “Mexican”. Perhaps that was what Bustamante was really thinking, and Arnold was impolite enough to interpret the word “immigrant” correctly, rather than as Bustamante intended.

Possibly this is a California phenomenon — I don’t know. But the “immigrant” = “Mexican” equation is very prevalent, I think on a subconscious level in most cases. People who express opposition to various preferential treatment for illegal immigrants are labeled “racist”, even though immigrants can come from anywhere, and could indeed be Caucasian (duh).

The news article contains another interesting exchange:

Thursday, Davis attacked Schwarzenegger’s claim in a new TV ad that California spends $29 million more each day than it is taking in. State officials say that under the new budget, which includes heavy borrowing, the state is bringing in about $6 million more each day than it spends.

“The reality is that they play games with the numbers,” he said.

This is absolutely correct. One has only to see the phrase “includes heavy borrowing” to understand that this is not real income. Arnold has the temerity to state the obvious, and to call things what they are. He is blunt and plain-spoken, directing everyone’s attention to the Emperor’s lack of clothes.

Arnold’s interview in Oui magazine in 1977 has received some commentary lately, due to the inclusion of coarse language and a casual attitude toward sex and marijuana. I was able to read the entire article on Smoking Gun before it was apparently yanked (presumably because it is copyrighted material), and the thing that really leaps off the page is not the talk of sex and drugs, but the blinding, articulate intelligence of the man.

He’s smart, and considerably shrewder than he’s given credit for. People think he’s dumb because he’s musclebound, speaks with a strong accent, and is an actor. But the reality is that he’s sharp as a razor. Californians who have paid even a modest amount of attention to him over the years are aware of this. If you watch him live on a talk-show, or somesuch, he’s clearly a very bright man.

But the bigger picture is that I think Arnold is the right man for the job. Gray Davis and Bustamante talk about how they have “experience”. Yeah, and look what they’ve done to California. Davis has been in California politics so long that he’s got graft and favors coming out of his ass. Since 1972 he has served in such capacities as finance director for Tom Bradley mayoral campaign & mayor’s special assistant (1972-74); chief of staff for Governor Jerry Brown Jr. (1975-82); California Assembly member (1983-86); California controller (1987-94); California lieutenant governor under Pete Wilson (1995-98); California governor, 1999-present.

I don’t want that kind of “experience” in my government.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2003 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.