The Triumph of "Truth, Justice and the American Way." That's the way to look at tomorrow's Election. Or, if you prefer, "The Rebels beat the Evil Empire in Sacramento." :>)
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ANDREW SULLIVAN:
LEFT, RIGHT, ARNOLD: Why is it that both the left and the right have it in for Arnold Schwarzenegger? (I'm not referring to the last-minute dirt-dump by the L.A. Times/Gray Davis/CodePink brigades. The alleged behavior strikes me as boorish, gross and wrong. But that's not unknown in the heterosexual lifestyle, no one has sued, no one was actually screwed, he has apologized, and I'm a tolerant, inclusive kind of guy.) AS's candidacy, however, is far more than a classic political event. It's a cultural event. What he represents is best displayed, to my mind, in the classic movie, "Pumping Iron." That movie is about cunning, wit and irony - as incarnated in the larger-than-life figure of an Austrian super-star who is more American than millions of native-borns. But it is also about the 1970s - an era of sexual freedom, bravado, excess and pleasure, especially pleasure. Arnold is far, far more in touch with that ethos - and with the culture of the generations that came after it and have been permanently altered by it - than most contemporary politicians. Check out this account of an AS rally by Weintraub:
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays guitar while Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider sings the campaign anthem, "We're not gonna take it." The rally at the state Capitol drew about 10,000 supporters and was a rainbow of ages, races and social status. No wonder the Democrats fear Schwarzenegger.
And no wonder some uptight Republicans do as well.
CULTURE VERSUS POLITICS: This color, this cultural sympathy, this comfort with pleasure and irony and laughter, is made even more dramatic in contrast with the dry, political paste represented by Governor Davis - a spectacularly bland and corrupt hack who seems to come from some political factory. That Arnold should represent this and the Republican Party is threatening to all sorts of people: to the joyless, paranoid scolds who run the Dixie-fied GOP; to the professional political class (although AS will likely coopt and manipulate them to no end); and to the new left that likes to believe it has a monopoly on politicians who aren't horrified by sex, drugs and rock and roll. There's no one else in today's Republican or Democratic parties who comes close to this. Who else could enrage both Rick Santorum and Katha Pollitt? Clinton is and was a schlubby, sexually guilt-ridden Rhodes Scholar who desperately associates with Hollywood dreck in order to get some smidgen of cool rubbed off on him. Hillary's even more frumpily puritan. Dubya is relaxed but in a post-recovery, Bible-class kind of way. McCain came close to being real and genuinely cool, but has nothing like Arnold's pop-cultural draw. In this universe - where your options are drones like Kerry or Lieberman - Arnold is a cultural revolution. I don't know whether he's going to be a decent governor but he's said a few of the right things and it's hard to think of anyone being worse than Davis. What I do know is that his election would do an enormous amount to ameliorate the disconnect between culture and politics in this country. His election would be a sign of a tectonic plate shifting in the culture. About time. I hope he wins - not least to warm up the frigid soul of the Republican party.
andrewsullivan.com |
