Last part of Sullivan's Sunday column on Arnold. First part was a rehash for the British.
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But now for the remarkable part. Schwarzenegger used his celebrity power to forge a new politics. That politics - the missing element in American life right now - is a blend of fiscal conservatism, social liberalism and foreign policy hawkishness. As governor, Arnold's foreign policy aspect is minimal. But here is a Republican who is pro-choice on abortion, environmentally-conscious, and comfortable with gay people his whole life. But he's also very tough on taxation and very skeptical of excessive government power. When he complained that Californians pay a tax each time they flush the toilet in the morning, he was tapping into deep conservative instincts. But in his transition team, announced last Thursday, he included the left-wing mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, and former Michael Dukakis campaign manager, Susan Estrich. He's also married to the Kennedys. This left-right combo plays directly to the new American center. It's far more potent than Howard Dean's bitter Michael-Moore routine. And it's far fresher than Dubya's Texan propriety.
Arnold's election is therefore a cultural as well as a political event. What Arnold 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. This color, this cultural sympathy, this comfort with pleasure and irony and laughter, was made even more dramatic in contrast with the dry, political paste represented by Governor Davis.
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 Republicans; to the professional political class (although Arnold will likely coopt and manipulate them to no end); to the stale interest-group coalition that is Clinton's Democratic party; 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 John Ashcroft and Gloria Steinem? Clinton didn't manage it. He is and was a sexually guilt-ridden Rhodes Scholar who desperately associated with Hollywood dreck in order to get some cool rubbed off on him. Hillary's even more frumpily puritan. McCain came close to being real and genuinely cool, but has nothing like Arnold's pop-cultural draw. In this universe, Arnold is a cultural revolution, combining an effortless feel for pop-culture with a tantalizing new blend of politics.
Will it pan out? I don't know. Cynics argue that Schwarzenegger's campaign vagueness was a sign of his complete lack of political competence. We'll see but I doubt it. This is a man who, as the comedian Bill Maher pointed out, has had two careers so far. In the first one, he became the most successful bodybuilder in the history of the sport, not only winning every prize, but transforming the sub-culture into what is now a ubiquitous presence in American pop-culture. It's no exaggeration to say he single-handedly helped change the shape and look of American men. In his second career - movies - Arnold became one of the biggest international stars around, recognized across the world, and raking in millions. To succeed so well in two very different genres bodes well for his next, more complex task. He now has a mandate as huge as his former torso. May he flex it well.
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