Strangely, Hollywood tough guy actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to think that he still has a home in the Republican Party despite saying “screw your freedom” to Americans during the COVID-19 hysteria.
Schwarzenegger, of course, famously ran for the governorship in 2003 as a Republican and won the office on the tail of the recall and ouster of Democrat Gray Davis. But he did not exactly govern like a Republican and since he left office in 2011, his statements have been anything but center-right.
But now, in a new interview with the New York Times, “The Terminator” star says he still thinks the GOP would welcome him with open arms.
In the interview, Schwarzenegger blasted the left and the right equally for “dumping” on each other and then insisted, “To me it’s funny, because I’m somewhere in the middle.”
Yet, every issue he brought up during this interview placed him squarely among the left-wingers he finds so amusing.
He supports radical climate change, he is pro-abortion, for all the pandering to the gender and racial groups the left loves, and he has also been pro-vaccine and pro-mask-wearing. Indeed, he even compared the Trump administration to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party, according to People back in 2021.
Despite all this, he thinks he is perfectly welcome and “comfortable” in the GOP, saying, “Yes. There is a home for me in the Republican Party.”
He then went on to mischaracterize our representative republic and to espouse more-or-less a system of direct democracy where our leaders continually poll for the majority opinion to set policy.
Schwarzenegger scolded state representatives in the legislature saying, “you’re not supposed to represent only your district; you’re also supposed to represent the state and move the state forward and work with everyone in order to make life better.”
Would you welcome his greater participation in the GOP?
Yes: 7% (1 Votes)
No: 93% (14 Votes)
“So when they know that a majority of Californians want to have a cleaner environment, want to have renewable energy — for them to go the other way, it’s not serving the people,” Schwarzenegger continued.
“Do a poll, and you will find out that a majority of people in California want to have a clean environment. They want to get rid of fossil fuels. Then that’s what you do.”
This is not how our system was ever set up to work. Representatives are sent to state legislatures to represent the people of their district, not to represent the state as a whole.
They are also supposed to be guided by the law, and the state and federal constitutions. But they aren’t supposed to be directed by constant polling of the electorate.
Representatives are elected based on their ideology as it fits that of their districts. They then have a mandate of sorts to go forward on that basis.
Of course, they have to compromise at times to get things done, but our system is run as a representative democracy, not a direct democracy where the people are constantly voting on every single policy.
When the people feel said representative has strayed from their path, they vote him out and try again with someone else.
Even the left-wing Times reporter thought the polling idea was not really optimal, though he came at the idea in a typically shrill, left-wing fashion, saying, “But making decisions just based on polls is what makes politicians say that Jan. 6 was overblown or that Trump won the 2020 election.”
For his part, Schwarzenegger insisted that “If you put them on the lie detector” no elected official would end up truly believing that the election was stolen and that many just say that because they want to get re-elected.
Showing how little he’s actually thought out his “take a poll” and equal cooperation idea, Schwarzenegger brought up abortion as an example.
“It’s like, I would not get involved in an abortion, but I would never stop anyone from having an abortion,” Schwarzenegger said.
“I have my more conservative beliefs about things, but it doesn’t mean that I’m forcing that on anyone else. That’s not the way to do it. If a majority of people want to have the right to choose, then the only thing we really have to identify is, OK, when should be the cutoff?”
But that is just the problem. The extremists who support abortion don’t want any “cut offs” or any restrictions. They want it on demand at any time during the pregnancy all the way to birth. And some want to be able to kill their child even after birth if that is how they feel at the time.
Still, this is all a bit rich for Mr. “take a poll,” because this is the same guy who during the height of the pandemic hysteria said that Americans should get vacinated and wear a mask and went as far as saying “screw your freedom” to those who disagreed.
Back in 2021, Schwarzenegger was an enthusiastic supporter of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates and mask requirements. And went so far as to hint that he would eliminate our rights so government could enforce those mandates.
“There is a virus here. It kills people, and the only way we prevent it is to get vaccinated, to wear masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time and not just to think about, ‘Well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom,” Schwarzenegger said. “Because with freedom comes obligations and responsibilities.”
“We cannot just say, ‘I have the right to do X, Y and Z.’ When you affect other people, that is when it gets serious,” he stated.
Today we know that there is no science at all behind “social distancing” and mask-wearing, and even the evidence for the vaccines many Americans were talking — in some cases under duress — is spotty.
Arnold did offer a belated apology for saying “screw your freedom,” but many noted that he only offered that statement while trying to promote several events he then had upcoming. And even with this “apology,” he never did disavow the actual sentiment in his fascist desire to end our freedom over his vax and mask zealotry. All he said was that he should have “communicated better,” Fitness Volt reported.
In the end, this climate change-pushing, abortion-supporting, mask mandate-loving Hollywood actor thinks he has a very comfortable place in the Republican Party. One wonders what Republican Party he is talking about?
