MedEwok wrote:
Either way, the past five years in global politics (and American politics in particular) have really been surreal…
I don’t know, I have seen much more “surreal” politics than Trump has ever managed to produce, and I’m not that old 
But that shaman character is something else entirely
And there I was thinking how restrained everybody had been.
Nancy Pelosi might want to consider changing her last name to Romanov to stay in character.
As I mentioned long ago in this thread, remove the basic Constitutional freedoms of a free people by ‘order’ (no legal process) for 9 months without end is sight and the results are not hard to predict. The BLM stuff is just another example of the same thing, different people, same basic root cause. Those responsible in the US are actually mostly in state government, not Federal Government, but the objects of the reaction will be anybody with political power. I think there was a tremendous hope that when Trump won a second term he would stop it. That and somehow fix the US press – which is truly surreal, with almost no connection to reality, an agenda to control not report, and a very strong distaste for freedom of speech.
It’d be really nice if the next 2-4 years in US politics would be characterized by an understanding that the government takeover of our lives has gone way, way too far and and that by continuing it, the results will be negative on several different levels. The only positive so far is that it hasn’t gone far enough to affect the economy to a degree that would make the markets react, and the middle class lose their retirement savings.
From the Terminator, actually met him once when he was skiing with his son in BC – unfortunately didn’t have my museum grade 2.05m Fischer RC4s to make him feel patriotic – nice guy.
Interesting video in that Schwarzenegger himself attempted, failing completely and miserably (sad to say), to break down the power of the divisive California political elites – Pelosi and company very much among them in his era, to the extent that the current California governor is a family member. This was during the period in which California voters typically installed a Republican governor like him in an attempt to tame the beast. In his political career he was actually very similar to Trump, although with a more congenial personality. He was the last California governor who attempted to do a job that really needed doing, to prevent the ongoing flight of the productive middle class to greener pastures like Texas etc, currently led by Elon Musk, leaving California to evolve into the US version of the French Riviera.
In what way specifically were Schwarznegger and Trump’s political agendas similar?
I have heard Schwarznegger talk a lot about California’s budgetary problems and how he tried to put them right, but was under the impression that Trump is more of a ‘to hell with the deficit’ kind of guy.
The ‘drain the swamp’ agenda. Schwarzenegger put forth eight ballot initiatives that were intended to fix the dysfunctional California political system and remove power from entrenched interests, the teacher union and its allies being one. Just like Trump, and backed by a similar voter group. You are completely correct that some of the initiatives were fiscally conservative, and that Trump has not been fiscally conservative, but the strong handed, direct to the people approach to breaking up the political elite was very similar, as was the backlash from those who are offended by the tone of it, or in the crosshairs. Quoting from Wiki, and I remember it well: “The tenor was highly divisive, with Schwarzenegger calling his opponents “stooges” and at one point Warren Beatty leading a bus full of public employees to follow the governor and shout down his events”.
In the end, all Schwarzenegger’s sensible initiatives failed and that was the end of political reform in California, which is a still an inbred political cesspool 15 years later, and the source for both Pelosi (who is a moron, listening to her makes that clear in seconds) and the incoming Federal VP.
Michael Lewis once wrote up an interesting interview with Schwarzenegger and in that, he came over as a thoughtful guy whom I would have considered voting for. I’m afraid I really don’t see many parallels with Trump. Trump wants to own the swamp, not to drain it..
Schwarzenegger was excellent, and also an European immigrant like me with similar views as a result, but he was not touchy feely enough for the voters. In the end he was completely defeated by the bureaucrats who want to own all of us. I think overall Trump has been more successful based on the facts, particularly in foreign policy in the middle east and with China and also (notwithstanding that he’s only a talking head politician) in pushing for a CV-19 vaccine by the end of 2020, which was achieved in spite of virtually everybody (Fauci included) saying it was impossible and that he was ‘irresponsible and dangerous’ for even suggesting it.
The Democrats are scared to death of him, they know 50% of the public voted for him when every current event and the media was totally against him… and that’s why they’re trying to burn him at the stake, destroy him for all time. Meanwhile I’m watching for Trump to get a cable TV show or something similar, and if he does the blowback is going to be entertaining. But no, I don’t like his personality either and probably wouldn’t watch it – politics are anyway not a very productive use of my attention, and 90% a waste of time for everybody who isn’t on the government payroll.
Silvaire wrote:
In the end, all Schwarzenegger’s sensible initiatives failed
It’s hard when people vote wrong, isn’t it?
