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The American ElectionsDate: 10.11.2006
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United Kingdom
2 years ago, when George W Bush managed to win a presidential election by actually getting more votes than his opponent, he declared that he had earned political capital, which he intended to spend. He has obviously not spent it wisely, for as I write this on Wednesday evening his party has lost control of the House of Representatives, looks like losing the Senate, and he’s seen the back of his Defence Secretary.
Perhaps this should not be too much of a surprise. This is, after all, the President who had a man as wise as Colin Powell in his cabinet, but preferred to heed a man as dim as Donald Rumsfeld (who believed he could downsize the army whilst invading 2 countries). He’s a so-called conservative who failed to veto any number of extravagant spending bills. American conservatives are supposed to believe in small government and the rights of the states, yet Dubya thinks the US Constitution should be amended to stop the states acting as they see fit on gay marriage. He knows, at least one hopes that he knows, that one of the major problems with the Roe v Wade Supreme Court case (which declared abortion a constitutional right) is that it disenfranchised those who oppose abortion, taking away their chance to get what they want even if they win elections, and yet he wants to do exactly the same to gay people. He’s a so-called pro-lifer, whose attitude towards capital punishment makes one think that he believes that life ends at birth.
Although I consider myself to be politically right of centre, I have little sympathy for Dubya. I suspect that this may be because he is not, in fact, right wing at all - he is simply a socially conservative left-winger. He believes that it is legitimate for the US government to seek to promote certain values. If limited to values such as “democracy” or “rule of law”, this would be unobjectionable. But he goes beyond these (as well as arguably undermining them). His values do not include, for example, making sure that all Americans have access to decent healthcare. They do not include a belief that people know best how to live their own personal lives, and that the government should not interfere in this. They do not include a belief that those who have put their lives on the line for their country are entitled to respect from those who have not (at least when running for election).
Some time ago Radio 5 made an excellent profile of him, the real George Bush. One person described him as (forgive me if I don’t get the exact words, but the gist is there) uninformed, lacking in curiosity, having difficulty with higher reasoning, but with the low cunning of a professional poker player. The same interviewee compared him favourably to Dan Quayle, “a genuinely stupid man”. Perhaps the surprising thing about a man of whom the best that you can say is that he’s smarter than Dan Quayle is not that he should have led his party to failure in this election, but that he should have won any in the first place.
On a bad day for the Republican party, there was one bright spot. It came in the success of one of the World’s most remarkable, and admirable, individuals. Arnold Schwarzenegger won a second term as Governor of (not notably conservative) California. Arnold (I´ll use his first name to save characters) is often sneered at in Europe, I think unfairly. He’s a man who has achieved in 4 separate fields more distinction than most ever manage in one. In sport, in business, in entertainment and in politics, he has triumphed.
Arnold´s first success was in bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is very much a minority sport, with rival governing bodies and subjective judging. Yet the demands it makes of competitors, the athleticism of men like Arnold, should not be denied. He won bodybuilding’s top title, the Mr Olympia 7 times. For all that 2 of his wins were highly controversial and one was unopposed, for all that 2 athletes have won it more times since then and that Arnold at his peak would look small to modern bodybuilders, Arnold is still the only bodybuilder well known beyond the sport. If he walked down the street with Lee Haney, who is widely regarded to have shown the best physique ever at a Mr Olympia in 1986, people would still ask who the other guy was.
A considerable part of Arnold’s popularity must be down to Charles Gaines and George Butler. In their book about bodybuilding, pumping iron, these cultured and sophisticated men drew a line from the statues of antiquity to bodybuilders of Arnold’s time, seeing beyond the tacky adverts so often associated with the sport. In the film of the same name (the French title was Arnold le magnifique), Arnold, who at the time was king of his sport but unknown to the wider World, manages to be both supremely arrogant and immensely charming as he easily wins his 6th Mr Olympia.
Parents worried about a son spending too much time in the gym should use Arnold as a role model. He saw beyond the gym and the next context, saving and investing wisely enough to become a self-made millionaire by the age of 30, (despite bodybuilding prizes being tiny).
Some people belittle Arnold’s films. I must admit that Commando isn’t as good as it seemed 20 years ago, but Terminator is a classic and films like Predator and Running Man are excellent entertainment. Arnold may not be the greatest actor, but his movies have given immense enjoyment to millions of people around the World. That’s not a bad achievement.
In politics, Arnold has won 2 elections is a huge state, whose electorate would not be thought predisposed to vote Republican. California is a difficult state to govern, but to win the recall election in 2003 and do a good enough job to win again this year despite a big swing away from his party shows that he must be doing something right.
Whatever conclusions one draws from the congressional elections, the California gubernatorial is yet more evidence of the remarkable nature of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps other Republicans should look at him, perhaps at the centrist approach he’s taken to politics in office or his concern for the environment (in contrast to the President’s reckless attitude towards it) and learn some lessons. After all, politics is a competitive sport, and Arnold is certainly a winner.
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