- "The secret to the right's success in recent years
has been its ability to disguise the fact that it does little but serve
the interests of the financial elite."
-
- Apparently, watching Arnold Schwarzenegger as a robotic
killer in The Terminator not only entertained millions of people, but also
left them thinking: Now, why can't we have a governor like that?
-
- Those who figured that the image of a pre-programmed
killer might not be the perfect springboard for a political career are
clearly out of touch with today's America.
-
- Of course, that was only Schwarzenegger's make-believe
persona. In real life, he was a bodybuilder.
-
- If this doesn't reveal much about what he intends to
do as governor of California, his campaign was similarly uninformative.
Mostly it relied on populist rhetoric, promising that he'd be "the
people's governor."
-
- But it's hard to imagine anything populist about the
mega-millionaire Schwarzenegger, whose candidacy was championed by wealthy
Republicans, and whose vow not to raise taxes, despite an $8 billion deficit,
makes deep cuts to already-ravaged state programs almost inevitable -
cuts that will hurt ordinary people.
-
- Populism used to mean defending the interests of ordinary
people, championing the little guy.
-
- Now, new-styled right-wing populists like Schwarzenegger
and George W. Bush claim to be close to the people - not by defending
the interests of the people, but simply by being uninformed, slow-witted,
even inarticulate. ("Laura and I really don't realize how bright our
children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis," Bush told
Meet The Press in April, 2000.)
-
- In this spirit, pundits declared Bush the winner of the
2000 presidential debate even though he seemed out of his depth debating
the more articulate and well-informed Al Gore. The pundits didn't deny
Gore's superior command of the issues, but concluded that Bush's apparent
inadequacy showed he was more down to Earth, while Gore reminded people
of the smartest kid in their high school class, the one they used to resent.
-
- The notion that being smart and having a grasp of the
issues is a liability for the job of running the world's most powerful
country is, of course, interesting in itself.
-
- My guess is that the right isn't actually trying to declare
war on smartness. Rather, it's trying to distract attention from the fact
that there is nothing in its platform that actually benefits ordinary people,
who make up much of the electorate.
-
- But if Bush and Schwarzenegger can be presented as guys
you could have a beer with, no smarter than the rest of the class (maybe
even less smart than most), then perhaps they can be passed off as being
regular folks, friends of the little guy. This is no small achievement
since they, in fact, represent big monied interests and, as Bush shows,
can be counted on to deliver massive tax cuts for the rich.
-
- The secret to the right's success in recent years has
been its ability to disguise the fact that it does little but serve the
interests of the financial elite.
-
- It's been aided by frontmen who are simple talkers and
action heroes and who successfully keep the focus elsewhere, while the
rich help themselves to the nation's treasury. Last month, the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office released figures showing that the gap between
the rich and the poor in the U.S. is the largest in 70 years.
-
- Terminate that growing inequality? Probably not.
-
- Interestingly, the new right-wing populists, in addition
to being mental underachievers, also have significant character deficiencies
- something that would be considered more of a problem if the media paid
it more attention.
-
- But the media downplayed the importance of Bush's drunk
driving conviction - and his obvious attempt to conceal it - when it
came to light just before the presidential election. And the media haven't
been very interested in Bush's absence from his National Guard duty for
months at a time during the Vietnam War - an absence that some observers
believe constitutes the crime (punishable by death under American law)
of wartime desertion.
-
- Schwarzenegger, of course, is alleged to have committed
what amounts to a series of sexual assaults, including forcefully reaching
under women's clothing and grabbing their breasts and buttocks. (Imagine
if Monica Lewinsky had reported she'd been forced to go under the president's
desk.) Schwarzenegger fudges about the charges made by 16 unrelated women,
but generally admits to having been "rowdy."
-
- Then there's the report that he told an interviewer in
the 1970s he admired some aspects of Hitler. The governor-elect claims
he can't remember this, but insists he now detests Hitler. Glad that got
cleared up.
-
- In this era of right-wing populism, American politics
seems to have become a kind of equal opportunity employer - with the
backing of big money, anyone can get the top job. No brains or character
necessary.
-
- - Linda McQuaig is a Toronto-based author and political
commentator. She writes every Sunday.
-
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