Cross-posted from “Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris: ‘I will always be an American before I am a Republican’” by @Powderhorn@beehaw.org in !politics@beehaw.org
“I will always be an American before I am a Republican,” he wrote. “That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I’m sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don’t recognise our country. And you are right to be furious.”
Let me be honest with you: I don’t like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren’t any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime.
Spoken like a true republican.
Democratic administrations are better with the economy than republican administrations in virtually every case for the last 75 years. Plus, don’t forget that Clinton not only balanced the budget during his term, he left office with a projected budget surplus that Gee Dubya threw away with his tax cuts for the rich and unfunded wars.
As for crime, crime rates have been steadily dropping for decades and continued to drop under the Biden administration. In fact, violent crime rates are near a 50-year low!
Spoken like a true republican.
I’ll take that over whatever MAGA is.
MAGA is fascism, full stop. That’s not just my opinion – if you can read this list with honesty and not conclude they’re fascists, you’re lying to yourself:
- Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
- Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
- Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
- Supremacy of the Military
- Rampant Sexism
- Controlled Mass Media
- Obsession with National Security
- Religion and Government are Intertwined
- Corporate Power is Protected
- Labor Power is Suppressed
- Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
- Obsession with Crime and Punishment
- Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
- Fraudulent Elections (or claims thereof)
It’s outright fascism. That is not hyperbole. And fascism is always a suicide cult. It destroys everything it touches, including itself.
7. Obsession with National Security
I think they’ve quietly dropped this one, since they don’t seem to mind Trump being owned by a Russian dictator, his son-in-law getting two billion dollars from the Saudis, or Trump stealing classified documents and casually leaving them lying around for foreign agents to help themselves to.
Once he’s back in office, though, this will be one of their main foci again. They’ll go all in on Patriot Act II, barring all foreign entry on the grounds of national security. They basically say that now, just with different words. No more asylum seekers, no more immigrants (which will crash the economy, and they’ll somehow blame that on immigrants, too).
They’ll still sell our land to the Chinese.
But they would nationalize that land in a few years. Great money maker. You can resell the land again too.
I remember Romney saying Russia is our primary adversary during his debate with Obama, and Obama laughing it off as old school.
Oh they let more than that drop. Remember just earlier where they said democrats/government engineered the hurricane, yet at the same time humans cannot affect the climate?
The man literally said he would start deporting millions on day one.
MAGA is just another level of republican. Like in dragonball, MAGA is nearly the final form, but the final form is fascism.
I forgot about the unironic “hide your power level” Chan shit.
Six million wasn’t enough for these people.
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I disagree, but only because I equate MAGA and facism. They look exactly the same to me, MAGA just hasn’t had the opportunity to exercise their fascist views in full.
Excerpts from a short piece, called “Back to the Wall,” by a famous writer; abridged:
The individual soul is under attack…
Ten years ago it may have been inconceivable that the great sweet “cassaba melon” as it was called of “American Century” prosperity was really a great psychic hoax a mirage of electronic mass-hypnosis…
The choice given - or CHOSEN? by us between an oldfashioned politician…, which is to say conservative, and an outright Authoritarian rightwinger? We never had a choice between middle and left, we were always stuck between middle and right. Finally it becomes too much to fight. But the stakes are too great to lose…
To live in a country which supposedly dominates the entire planet and to be responsible for the outrages of ones Own country! Woe to the Germans silent under Hitler woe to the Americans silent now.
Not a matter of Policy, rational discourse etc.
Things no longer merely out of proportion, things are UNREAL. Manipulating the unreal from centers of power - how can the soul endure?
Movie blather, news broadcast blather … social blather of a totally maladjusted tribe engaged in struggle to retain power-dominance and control over an entire planet (nay an entire solar system!)He also mentions a “synchronistic putch.” The writer is called Allen Ginsberg and this piece was published 1966.
Which is to say, the Overton window has been shifting for a long time and Nazism has never been truly defeated, only forced to hibernate. And certainly not just in the US. At least that’s my pessimistic conclusion at this point.
Religious extremism.
Spoken like a true republican.
That aside (I’m not arguing or disagreeing on that point): he is putting country over party which is something very, very few Republicans are capable of doing and even fewer are actually doing. On that alone, I can throw him some respect.
And he is speaking language that will make voting for Harris more palatable to at least some Republicans
This is the biggest thing. If he were to actually tell the full truth here, he’d be less successful in getting his message across to the people who listen to him. Full truth is the ultimate goal, but we’re so far from it that for half the country it’s an impossibly huge leap to go from where they are now to the truth in one bound.
This is a very good point. That line of my post above was a visceral reaction to the whole both-sides are the same argument he’s using, but as you say, whatever it takes to get people to feel okay about vote=ing for Harris is worth it.
He also stood up during the insurrection and was very vocal against it
You are absolutely correct here.
I didn’t see anyone claiming otherwise. Still, I would bet money that polarized/partisan voting is a much bigger issue with Republican voters.
He very specifically mentioned this to be a Republican trait. Also, this is about politicians, not voters.
Meh. I’d happily return to the ideological difference of the 90s / 2000s where maybe some facts don’t support beliefs. But we’re in a very different ballgame now.
And the fact that he’s endorsing Harris instead of just saying don’t vote for Trump is commendable. Many of my Republican friends that reject Trump can’t stomach voting for Harris. It’s apparently a very big bridge to cross for them.
tell them you’re sacrificing too by voting for her! make it a team effort.
Frankly it’s the kind of endorsement that is more helpful. If a moderate Republican retains the rhetoric but otherwise rejects Trump, well that might sway moderate Republican voters. If he declared the entire party was mistaken, well he loses those folks and only appeals to the folks that were already in the Harris column.
A republican saying that the Democrats are still bad, but Trump is uniquely worse and has lead the Republican leadership to lose its way, that might appeal to some people that thought to vote r no matter what, even if they had doubts about Trump.
At least he’s never put on a red hat, or in any way spoken in favor of the blond antichrist. That’s at least something.
This is one of those situations when you just nod and take the endorsement.
I’ll throw in with the other replies. Everything in this comment is political discourse from 2006. Disagreeing with the opposition’s policy and at most suggesting that they’re dishonest about it.
Right now we’re worried about the GOP and their figurehead bringing about one-party rule and loosing the military on their domestic opposition.
I’d want to wind the clock back too, even if it means having to eye roll at conservative rhetoric like this now and then.
he left office with a projected budget surplus
It wasn’t a projected surplus, it was an actual surplus for his final two years. I suppose you could say it was also a projected surplus, but Bush II and Dick “Reagan Proved Deficits Don’t Matter” Cheney took care of that right quick.
You’re right, but I think the point they were trying to make was that dubya inherited a surplus.
“Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!”
violent crime rates are near a 50-year low!
I
wonderfear how much this could change in the near-future. :(well if we start legalizing mushrooms and continue with lead free paint and environmentally perserving economies it might continue to drop! (mushrooms are a natural antidepressant people, get on the funky town ride)
I’m not familiar with all his policies, but he’s been good on gerrymandering which is my pet issue, and which I think is key to making progress on pretty much every other issue.
See that’s an immigrant who actually embraced the culture he moved to glares at elon
I would pay a lot of money to see Arnold beat up Elon in a cage match. Despite the age gap, it wont even be close.
Heh, I would’ve paid to watch Zuck beat his ass, but he chickened out of that one.
If there was some way to have gotten Elon to show up in Zulu gear trying to intimidate…
Didn’t his mommy tell him no or something?
He did some dumb god damn shit in California back in the day, and he’s doing the obviously right thing now that things are so different. We gather every partial win and stand together against the limpdicks.
Vote.
Noice. Call Arnold whatever you want, he’s no MAGA ass-kisser.
He’s an interesting character. I don’t agree with a lot of his ideas but they feel like they come from a genuinely altruistic place. The antithesis of maga.
Seriously, he’s another Republican I’d trust to actually want to do the right thing even if I disagree on how.
Interesting parallel to us in Massachusetts with Romney. A blue state electing a Republican governor and generally being happy with it. Also you wouldn’t expect much from an actor or vulture capitalist, but they deliver
When he says something its honest as opposed to the majority of republicans just project their intentions on their enemies. The important thing here is their idea anyone who doesn’t agree with them is a enemy.
I truly wish we had more politicians that behave in this manner. It should never boil down to my political party versus yours. There shouldn’t be any sides to governing this country.
Don’t you miss the days where presidentak candidates stood up for each other … When GOP McCain defended Obama against outlandish rumors he was a secret Muslim. Seems like those days are long gone.
That’s because none of the candidates were Russian assets.
In this election it’s almost as if all of them are Russian assets except one.
Except RFK, right? Right? Or maybe except Bernie?
I mean, OK, Kamala is not an asset, she’s an equal partner. Trump is an asset.
And “Russian” should be replaced with some international network of thieves and murderers.
You guys keep popping up.
Keep the shit talk coming, it just makes it easier to block you.
Thx for the advice
Like just a couple days ago when Sanders stood up for Harris about the Gaza situation?
I think people should behave in this manner and we would live in a better world.
Imagine if we banned parties. Made lobbying illegal and funded all of the campaigns for qualified members paid for by the government. Encouraging government figures to campaign less as it saves taxes for their constituates.
No way that government will have a majority to make this happen anytime soon. Interesting idea though.
If you want to hear a really dumb but interesting one. A while back I joked about a reality TV show where government figures participated and we got retired presidents/governors/advisors to go on and give situations/lectures where they collected how the participants would react in the situations, then reviewed what real life events it actually correlated to and what response(s) were actually taken, and discuss why they were good/bad ideas. Thus actually educating the up and coming members with real life scenarios and letting the public slowly learn more about the cause/effects of each members actions while also showing what decisions the members would want to take if ever elected.
Many would lie obviously as they would lean pro populous on the show, and end up still being pro corporations when elected though, so it wouldn’t end up being so good in practice.
…but it would be the first ever reality TV show I would want to watch. Also gives an opportunity for retired officials to make income post office so they don’t have to assume once out of office they have no hire-ability, making a bribe in office less life changing.
Imagine hiring a president or governor at your local anything… It can’t really happen.
If the country has to lose for your party to win, does it really count?
In one corner, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In the other corner, Hulk Hogan.
What year is it?
I figure the Schwarz could take hogan and gibson at the same time.
With a one-liner for each.
“hoe today gone tomorrow.”
“Here is ‘what women want’ ass-hole” [bazoooka launches]
And ask for seconds…
Wouldn’t need to, Dave Batista’s got his back
“Increased crime”? C’mon, isn’t crime down? Don’t fall for that old white man bogeyman, Arnold.
He still is republican.
It is his authentic belief which will help to persuade others to join him.
This is the type of republican endorsement Harris should be touting. His politics may be shit but at least he’s got broad popularity across the aisle , unlike Cheney and the five delusional people who still think his opinion is worth considering.
I actually think the opposite shows more.
“The orange idiot calls me a communist, but even these pieces of shit are voting for me over him.”
I think too many people are confusing am endorsement by a piece of shit and supporting that piece of shit, like Cheney’s endorsement somehow will mean Harris agrees with him.
All it means is a massive turd is saying “Don’t vote for the diaper full of massive fascsist turds”.
Let it sink in:
Angela Davis - an avowed Marxist-Leninist- and Dick-fucking-Cheney both agree Kamala is the way to go.
How the hell is this election even close?
(And we can add Liz Cheney to that. She and her dad are both neo-con warmongers.)
Edit: any one have a good punchline to “Dick Cheney and Angela Davis walk into a bar….”?
It boggles the mind. I can’t understand ~30% of the population apparently.
any one have a good punchline to “Dick Cheney and Angela Davis walk into a bar….”?
I don’t know who she is but maybe something to do with getting (a) shot?
Oh I’ve heard of her actually, thanks for the link.
How the hell is this election even close?
I understand the sentiment, but I think it’s obvious why this election is close. Harris fucking sucks as a candidate. Apart of whether or not people should vote for her, she’s a coward that refuses to take a stand (or even make promises) on literally anything while actively alienating two significant demographics in the swing states she needs to win and opting instead to get the five or so swing voters that exist in America to vote for her. If Trump was slightly more competent she’d have had no chance.
Could you provide anything to back up your claims?
I’m mostly making qualitative claims so I’m not sure what kind of evidence you’re asking for.
while actively alienating two significant demographics
Which demographics?
Muslims and young progressives (and young people in general, but mostly progressives).
I’m not American. Could you elaborate? Is this your personal experience as part of said demographic(s)? I understand if you don’t wish to disclose that. I’m just curious as this election will affect me nonetheless.
Not American either, but the stats are clear that these two particular demographics are not okay with the current situation.
Finally some decent from Arnold.
Dude has been silent afaik.
I knew what he’d say though. He’s made it clear through his actions what he wants.
He writes and speaks about how he’s still proud to be Republican.
He provides cover.
Yeah but it’s one thing to be a fiscally conservative Republican who believes with all of his heart that his hard work got him everything he has because he worked hard and just fails to see his luck. It’s another to be a cult of personality republican, Donald Trump worshipping fascist.
I guess it’s easier for me to relate to those folks because I came from their world. I (a dirt poor nobody exploited by my wealthy family since I was old enough to talk) have seen what these people believe. They aren’t bad people, they’ve just been very lucky and they don’t get it.
My millionaire uncle for example; If I were to call him right now and tell him I was desperate, he’d do whatever I asked. He’d want me to do some kind of work for it because that is virtue to him. He isn’t a bad guy, he just has a system of values that don’t align with mine. That’s fine. It’s all well and good.
There is a difference between lucky rich kid republicans and Christo-fascist Donald Trump worshipping republicans.
I forget who said it, but there was once a Republican who was concerned with preachers taking over the party. Well. That happened. The god they worship and preach on behalf of is Trump. Allah bless the ones who aren’t like that and are willing to go against beliefs they hold close to their hearts in opposition to fascism. Seriously.
I forget who said it, but there was once a Republican who was concerned with preachers taking over the party.
Barry Goldwater, back in the 80s, I believe.
But that’s also not Arnold - he’s publicly said that he arrived with like $20 in his pocket but he is not a self made man, he’s a community made man. He’s not a “bootstrap” believer, he’s very vocally against that mentality too.
He’s true old school Republican, where they have some misguided beliefs about national debt but aren’t absolute loons.
E: quick Google gives this https://youtu.be/DOldEbWxgdQ?si=uJ8_CsHzoUBHTbH4
Theres better vids of it, but still - Arnold has been pretty consistently a level headed guy politically, even if he’s not right all the time.
https://www.marketplace.org/2017/05/12/schwarzenegger-self-made-man-myth/
Arnold isn’t completely delusional on a social level, but he does believe in austerity politics. Pretty standard law and order neoliberal/con tbh.
A difference in what, how they were created? Who manipulated them and told them the lies that they believe?
There isn’t a single part of fiscal conservatism that is not based on a total lie. What they all share in common is that their unlimited gullibility is a threat to national security.
Sorry, I’ll see myself out.
arnold schwarze-WINNER
Just don’t type the before to that after
nice, good move.
Yeah screw your freedom and all that.
I’m genuinely confused by your comment. Would you be able to explain or clarify?
I’m more confused by why it’s the top comment with so many downvotes.
Its sorted by hot if you are seeing highly downvoted comments. Also its on top of hot because of ‘engagement’.
Maybe due to it being so heavily downvoted in such a short time span?
i mean, yes, we know the republicans are anti-freedom.
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he’s a little shit but I guess he has limits on how much fake bullshit he’s willing to sling.
