Empathy for Republicans??

Mickey Nardo has given me a somewhat different perspective on what I've been calling the Republican "clowns," who are so oppositional, so outrageous in their partisan claims, so wedded to a failed ideology, and so much fun to ridicule.

Mickey quoted his wife's saying never go to the grocery store when you're hungry. He explains:

I think even the republicans are starving. They've been suppressed for eight years too, so they're trying to throw off the yoke of servitude and become republicans again. From our point of view, they seem crazy. We see them as having caused our woes, along with their rich constituents. From our point of view, they were the biggest spenders in history, the most irresponsible legislators of all times. And maybe they were. But they were as suppressed as we were. Now they're getting back into their inner republican.

And that prompted me to a smidgen of empathy for them in their current plight, realizing that they've been shamed by Bush's failures and by having gone along with him to the detriment of their own reputations. Now they're going overboard in trying to restore any sense of honor and integrity to a political philosophy in tatters. But they need some better advice than the Rovian "kill the enemy" strategy. They could start by listening to the governor of California.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's inteview with George Stephanopolis this morning changed my view of him somewhat. Having just settled a huge budget crisis in California by decreasing spending and increasing taxes -- hammered out with a bipartisan legislature -- he was making a strong case for moving beyond the sectarian battles, as we're seeing in Washington.

Pushed by Stephanopolis as to why he remains a Republican despite his disagreement with the party on so many issues: the stimulus package, abortion, stem cell research, gay rights, etc. He replied that the only way to govern wisely is to "listen to the people." Polls in California indicated strong support both for reducing spending and for cutting taxes, so that's what they did. He says it doesn't matter whether you're Democrat or Republican, an elected official has to do what will work for the people.

He advocates reducing party power and partisan competition to the extent that he is now trying to get California to adopt non-partisan primary elections, like so many cities do with mayoral elections. Have an open primary; the general electon will then be a runoff between the top two vote-getters; and if they are of the same party, so be it. He believes this will allow a focus more on the issues and the benefit to the people, rather than saying what will appeal to your own party constituency in the primary and then having to move to the center in a general election.

I must say that, when he first entered politics, I thought Ah-nold was something of a joke, and I wondered how a member of the Kennedy clan could have married him. Now, I am much more impressed by him and his genuine embrace of non-partisan governing.

I still wonder why he remains a member of the Republican party though. He said it's because he still believes in Republican principles, which he didn't enumerate.

Ralph