Who's the Girly-Man Now?
By Robert Scheer, AlterNet. Posted November 11, 2005.
The lessons of Tuesday's election is that Lincoln was right -- the American people will not forever be fooled.
You have to love California. Yes, I'm buzzed by the stunning rejection of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's referendum revolution aimed at turning this blue state red. That the voters soundly defeated his proposals to punish the public sector unions and legislators who dared to cross the Terminator is a bellwether moment for the nation.
Schwarzenegger was defeated primarily by the hardworking public sector workers of the state: the teachers, firefighters and other civil servants who are sick and tired of being pitted by politicians against those they are so dedicated to serving. "We're the mighty, mighty nurses" the joyous healers chanted in a victory conga line the night they brought the bully down.
Frankly, I feared that what was left of Schwarzenegger's blustery charisma along with the endorsement of some of his proposals by all of the state's big newspapers and the Republicans' attempt to drag their base to the polls with an anti-abortion initiative would fool the voters. That it didn't, along with the rejection of Bush backed candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, trumpets a message of hope for the country.
Hope, because California is not some bohemian outpost divorced from mainstream American reality, despite the incessant repetition of that caricature. After all, this is the state that gave the nation Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and fell once again for the Republican big business populism of Schwarzenegger just two years ago.
More:
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/28140/