During the 2006 election, Arnold Schwarzenegger was all over the place on immigration. First he said he wanted to close the border and that he supported the Minutemen's vigilante justice along the border. Then he decided that perhaps he shouldn’t piss off the entirety of the Latino electorate and softened his views to an incomprehensible mish-mash.
But Arnold is cool with the flip-flop. He’s even said so on national teevee, something you have to give him credit for. It’s not every politician who would do that. (By the way, I was an electrical engineer in undergrad…hope you enjoy the flip-flop circuit as much as I do.) While you might not want to count on his consistency on the issues, at least this time he’s flip-flopping in the right way.
“Yes, it is something that ought to be dealt with, but the fact of the matter is, I think it’s an easy scapegoat for people to point the finger and say, ‘Our budget is out of whack because of illegal immigrants.’ ”
“It’s not. … Our budget is out of whack because we have self-inflicted wounds that the Legislature and this state has never really sat down and had the will to go and make the necessary changes that have to be made. … You know something, as far as I’m concerned, I’m happy that they can get the services,” he said Friday. “Because I would like to have the services if I’m somewhere in another country … if I have an accident with a motorcycle and I go to an emergency room, I don’t want someone to say, is he here legally?”
Schwarzenegger also highlighted the economic contributions of illegal immigrants.(SacBee 6/6/09)
It is hard to imagine a functioning California without immigrants. I truly could not imagine how many of our industries would function at all.
You can catch a lot more from the SacBee’s interview from the governor, including video at the SacBee. Of course in the rest of the interview he goes after a whole slew of progressive causes, state workers, the safety net, and you know, a functioning California.
At the 4 Minute mark of the second of three videos, he gets the question of what the special election means. His answer: anecdotes (excuse the paraphrasing, but it’s generally pretty accurate to his words):
The number of people who came up to me and that’s what they say. And obviously I would have loved if the special election measures would have passed. But before the election and after the election, people came up to me when I go shopping at the supermarket. I go to the beach and I ride my bike, and I go on walks with my wife down in Santa Monica. I mean I’m all over the place, to the coffee shops, Starbucks. I know when people come up to me and try to be nice. Compliment me on all the hard work, but the only thing is that they say they are taxed enough. I don’t know why you are coming back to me. Or someone else said, I like the reform package of having a rainy day fund, but I don’t like that I’m voting to increase my taxes for two years. Forget it, I just can’t go there. … The amount of people who came up to me about the tax thing. I think that’s why they lost. There was an anti-tax revolt.= like in the 1970s with Prop 13. Normally these things are a lot closer. People just didn’t like the taxes.
My wife said she wouldn’t normally vote, but she vote because she is my wife. You guys have to do it, I don’t understand it. Proposition 1A has hundreds of pages of background, it is too much.
This is it folks. The scientific evidence that the special election lost because of taxes was from the people that came up to Arnold. Or as I like to call them, the voices that Arnold heard in his head.
We are basing our policy around a few voices that Arnold heard? This is absolutely insane.
But, at least it isn’t the fault of immigrants.
> hope you enjoy the flip-flop circuit as much as I do
I pressed “post a comment” the moment I saw this image then read the article. 😛 Was surprised to see that, didn’t realize one of you folks had an EE background. (You guys make the abstractions I use work, thanks!)
Not quite the same flip flops I’m used to, but after a bit of reflection, more appropriate. (The digital logic transistor-based ones really involve just as much latching as flip-flopping… arguably a T flip-flop would be a reasonable one to use, your circuit is still probably better.)
Anyways… on a more on-topic note… I think constantly branding politicians as flip-floppers for changing their opinions, while amusing, is getting pretty damaging to the debate. A politician should be able to change their minds and position. We should stick to ridiculing the ones who do so simply because of public pressure and not because their actual perspective on the situation changes.
We are basing our policy around a few voices that Arnold heard? This is absolutely insane.
Hearing voices is a classic symptom.
But from your transcript, it sounds as if Arnold might be quoting Maria saying ” You guys have to do it, I don’t understand it. Proposition 1A has hundreds of pages of background, it is too much. ”
Which doesn’t sound like anti-tax at all to me; it sounds like “go do your job we elected you to do, it’s too complicated for voters to do this at the ballot box.”
Completely undermining the voices in his head.
Not being dismissive but yep, the leader$hip of the great state of California are all barking mad.
Dems and ReThugs both.
They have failed to grasp the reality that we are now the first U.S. state to endure a ‘Black Swan’, see teh Google guys, and one of the things that makes Black Swans, as defined by Nassim Taleb, is….
…the outcome are totally unpredictable.
My advice is to stock up on food, water and ammo and stand clear until the state infrastructure collapse is over with. Then and only then will we be able to determine what can be done.