Some interesting news tidbits
8 October 2003, 12:21 PM

*THUD*
8 October 2003, 8:58 AM

That is the sound of my jaw hitting the floor. Arnold Schwarzenegger won in California? Did the whole freakin' state go nuts?

Okay, so I've viewed this thing from afar and don't know all the details. Hell, it wasn't until today that I had a good look at the list of candidates. My *gods* this was an utter circus! So, maybe there's something here that I'm not seeing. Certainly I don't know what was going on in the minds of the majority of Californian voters. But I can't help thinking that there should be many more people FREAKING OUT right now. No, seriously. Why aren't more people (other than my good freinds) just seriously freaked out at the state of politics in our country?

I'm not talking about Republicans versus Democrats or conservative versus liberal policies, since that's an eternal struggle. What I'm talking about is the bizarre twist of the last presidential election (all the recounts in Florida and elsewhere) and this monstrous list of people who ran in a not-normally-scheduled election that ended up electing and inexperienced actor who just exudes testosterone. This is the kind of weird shit that happens in unstable third-world democracies. It's not supposed to be headline news here.

I don't have anything against actors/actresses in politics. Many people do, in fact, have multiple talents in disparate areas. There are truly Renaissance individuals out there stuck in a binary, narrow-minded world. But most of the successful and meaningful actor/actress turned politician stories include massive amounts of experience gained as they climbed up a political leadership ladder. Schwarzenegger has NO such experience that I can see and now he's been elected Governor of one of the largest and richest states in the U.S. The recall election happened supposedly because Gray Davis was doing poorly and now someone with no tangible experience is in charge? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

On-top of that I'm shocked as heck that Californians elected a Republican. Even a middle-of-the-road moderate pro-choice Republican as he's claimed to be. I had the impression that California was about to cede from the U.S. because of the antics of our current Republican president and his entourage. You know - it's supposed to be the last bastion of tolerance, diversity and forward liberal thinking? But then, I know of California through the eyes of my very liberal, science-oriented, rational friends that I have from that state, and they may not be in the majority. After-all, California did elect Ronald Reagan in the 1970's, and we (me and my freinds) were stunned that Bush won the last election. maybe we ARE an endangered species.

Like I said, viewing from afar and all that. Even so, I'm totally stunned and shaking my head. What were they thinking?!?