When we voted to recall Gray Davis last year, we were faced with the dilemma of voting for a staunch conservative, Tom McClintock, or a “liberal” Arnold Schwarzenegger. While McClintock’s political philosophy is actually closer to our own, we knew that Arnold would provide us with enough conservative fiscal leadership, which, after all, was the most attractive aspect of his candidacy, given the fiscal mess that Davis and the Democratic legislature had caused. Since taking office, Governor Schwarzenegger has exhibited strong conservative behavior, vowing to let the voice of the people be heard.
Mark Noonan, a favorite blogger of ours at Blogs for Bush, makes some very good points about the Governor’s choices. From Blogs for Bush: We’re Winning the Political War, Too:
As it was, Davis was forced out and Schwarzenegger got in – and since then, while making his bows to his liberal proclivities from time to time, Governor Schwarzenegger has governed from the conservative end of the ideological spectrum. Why should this be?
Because conservatism works – it works everywhere and all the time. It is the only rational set of governing principles to have. Given this, any halfway intelligent government official is going to apply conservatism to whatever problem comes up. We’ve won the debate, boys and girls – the only thing left to do is figure out the best way to implement the program. In socially liberal California, the conservative medicine goes down better with a more socially liberal Republican in charge – in spite of Governor Schwarzenegger’s liberalism, he is the man who veto’d a gay marriage bill because it was a direct attempt by establishment elites to undo the definitive will of the people. And he’s also the man leading the charge in a set of conservative reforms for California.
Thus far, Governor Schwarzenegger has not let conservatives down on the main issues for which we elected him.