Dennis Perrin wrote:
>As an American, I can't see anything unprecedented here. Reagan? Ventura?
>You're right there's lots of continuity - it's the latest chapter in
>a long history of hopped-up idiocy. But Reagan, for all his problems,
>had a history in politics, from the presidency of the Screen Actors
>Guild through the PR for General Electric
that's politics? i don't think you're familiar with RR's tenure as SAG president, doug. he was merely a figurehead, doing what he was told. my father had the opportunity to observe RR in action at SAG.
PR for GE is acting, which he was good at. Ron didn't do the work, he read the scripts.
>through the '64 Goldwater
>nomination speech.
more acting, more scripts. ron, like most political figures, was a salesman for vested interests. at this level, he and arnie have a lot in common. with a little tutilage, arnie will be at the level of RR when RR exited the calif governorship.
one difference between arnie and RR is that arnie is a very motivated, ambitious man. RR needed nancy pushing him. arnie doesn't need any pushing from anyone.
>Not Arnie. But it's the idiocy of the recall
>process that bothers me more - some moneyed rightwingers instigate a
>pseudo-populist rebellion, and a crypto-Nazi who's likely to rely on
>the Wilson gang for adult supervision takes over.
>Doug
the recall process was a progressive innovation as you probably know, doug. it's the closest calif has come to democracy in decades. idiocy lies with the fact that the democrats were never able to pull it off against pete wilson, for example, although in their 1/2 assed way they tried and failed.
what you call idiocy is outcome, not the process. sure the process was manipulated. but what isn't in politics? daryl issa, the fellow who used his money to pull off the recall -- his money is on load to the republican party which will pay it back, by the way -- gave californians some entertaining moments. when he thought he had a chance of being elected governor, the recall was his passion. when he was pressured by the party to leave the race, and did, he later came out against the recall. then, when pressured again by the party to support the recall and AS, he did. he waffles just as good as clinton and gore.
idiocy, and real danger, lies with a system that allows the rich to run it. that's the people's responsibility. and the people failed. how many times are the people of the US going to be suckered by pseudo populist movements -- which, by the way, is a good description of one of the nazi's techniques? american's simply have to get it through their heads that class differences -- usually measured by wealth -- matter. we're looking at an election that proves the power of a gulled electorate's fantasy and faith as well.
R
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