It was like one of those wrestling matches interrupted by an intruder. Suddenly, music blasts loudly over the crowd and an unexpected wrestler streaks down the ramp. The whole arena becomes electrified: “Oh, dear lord, Maria Shriver is running to the ring!”
The first lady of California joined the multi-racial alliance of women supporting Barack Obama on the stage of Sunday’s Pauley Pavilion rally. A member of the Kennedy clan who is now married to our formerly-muscled, currently-corporate governor, Shriver was there crossing party lines once again.
It was the purest display of the Schwarzenegger’s family-based bipartisanship. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, had recently announced his support for John McCain, and now his wife was getting out there for a Democrat, Obama. But while the dandy idea of “post-partisanship,” as Schwarzenegger calls it, sounds appealing, it is often driven by the spectacle of political opportunism, without many results.
Joe Mathews, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, wrote about this aptly engineered apparatus in his book “The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.”
Mathews describes this new brand of politicking as “a political machine run not on patronage but on stardust ““ fueled by money, fame, polling, TV ads, direct mail, signature gatherers, malls and even a few stunts.”
And this last stunt was pure stardust.
That afternoon, the crowd had witnessed an assemblage of female action heroes led by Michelle Obama, and composed of such figures as daytime TV deity Oprah Winfrey, royal heiress Caroline Kennedy and labor legend MarÃa Elena Durazo. For a split second, it was almost as if Shriver had completely detached herself from her husband to associate herself with this dream team of female leaders.
Shriver’s speech was slightly touching, but also corny in comparison to the well-grounded speeches that preceded it.
Michelle Obama talked about growing up in a working-class family and attending public schools.
Durazo spoke about Bel Air immigrant nannies and other unrecognized sectors.
Oprah shed light on the importance of female empowerment, without female pandering.
Shriver gave us stardust, telling the crowd members to get in touch with themselves: “This is a moment to have a conversation with yourself, not anyone else. Have a conversation with your own heart. And ask yourself, “˜What kind of America do I believe in?'”
My conversation with myself led to a curious epiphany: she is to blame, even if by mere association.
Her husband has twice vetoed the gender-neutral marriage bill, as well as the California Dream Act, meant to increase access to higher education for immigrant students. He is also responsible for the dismantlement of the single-payer health-insurance plan.
His post-partisan beliefs are empty, and consist solely of vetoing progressive legislation while claiming to forge bipartisan agreements. Those agreements are a recurring façade where he brings no Republicans to the table, such as in his latest failure, the so-called agreement on health insurance that both Democrats and Republicans rejected.
His “Year of Health Care,” 2007, saw health matters get worse. We, as students, should be warned about this as we enter Arnold’s “Year of Education,” 2008.
Courtney Weaver, Legislative Director for the University of California Students Association (UCSA), said, “Governor Schwarzenegger has failed to prioritize higher education in his five years in office.”
Students and families are an easy target, and in difficult economic times for California he is again turning to fee hikes on those poised to contribute most to the California’s economy in the coming years.
The ongoing appeal of Barack Obama has been his ability to bring others into his ideological stance.
He maintains the image of a problem solver who can work across political divides, without giving up his image as a progressive in Congress. Arnold, however, is considered a raging liberal by Republicans, a sitting puppet by Democrats and largely inefficient by all.
With all this going, next time Shriver comes in to tell us to imagine the post-partisan future, we can ask her to please give us a hand by getting the governor on our side.
Contact Ramos at mramos@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.