Welcome to California Jr. High

Maybe Left Is Right By Sara Pittman

Remember school elections for class president in junior high with the handmade posters hanging in the classrooms with slogans like, “Beth will Rock your World?”

It wasn’t about who made the best poster or who had the best ideas but was simply a huge popularity contest. Whomever had the best hair and clothes, and had the most friends would be crowned ruler. The kid with charts showing how he would use school funds to throw the coolest sock hop would lose to the kid who promised more soda machines. No one had any idea how to get all these soda machines, but heck, he said he would and had a really cool Austrian accent.

In the same way, it is disappointing and alarming that Arnold Schwarzenegger was made our new governor—based not on his experience, but on his star power. The popular kid strikes again.

People who don’t care enough to vote are infuriating. What are even more outrageous are people who make the effort to vote, but don’t research the candidates’ qualifications.

Imagine you’re a patient looking for a new doctor. When you’re putting your life in a doctor’s hands, you’re going to want the best of the best—one who is better educated and has experience.

Likewise, in electing someone to oversee the budget and well being of our state, one would expect the same degree of scrutiny.

The governor’s office is a prestigious position requiring a great deal of knowledge and know how. I’m not sure why Arnold decided he would make the perfect governor, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and suppose that it was for the love of public service.

If this were the case, it would be reasonable to expect a candidate to work from the bottom up instead of being handed the title of governor for his first public office.

So Arnold doesn't have any experience in the field of public office, but he still could have held some fantastic ideas about fixing the budget. After all, that’s what the recall was all about—dissatisfaction with the economy and how to reverse the deficit. But information and knowledge about how to solve the budget crisis is not what Schwarzenegger based his campaign on.

Think about one of his commercials, “We’re going to open the books and end deficit spending.” If only Gray Davis would have thought of that, we wouldn’t have been in this mess!

Arnold’s campaign was centered around huge rallies, interviews on Oprah and short speeches of one-liners from his movies. He agreed to participate in only one debate on the condition the questions were given to him beforehand. After his win, his platform is still vague.

Arnold has promised to give California back to the people but hasn’t indicated how he will do it. It’s just like the kid who promised soda machines to the junior high, but doesn’t have a plan to accomplish it.

It will be interesting to see what Schwarzenegger does with his newly-found power. He has promised not to cut programs or raise taxes while somehow cutting the deficit, but this is fairly impossible without an innovative strategy. To balance the budget you either need more money coming in or less money going out. It’s as simple as that.

When the spotlight is on him and the script removed, will our new governor have what it takes to perform?

I believe it was indicative that Arnold is better suited to be an action movie star than a legitimate politician by his choice of campaign stops in Fresno.

While Arianna Huffington took a while to show up for her speech at Fresno State and only spoke for about 20 minutes, she still made the effort and showed that she cares about education and student’s interests.

Schwarzenegger on the other hand, dismissed the university and headed for image-conscious River Park. He claims he desires to meet the needs of California’s students, but his stop at the glitzy shopping mall showed where his real values lie.

While the office of governor may be about star power now, it isn’t about glamour. California needed to elect a governor who has wisdom and experience, not someone without any knowledge of how he will accomplish his goals. But the votes are in and it’s too late now.

Let us take this experience as a lesson in judgment and discernment. The next time citizens are called to the polls to vote, I hope they bring knowledge of the candidates’ competency for the position.

— This columnist can be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu