Greater than any election in historical past, the race for the White Home in 2024 has seen individuals taking sides – and never those you may factor.
Simply days earlier than the Presidential election, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a well-known and revered Republican, joined the ranks of the Cheneys and Bushes and endorsed Kamala Harris for President.
The actor and former Governor of California has given speeches on the Republican Nationwide Conference. Maybe extra importantly, he ran and received as a Republican throughout his time heading California’s govt department.
Nonetheless, Schwarzenegger is an outspoken proponent of environmental protections and of securing democracy. He has additionally been one in every of disgraced former president Donald Trump’s most vocal critics.
Contemplating that he represents values which can be antithetical to the dominant ideology of the GOP and his endorsement of Harris, can Schwarzenegger nonetheless actually name himself a Republican?
Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks in the course of the 10X Progress Convention 2024 at The Diplomat Seashore Resort on April 04, 2024. (Photograph Credit score: Ivan Apfel/Getty Photos)
“I Will Always be an American Before I am a Republican”
On the Wednesday earlier than the election, Arnold introduced he can be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz in a uncommon endorsement.
The longtime Republican criticized Donald Trump and mentioned a second time period for the previous president would make individuals “angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful.”
Arnold has lengthy been a critic of the previous Presidents insurance policies, however to go as far as to endorse the Democratic nominee, proves that this race is basically above placing insurance policies over politics.
“He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger,” Schwarzenegger mentioned on his publish on social media.
The week earlier than, Trump mentioned the US is “like a garbage can for the world” as he railed in opposition to unlawful immigration at a marketing campaign rally in Arizona.
“To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious. And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Schwarzenegger mentioned in a publish on X.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Explains His Politics
As you’ll be able to see within the video under, Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to ABC’s Meet The Press in October of 2023 to make clear his political affiliation.
“When I go up to Capitol Hill and I meet with my Republican colleagues, I have a great time meeting with them,” he described.
“And,” Schwarzenegger continued, “talking about the environment and talking about the important issues.”
“I don’t look at them as kind of crazies like some people do,” Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed of his fellow Republicans.
“There are some that are extreme,” he freely acknowledged.
“But,” Schwarzenegger then added, “there’s no reason to villainize anybody.” That’s true sufficient. People who find themselves villains are likely to villainize themselves with out anybody’s assist.
Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks onstage in the course of the Holocaust Museum LA gala after being honored with first Award of Braveness at The Beverly Hills Resort on November 06, 2023. (Photograph Credit score: Phillip Faraone/Getty Photos for Holocaust Museum LA)
However does Arnold Schwarzenegger nonetheless ‘fit in’ with the Republican Occasion?
Regardless of his 2020 election loss and 2021 try to usurp these election outcomes by successfully siccing his most violent followers on Congress to stop the formal recognition of his defeat, Donald Trump nonetheless enjoys widespread assist inside the Republican Occasion and is the presumptive nominee for the 2024 election.
Mike Johnson is a local weather science-doubter, an election-denier, and a Trump supporter. He’s additionally the Republican Speaker of the Home, elected to that place by his friends in Congress.
At current, all throughout the nation and on each political stage, GOP operatives are at work limiting voter rights and usually laying the groundwork to convey a couple of 2024 Trump victory.
Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks onstage at an Night with Arnold Schwarzenegger offered by Fane at London Palladium on October 24, 2023. (Photograph Credit score: Jeff Spicer/Getty Photos for Fane)
In the meantime, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a staunch supporter of environmental protections. The unconventional deregulation agenda pushed by the far proper is antithetical to his stances.
Within the wake of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, Schwarzenegger precisely described Trump because the “worst president ever.”
He additionally condemned the “spinelessness” of members of his personal occasion who had been “complicit” within the worst assault on America itself since 9/11. Schwarzenegger’s feedback drew very correct comparisons to escalating Nazi violence from his homeland of Austria.
Why is Arnold Schwarzenegger nonetheless a part of the GOP?
Political occasion affiliation isn’t any easy matter. Schwarzenegger clearly feels that there are sufficient of his values inside the Republican Occasion that he can reserve it from the radicalization that has taken over it.
And so, he stays.
The GOP that he envisions may not be one which anybody born inside the previous 40 years would acknowledge, however there are definitely Republicans who symbolize conservatism with out (overt) white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, or any of the Republican Occasion’s different present defining options.
Some might argue that Schwarzenegger is merely a Republican by behavior. Many People have older family who voted for GOP candidates again when airplanes had “smoking sections” and by no means shook the political label, even when they abhor Trump and all that he represents.
Identification is usually a troublesome factor to unpack and redefine.
