Said Arnold Schwarzenegger, on Theo Von's podcast the other day.
June 7, 2025
"Eisenhower said that politics is like the road, the left, the right is the gutter, and the center is drivable."
"And it's exactly the way it is in politics. You have to understand that there's a sweet spot. You know, like the teaching in golf, hit the sweet spot, or in tennis to hit the sweet spot. All this, there's a sweet spot to find exactly so you can get a deal made... It's not exactly your way.... I wanted to wipe out, you know, the deficit. And I was not able to do that with all these Democrats around it. They, they love to spend money. So, so, so I was, I was stuck with it. So, but the fact of them is we could improve the situation and I was able to work together with the Democrats on environmental issues and infrastructure issues... education and all of this stuff. And we, we, we did really fine and had a great time up there being governor of the state of California.... You have to face reality. The trick is just to be, to not hate the other side because they think differently. It's just kind of like figuring out how can we work together and how can we do something that's really good for the people...."
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46 comments:
“ The trick is just to be, to not hate the other side because they think differently.” Arnold.
That will never happen with the Dems as long as Trump is President. For goodness sakes, they tried to jail him.
I'll never listen to another thing he has to say. "Screw your freedom."
A long time ago in galaxy far, far away...
maybe hes not quaid hes howser,
My secret theory is that Theo Von is being groomed to be the Progressive Left's new Rogan.
They all like to spend money. Until they’re shown there’s no political advantage to cutting deficits and debt they’re just gonna keep spending until it all falls apart. This is the way…
Miss Lindsey is up for reelection next year. He supposedly will have opponents in addition to that Democrat lady that lost against Mace. If I put my name in is anyone going to support me because I want to cut waste and fraud to reduce deficits and debt? No way…
Dave Begley said...
“That will never happen with the Dems."
In the Party's current state, that is. Kick out the radicals; then we'll see.
Meanwhile the cabal isn’t giving up on their post-election America strategy and are sticking to the ‘we only need better messaging’ gambit. It just may work out for them…
It's called an optimum. To the left and to the right is less optimal. There's nothing gutter about it. That's imported to disparage your two opponents.
Eisenhower played too much golf at Augusta…
If you put two systems into thermal contact, stuff changes for a while and then it stops changing. Let's make believe that that's because it changes until something is maximized. Call it S for something.
The two systems exchange energy U until S is maximized. That happens when the change in S for a unit of U is the same in both systems, because then exchanging S doesn't change anything.
Call S entropy and you have thermodynamics. Stuff changes until Entropy is maximized, The something that's then the same in both systems is called temperature, which is rigorously defined as dU/dS.
Now you know more than most people. Curiously the states before the final one are not called gutter states.
Democrats don’t have to solve their fundamental problems, they only need a few embers of reasonable doubt and good lawyers…
look what the Dems had done to California, in the 18 years since the Dems took over,
"There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos" - Jim Hightower
look at what the Labour Party has done, when it was empowered by a mere plurality in the last year,
Arnold is not wrong. Musk, as a CEO, can rule Tesla and SpaceX by fiat, he doesn’t have to worry about votes. Trump, and all elected governors, have to count votes. Sure we need to cut spending, but that is very, very hard to do unfortunately. We need to treat this like a football game. You don’t throw Hail Mary’s on every play but you run other plays, getting two yards here, five yards there. The strategy is to keep moving the ball toward the end zone. We need to think of political goals that way.
How absurd! Arnold is a fucking Democrat who hates Trump and campaigned against him 3 times. He's not "In the center", except on fiscal matters. On everything else, he's a Hollywood far-left Democrat. He got elected by portraying himself as being against illegal immgration and not being a leftwing kook like Gray Davis. But that didn't mean he was a "Centerist"
That's the problem with "moderate Republicans" and "Independents". They move left over time, because the left moves the culture and political overton window to the left. So, eventually centerists like Arnold end up supporting Transgender rights and Illegal aliens voting because the Left and the media say thats "mainstream".
People need to stop blathering about labels and demand these politicians tell us their positions on the issues. That's why I don't trust "moderates". They're trying to hide what they really think. The same is true of "Mavericks" and "Compassionate Conservatives".
Why is it "very, very hard" to cut spending when that spending is mostly taking our money away from us and giving it away to foreigners, strangers, enemies and thieves leaving us in a more dangerous, povertous, and weakened state?
"Government spending" is politicians using citizens money to buy power for themselves. I want to starve and impoverish politicians in this country, and I'm far from alone in that.
Moderation is for mediocrities.
Moderation is a code word for secret fascist.
"I'm a speech moderator."
A new interpretation of “It’s my way or the highway?”
I can’t imagine Ike putting up with the Hamasnazis when he was President of Columbia University.
Xi Jinping says, "Secret fascism in all things."
The great moderators of Missouri say, "We'll bring in a slave state and a free state, together. Balance!"
According to Schwarzenegger, Eisenhower says, "The best way to govern is to look at what other people think and then split the difference. Don't have any values yourself, just be a windsock."
There's no middle.
Slave state is horrible branding, yes?
If I was a free man living in a slave state, I'd be really annoyed at the Yankees who kept calling my state a slave state.
21st century Democrats time travel to the 19th century and try to solve the problem of slavery. "We need to rebrand. It's a choice. You have a choice whether to buy a slave or not buy a slave. We're not pro-slavery. We're pro-choice."
Moderate Republican: "We should abolish slavery, while allowing involuntary servitude."
Yeah, well EFF his good memories. Arnold was a disappointment as governor.
There's no middle
I agree with Howard.
The other side wants to destroy the United States of America.
I'm not making any f8cking deals with them.
Did Arnold and California Dems really "work together" on environmental issues and infrastructure in a way that was in anyway close to being called a success? Or without spending tons and tons of money above what they original projections were? What a clueless hypocrite.
"We should abolish slavery, while allowing involuntary servitude."
Original compromise.
Politics is like an Ouroboros... a progressive process.
"Eisenhower said that politics is like the road, the left, the right is the gutter, and the center is drivable."
Rikki Rachtman’s weekly sign-off on MTV’s Headbangers Ball was a more apt description of politics.
“Remember, keep one foot in the gutter and keep one fist in the gold.”
The Second Coming:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. — William Butler Yeats
Note that the poem was written in 1919, and it's still true. Though I am not sure what the whole falcon–falconer image is about, but maybe it's a reference to the hidden masters of war.
It's not that there is no middle, it's just that propaganda has become such a refined science, and has such powerful tools at its disposal, stuff the middle doesn't care about, that the middle has no chance. See Yeats's poem above.
We’re constantly told this amorphous middle wins elections but if that was ever true it certainly hasn’t been true recently…pretty much everywhere. I’m still waiting for first time candidate Obama to tack to the center after winning the nomination, so I was endlessly lectured….
Arnold is wrong and he was a tumor while in office.
I see what you did there,
I'll never listen to another thing he has to say. "Screw your freedom."
Quoted for truth.
If you go back and look at the 50s. The USA was a homogenous 90 percent white country. Immigration had been shut off for 30-40 years. Most Americans believed in the same things. The main dispute was over taxes and the economy. So, Ike could say "Hey, I'm in the middle. The Rightwingers want to get rid of social security, the leftists want Socialism. I'm in the middle!"
Ike balanced the budget. And wanted the top tax rate to be 70 percent instead of 90 percent. I'd love to go back in time and tell Ike that having Men who think they're women (and women who think they're men) in the US Army is a "Mainstream" "Middle of the Road" position. LOL!
Oh, and anyone who likes R.E. Lee is a "Rightwing extremist".
and yet Eisenhower didn't really challenge the welfare state, hence the new right revolt in the 60s, Nixon didn't either, thats what the center entails,
Republicans never held a major elected office in California after Arnold won.
He's a supreme hypocrite, two faced liar. He had some swagger when he was first elected, then whimpered out when faced with the reality of who runs California. Now he's a Fascist.
Howard said...
There's no middle.
Not true.
The middle is always where I am. It is only the people that disagree with me that are right or left. It is important to label everything right or left.
The truth is; IKE was a middle-of-the-road mediocrity. His signal accomplishment was - not being too offensive to the Brits; esp. Monty. Actually, Monty hated his ass but IKE "made it work". IKE was the embodiment of "political".
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