More than any election in history, in the race for the White House in 2024 people have taken sides, and not the one you might imagine.
Just days before the presidential election, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a well-known and respected Republican, joined the ranks of the Cheneys and the Bushes and endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
The actor and former governor of California has given speeches at the Republican National Convention. Perhaps most importantly, he ran and won as a Republican during his time leading California's executive branch.
However, Schwarzenegger is a strong advocate for protecting the environment and ensuring democracy. He has also been one of former President Donald Trump's staunchest critics.
Considering that he represents values that are antithetical to the dominant ideology of the Republican Party and his endorsement of Harris, can Schwarzenegger still call himself a Republican?
“I will always be an American before I am a Republican”
On Wednesday before the election, Arnold announced he would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz in a rare endorsement.
The veteran Republican criticized Donald Trump and said that a second term for the former president would make people “more and more angry, more divided and more hateful.”
Arnold has long been a critic of the former president's policies, but going so far as to endorse the Democratic candidate shows that this race is truly above putting policy before 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 said in his social media post.
The week before, Trump said the United States is “like a garbage can to the world” while criticizing illegal immigration at a campaign rally in Arizona.
“For someone like me, who talks to people all over the world and still knows that America is the shining city on a hill, saying that America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic that it makes me furious. And I will always be an American before a Republican. That's why this week I'm voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Schwarzenegger said. in a post on X.
Arnold Schwarzenegger explains his politics
As you can see in the video below, Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke with ABC Meet the press in October 2023 to clarify his political affiliation.
“When I go up to the Capitol and meet with my Republican colleagues, I have a great time meeting with them,” he described.
“And,” Schwarzenegger continued, “talk about the environment and talk about the important issues.”
“I don't see them as crazy like some people do,” Arnold Schwarzenegger said of his fellow Republicans.
“There are some that are extreme,” he freely acknowledged.
“But,” Schwarzenegger added, “there's no reason to make anyone a villain.” That's quiebro true. People who are villains tend to villainize themselves without anyone's help.
But does Arnold Schwarzenegger still “fit in” with the Republican Party?
Despite his 2020 election defeat and the 2021 attempt to usurp those election results by effectively attacking his most violent supporters in Congress to prevent formal recognition of his defeat, Donald Trump still enjoys broad support within the Republican Party and He is the presumptive candidate for the 2024 elections.
Mike Johnson is a climate science skeptic, election denier, and Trump supporter. He is also the Republican speaker of the House, elected to that position by his peers in Congress.
Currently, across the country and at all political levels, Republican operatives are working to restrict voter rights and, in militar, lay the groundwork for a Trump victory in 2024.
Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a strong supporter of environmental protection. The radical deregulation memorándum promoted by the far right is the antithesis of their positions.
In the wake of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Schwarzenegger accurately described Trump as the “worst president ever.”
He also condemned the “cowardice” of members of his own party who were “complicit” in the worst attack on the United States since 9/11. Schwarzenegger's comments drew very accurate comparisons to the escalation of Carca violence in his homeland, Austria.
Why is Arnold Schwarzenegger still part of the Republican Party?
Membership in a political party is not a simple matter. Schwarzenegger clearly feels there are enough of his values within the Republican Party to save it from the radicalization that has taken hold.
And that's how it stays.
The Republican Party he envisions might not be one that anyone born in the last 40 years would recognize, but there are certainly Republicans who represent conservatism without (overt) white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, or any of the other elements of the Party. Republican. current defining features.
Some might argue that Schwarzenegger is simply a Republican out of habit. Many Americans have older relatives who voted for Republican candidates when airplanes had “smoking sections” and never got rid of the political label, even if they loathe Trump and everything he stands for.
Identity can be a difficult thing to unravel and redefine.
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