SACRAMENTO, December 20, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bodybuilder turned actor, turned politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger made statements in a German magazine, published over the weekend, that the Republican Party should move to the left. To conservatives that talk from Schwarzenegger, who fancies himself as a so-called ‘moderate’ Republican, mesans embracing gay rights and abortion. “I would like the Republican Party to cross this line, move a little further left and place more weight on the center,” said Schwarzenegger. “This would immediately give the party 5% more votes without it losing anything elsewhere.”“Schwarzenegger’s statements that the GOP party would not lose its base if it embraces gay marriage and abortion rights shows extreme arrogance and total ignorance concerning the values and dedication of the party’s core constituents,” said Karen England of the Capitol Resource Institute, a pro-family public policy organization in California. “Schwarzenegger has spent too much time in Hollywood. He needs to start mingling more with mainstream Californians.”“We are outraged that Schwarzenegger has the audacity to misspeak for the millions of Republicans in this country who believe that abortion is murder and that the life of a child should come before the mere convenience of a woman,” said England.
Schwarzenegger seems to have exhibited “extreme arrogance” in more than politics, according to his interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Saturday. While remaining coy about his Presidential ambitions, the former actor made comments reminiscent of Al Gore’s claim to have invented the Internet. Arnold indicated he believes himself responsible for the whole action film genre. “I brought bodybuilding from nothing, I made the action film a genre, and the same goes for politics – I want to do things that no one believed possible,” he said. Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America commented to LifeSiteNews.com about Schwarzenegger saying, “What film stage is Arnold living in? Californians along with Americans across the country have voted to protect marriage from homosexual distortions. The last election indisputably exhibited the socially conservative sensibilities of voters. Democratic strategists are recognizing that their liberal polemics drove voters away from their candidates. Yet Arnold’s advice is for the winning team to forego what people want – the moral high ground – to champion losing causes. Arnold may be good on stage, but sensible strategists should view his political advice as steroids that would destroy us internally.” England concluded, “If Schwarzenegger thinks that the majority of the GOP base will stick with the Republican Party on fiscal issues alone, then he has a lot to learn about the makeup of his own party.” Schwarzenegger failed to mention one ‘claim to fame’ in the interview – his mainstreaming of male pornography. Years ago Time magazine pointed out that now-Governor Schwarzenegger brought the nude male photo into the mainstream of Western culture. Nude frontals of the Governor currently litter the Internet. jhw