Betraying the will of the people

George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger have done more to demoralize American voters than any two politicians in my lifetime.

Both were elected with the promise of bringing real change to their respective offices – the presidency and the governorship of California.

Their candidacies generated great excitement.

Their elections brought great hope.

But their actions suggest all they did was fool enough of the people to get their votes. And the people are catching on.

George W. Bush promised to rein in spending. Instead, he signed on to the biggest increase in domestic spending in the history of the country, creating new entitlement programs and burdening future generations with the debt.

Bush promised to increase national security. Instead, he proposed a “guest worker program” that not only winks at illegal immigration while the nation is threatened by terrorism and increasing crime, it encourages it with promises of “amnesty” from deportation and prosecution.

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, won his recall election campaign largely because of one issue – his opposition to granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. His first act as governor last fall was to repeal SB 60, signed by then-Gov. Gray Davis, which would have opened the road for the estimated 2 million illegal immigrants of driving age.

But now he is negotiating with a Democratic state lawmaker to draft a bill that would do essentially the same thing.

He said he is “absolutely positive we’ll come up with a great bill” to replace SB 60, opposed by 70 percent of California voters, according to exit polling during the October recall election.

Schwarzenegger said his office has been working closely to craft a successor to SB 60 with state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, a former member of MeCha, the radical Latino student movement demanding annexation of all southwestern states.

Meet the new boss – same as the old boss.

If two politicians of the same party set out deliberately to disenfranchise their supporters, no pair could have done a better job.

In the process, they are leaving behind millions of disillusioned citizens. In the long run, this may prove to be a healthy thing for the nation, as Americans have become conditioned to expecting politicians to fix their problems. In the short term, however, it is going to mean some surprises at the polls.

Many people have been turned off to politics because of these two monumental betrayals. They are asking what can be done. They want to know where they go next. They want to know whom they can trust.

I believe Bush is going to lose his bid for re-election. He deserves to lose. I say that fully acknowledging that John Kerry is not worthy of occupying the Oval Office.

I believe Schwarzenegger could never be elected again to statewide office in California because of his duplicity.

But none of that will serve as comfort to their betrayed supporters.

They’re angry. They’re right to be angry. And they won’t get fooled again.

How do we get ourselves as a people out of this electoral trap that offers us a choice that is no choice at all?

It’s time for some tough medicine. It’s time to stop pretending that it works to support the “lesser of two evils.” It’s time to stop pretending that we can expect constitutional, limited government by electing people to office who have no respect for constitutional limited government. It’s time to stop pretending that not voting in a race with only bad choices is a waste of a vote. It’s a waste of a vote to give your support to a candidate who will betray his oath of office.