[IP] Viva La Revolucion by Pat Buchanan

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer@westnet.com>

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/pb20030818.shtml

Viva La Revolucion
by Pat Buchanan

"Is it a rebellion?" asked Louis XVI of the count who informed him of the
fall of the Bastille.

"No, sire," came the reply. "It is a revolution."

That same question may be asked of the recall election of Gov. Gray Davis
of California. Within the space of a few months, 1.6 million Californians
signed petitions to force a vote to give themselves the power to fire
Davis in disgrace, less than a year after they re-elected him.

The voters appear in the frame of mind of a 16-year-old who realizes the
car he just bought with his savings is a lemon, and who is on his way back
to beat up the used car dealer who unloaded it on him if he does not get
his money back.

Every poll shows a majority of Californians and up to half the Democrats
favoring Davis' ouster. A third would replace him with former Mr. Universe
and film star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has never held an office in his
life.

Among the other "name" candidates aspiring to run the Golden State, with
an economy larger than all but six nations, are ex-child star Gary
Coleman, porn king Larry Flynt and the
socialite-turned-scourge-of-the-SUVs, Arianna Huffington.

The leading Democrat to succeed Davis, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, and the
two leading conservative Republicans, Bill Simon, candidate for governor
in 2002, and state Sen. Tom McClintock, are pulling, all three together,
only 40 percent of the vote.

This is a people's revolution against the ruling class.

Sensing it, Schwarzenegger is running as a populist who will reject the
bribes of the "special interests" and carry out the popular will as the
People's Governor. And Californians seem to be saying: "Why not give
Arnold a shot? He can't do any worse than the clowns we have up there
now."

Those out to derail Schwarzenegger are digging up dirt from his sybaritic
past in the world of bodybuilding and Hollywood babes. With only seven
weeks before voting, the political elites hope to destroy Arnold by
soiling his heroic image. Should they succeed, they will further
demoralize, disgust and alienate Californians.

What folks in this capital, 3,000 miles away, should be asking is: Is this
revolution confined to California? Is it the first tremor of an earthquake
that will shake America? Is our national elite as out of touch with
America as that crowd in Sacramento is with California?

Karl Rove should be studying the state closely. For, 25 years ago,
Californians launched a tax revolt with Proposition 13 that Ronald Reagan
mounted and rode all the way to the White House.

But against what are Californians rebelling?

They believe Davis lied to them about the state's $38 billion deficit and
the pain and cost of closing it. They are fed up with the exploding cost
of government and a soaring tax burden that hits the middle class hardest.
They feel the loss of the manufacturing jobs going overseas and see the
white-collar jobs beginning to follow.

They have suffered the hammer blow of the collapse of the dot.com boom in
Silicon Valley. Finally, native sons are packing and heading east in the
hundred of thousands every year because the California they grew up in has
become another country.

In one generation, countless millions of immigrants, legal and illegal,
have poured in, sending poverty rates soaring in Los Angeles, San
Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties. In Los Angeles County, one
survey found that half the 9 million people speak a language other than
English in their homes.

What should concentrate the mind of Karl Rove is that the combustible
material that has exploded in California is present in many of the states
President Bush has to carry in 2004.

Almost every state has a budget crisis. The federal deficit is headed
toward $500 billion. President Bush, too, has a credibility problem over
why we went to war. The immigration issue is red hot nationwide, which is
why the president backed away from a pledge to Mexico's Vicente Fox to
grant amnesty to millions of illegal Mexican aliens. One in every seven
manufacturing jobs, 2.5 million, has vanished under President Bush. Now,
white-collar jobs are being lost to Asia, as American companies use
satellites to communicate instantly with their new back offices -- in
India.

The Democratic race for the nomination is being ignored by TV news-talk
channels that cannot get enough of Arnold and the recall. We may be on the
cusp of a people's revolution.

Let us hope so. In any event, the California revolution, which has
appalled the elites, is the best political news in many moons. Hallelujah,
hallelujah.

2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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