Abstract

The 'Kennedy Factor'

The author argues that the politics of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new Republican governor of California, are heavily influenced by the liberal agenda of the Kennedy family he married into. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sold himself to his fans as a raging Republican Terminator. But his future will depend on the outcome of a battle for his soul between the Republican Party and the liberal Democratic Kennedy culture he shares by marriage. So far, the Republican allegiance is dominant. But the "Kennedy factor" could turn him into a Terminator with a stubborn liberal streak. Why is Schwarzenegger a Republican anyway? He disagrees with mainstream Republicans on abortion fights, gay rights and the Clinton impeachment. He didn't go to the last Republican convention. He tightly suspects that the Bush White House was divided about his candidacy, with some favoring Condoleezza Rice as the successor to Gray Davis. The answer is that Arnold emerged as an ambitious bodybuilder in a European social-democratic culture that he felt was too small for him. He broke away and immigrated to the America of Richard Nixon. The bodybuilder liked what he heard and began calling himself a Republican. It seemed simple, but then he met Maria Shriver, a liberal Democrat who was genetically unable to marry a real Republican. Arnold might be unable to acknowledge publicly that the Kennedys changed his outlook, but his actual sensibility was becoming more Democratic.