08th Aug 2003
Schwarzenegger’s Nazi Problem
Just to be clear, I don’t believe Arnie is a Nazi. That said, I’m no fan of his movies or his politics, so I’m happy to use my minor celebrity to point my mediocre Google PageRank against his absurd political ambitions. This Salon piece is getting lots of links, already as a thorn in Arnie’s side, owing to his refusal to denouce Kurt Waldheim, former UN secretary general, president of Austria and WWII Nazi mass murderer. Turns out Arnie’s an old buddy. Plus, Arnie’s dad was a Nazi party member, too. Ouch. You can bet he, too, knows what blogs are by this morning.
Go Gary!
UPDATE:
Mark thinks this Ahnold Nazi smear business is just dirty politics. He’s probably right. He points, for instance, to this article in the Jerusalem Post, that quotes Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Holocaust historical and human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center coming to Schwarzenegger’s defense, pointing out that Ahnold has been an active supporter of the SWC since years before the whole Waldheim association was first raised by the media nearly a decade ago. (To be fair, the Salon article I linked to above makes more or less the same point.) Mark also thinks it’s unfair to tarnish Arnold with the sins of his farther, who, while a Nazi party member, was apparently not an active member and merely a postal worker, not a soldier.
Regardless, I’m entitled to my opinion that Schwarzenegger as governor would be a sad joke (as in, what do you get when you combine Bush’s intellect and Clinton’s moral authority?), even if I’m no longer a Californian. This is international news and affects me as an American. So, dirty politics or not, I’ll do my part to advance them. Furthermore, I do think these are fair questions that voters should be at least aware of. If, for example, an American-born politician’s father was a member of the KKK and his godfather, to whom he was still close, was a grand wizard credibly accused of being involved in several lynchings, wouldn’t it be a legitimate question for that politician to account for those relationships? Again, I’m not suggesting that Arnie himself is sympathetic to the views of his elder mentors, but let’s hear him say so, explain why he’s continued to defend Waldheim, given that man’s indefensible record.
Politics is hard. Or at least it’s supposed to be. Actors are elitist, and, although they are public figures, they are entitled to their privacy, to what extent they can retain it. Politicians, however, are our public representatives. They need to be held accountable to the electorate. If Arnold can’t deal with those terms, hasta la vista, Baby.
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George Bush is a mass murderer, and Arnold hasn’t renounced him, so why should he renounce Kurt Waldheim?
Arnold Schwarzenegger —-> Get the latest groping news