Book Review: Party of One: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of the Independent Voter

Independents, centrists and moderates take note: Party of One: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of the Independent Voter by Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub is a must read that needs to be added to your personal libraries. Even with the rises and falls of Arnold’s political fortunes (now on the descent again) it’s required reading for anyone interested in the political center and independent voters.

The reasons: it raises the question about whether the Schwarzenegger model of a more bipartisan style government can ever realistically be applied at a national level. And Weintraub’s writing and reporting about the man who is arguably the nation’s most successful and famous Republican governor is a sheer joy to read and a prototype for anyone who enjoys excellent, fact-based reportage.

First a disclosure. I knew Weintraub when he was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and I was a reporter for the San Diego Union. When he discovered this blog, The Moderate Voice, he did a phone interview with me for this book. I’m quoted on one page (he concludes that due to my stages of support and nonsupport and support again for Schwarzenegger I am the quintessential California independent voter).

Schwarzenegger’s political story by now is a familiar one and Weintraub chronicles it, not with overkill but solid factual and anecdotal back up. It’s the story of movie star and self-made businessman who won the California governorship, but who probably could never have won the Republican nomination for governor if he had run in primaries due to his liberal stands on environmental and social issues. He got his “big break” when voters got disgusted enough to boot the Democratic governor out in a recall. And he was primed for it.

It’s all there: how Schwarzenegger won the recall, took office amid soaring popularity, then saw his popularity evaporate as he moved right and seemed to become just one more partisan-attack-mode Republican governor. Weintraub reports and explains the Governor’s sagging political fortunes and how Arnold pulled himself out of it by veering back to a more moderate bipartisan course — and upsetting Republicans in the process. But it was never entirely so. Schwarzenegger has never been a cookie cutter politician and he remains hard to completely define.

The questions have always lingered: just who was this guy some Californians mockingly call “Ahnold?”

Was all his talk about bipartisanship, wanting to listen to differing ideas and his all-over-the-place political stands Machiavellian positioning or for real?

Is Schwarzenegger for real or is this yet one more phony show biz or political facade?

Weintraub’s answer:

Schwarzenegger is indeed for real.

He has used the same traits and managerial techniques as a high powered movie star and businessman as he has used as governor. For example, he always liked to have people with differing, often conflicting, viewpoints around him.

Meanwhile, as Governor, Schwarzenegger’s story most of the time has been a story about his search for the political center — a political center that could make his policies sustainable in political terms by creating a consensus-based coalition that could cut across party lines and aggregate interests.

In effect, Schwarznegger has been a party of one because he has tried to re-brand Republicanism in California. He has also called for rebranding the national Republican party.

The only teenie-weenie complication for Arnold in California has been that California Republicans don’t want their conservative-leaning — and often election-losing — party to be re-branded.

So today on a hosts of issues, Schwarzenegger’s biggest political obstacles have been legislators with “Rs” in front of their names. Weintraub is a sharp observer of what makes Arnold tick and interviewed him for the book. He shows that there can indeed be a “third way” in politics, but it won’t come easy because many Democrats will resist it (they don’t want a Republican to have power) and many Republicans will resist it (they don’t like someone who has lots of power who doesn’t toe the party agenda and who tries to work with the hated and distrusted Democrats). And foes on both sides will try to define it in a derogatory way. He doesn’t portray Schwarzenegger as a political saint but as a toe-stubber who often adjusts to painful mistakes, setbacks and unwise decisions.

A larger issue that emerges from Weintraub’s book is whether the Schwarzenegger model — which cannot be proclaimed a success yet as California faces a staggering financial crisis, budgets are slashed and Arnold’s poll numbers go south again — can be applied to the national scene.

Once upon a time some wondered if Republican Senator John McCain, a Schwarzenegger ally who probably won’t benefit much from his friendship right now, could try to use the same approach in Washington if he got to the White House. Could McCain reach across the aisle as he insists he could? Could McCain govern using less lockstep Republican policies?

Most likely the answer is no on a national scale.

There are a variety of reason why it’s unlikely. Schwarzenegger has to cope with some regional talk radio, but nothing like what a President McCain would face if he strayed too far from the Republican path. Talk radio (coupled with ideological talk cable) has become a major national political force. Moreover, unless McCain won by a landslide, he wouldn’t have the celebrity factor which helped Schwarzenegger in his early months but has partly worn off now. Just as Schwarzenegger has has problems with his state Republicans, McCain would likely face some problems with his own party’s rank and file and political elites if he tried to reshape the political clay too much.

But the story of Arnold in California as told by Weintraub is the story of someone who genuinely believed there could be a third way besides the divisive partisanship typified to anyone who listens to a Rush Limbaugh or Randi Rhodes or who reads a weblog that reads like right or left talk radio.

You CAN sit down and talk with “the enemy” if you don’t view the enemy as the enemy but as competitors who can help you get what you want to get. You CAN have positions that don’t all fit a party line or party True Believer checklist.

And, mostly, Weintraub shows, you CAN stub your toe politically, make huge mistakes, be seemingly humiliated at the polls and even then rise, seemingly from a covered-with-cement political grave, to reinvent yourself, take stock, adjust your course and seek to work with your foes so everyone — including the larger polity — benefits.

Weintraub’s book isn’t a ponderous or pretentious one. It’s written by a journalist who painstakingly did his homework and delivers his info in a highly readable, compelling style. He answers longtime questions people have had about Schwarzenegger and shows Schwarzenegger warts and all. Yes, the book could be outdated soon (some will argue that with his sagging polls it’s close to being outdated since unless the state’s grave financial crisis is “solved” Schwarzenegger will be seen as an unsuccessful Governor whose pep talks were more impressive than his accomplishments).

Party of One raises the possibility that there is indeed a third way and that voters could well be ready for it. But it won’t happen unless there are leaders willing to fight for it even if there are failures, partisans on the other side willing to try it — and voters are willing and courageous enough to trust a leader enough to give it a chance.