CA: Schwarzenegger is back pushing his conservative agenda again

Now that we're done with the primary election, I'd like to point out Governor Schwarzenegger is back to his extreme right wing Norquist conservative talking points. I think it's important to notice how his people are trying to spin this agenda as 'centrist'.

From here:

"I don't think we should raise taxes,' Schwarzenegger said. 'We don't need to punish people for the shortcomings of Sacramento'.

These are two classic Norquist talking points: 1) absolutely no taxes, and 2) blame the legislature. I'd like to remind y'all that the CA legislature is hamstrung precisely because of changes pushed by Norquist and his tribe: term limits, the need for a supermajority vote to pass taxes, and Prop. 13.

The extreme right-wing meme of 'no taxes' crops up here as well:

"They want to raise taxes. They want to go and send us back to the time of more spending and more taxing and punishing you,'' the governor said after hopping on a chair to speak to patrons of the Market Cafe. ``We don't want to do that. We want to move the state forward. This is what this campaign is all about."

I think it's equally important to note what his strategist is spewing.

His swing to the center, said GOP strategist Karen Hanretty, is precisely what he needed to do to regain the trust of moderates and ``decline to state'' voters.

I'm not buying this at all because this is about moving the 'centrist' goalposts further right.

I'm sorry to find our media has been gullible and buying into this reframe. I recommend a review course on critical thinking and analysis. At the very least, I highly recommend reading about the Overton Window. Here's a dkos analysis.

Systematically, piece by piece, the GOP takes what had been considered impossibly radical positions and makes them worthy of consideration just by talking about them--and then makes what had been considered outside possibilities truly possible.

I think it's pathetic how the media buys into this whole thing. Just because the Governor's strategist tells you Schwarzenegger is going centrist doesn't necessarily mean he is.