“The less you’re concerned about getting credit, the more work you can get done,” – Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Unilke many, I've never been of the opinion that the governator was insubstantial. He's a smart dude, and a highly unconventional politician. And I think his disavowals of overweening ambition, while disingenuous, are somehow at the same time sincere – if that makes sense. He's ambitious – but it's out of a genuine belief that he could "make a difference" from a political standpoint, as opposed to it being strictly a project of self-aggrandizement.
Nevertheless, I feel that Marc Ambinder's autopsy on the governatorship, now that the man from Muscle Beach is departing office after 7 years, is a bit on fluffy side, journalistically. Perhaps this can be forgiven – journalists who meet or interview the governator always seem to be incapable or resisting the man's undeniable, almost magical, charisma.
The things – the accomplishments – that Ambinder wants to give Schwarzenegger credit for are things that I think would have happened regardless of who was governor. Possibly, they'd have happened even if Gray Davis had remained governor. They are things that have been "on the mind" of California's body politic. The most long-lasting "changes" Schwarzenegger has overseen: the alteration in elections processes that will (hopefully) end partisan primaries and gerrymandering; the checking of the power of the unions; the long-term investment in alternative energy projects or public transportation infrastructure (and actually, I'm sceptical this last will really pan out – it's too easy for money to get removed or rerouted from projects of this sort). Each of these, while advocated actively by the governator, could just as easily have come to pass regardless of who was sitting in the Sac.
I'm far from optimistic about my birth-state's future as a well-functioning polity. But I think the governator reflected (and still reflects, as he moves on) a zeitgeist that includes a fundamental collective self-awareness vis-a-vis its worst dysfunctions. I will always be interested in – even fascinated by – California politics. But, personally, I'm an adoptive midwesterner and, subsequently, mostly committed to my expat lifestyle, at this point.
California is an embarrassing place to have been born. Does that make me one of those "self-hating" liberals? Maybe, except that I still characterize myself as a libertarian, or even as an anarchist, more than as a traditional liberal. I believe in the importance and value of government, but I think it works best when the body politic remains highly sceptical of it. I actually think Schwarzenegger would agree wtih me on that.