America’s Kristallnacht

"Trump is a failed leader."

Arnold Schwarzenegger offers an immigrant’s view on what he calls “America’s Night of Broken Glass.” He doesn’t hold back any punches at President Trump or the spineless leaders of his party.

It’s quite powerful.

FILED UNDER: Society, US Politics, , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Michael Reynolds says:

    Well done Arnie.

    27
  2. Jay L Gischer says:

    He is Exhibit A for why I try not to trash Republicans as a class. Also a reminder that California isn’t quite as liberal as it seems to people who don’t live here – there’s just certain things that the R primary voters seem to want that don’t fly here.

    12
  3. Sleeping Dog says:

    Probably the most stirring and needed political statement that I’ve heard in decades.

    11
  4. CSK says:

    Bravo.

    7
  5. Slugger says:

    Thank you, Mr. Schwarzenegger, thank you very much. Your clarity, your vision, and your ideals move all of our hearts.

    5
  6. Not the IT Dept. says:

    Bravo to him for saying it but I would suggest he’s wrong; this was the 21st century Beer Hall Putsch, the attack that failed. This time.

    8
  7. Scott F. says:

    Good on Arnold for calling out his political enablers as well. Maybe some of those Trump supporters drawn to The Donald due to his celebrity will hear this message from someone with superior star power. Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep wouldn’t be able to reach the same audience as Schwarzenegger.

    6
  8. Paine says:

    That was good. Way better than the last Terminator film.

    5
  9. DrDaveT says:

    Arnie was never eligible to run, but this may be as close as he ever gets to a Presidential moment. Well said*, and much needed. Now, to get Sly Stallone to retweet it…

    *Regular watchers of Forged in Fire will have cringed at the sword analogy, though. Swords don’t get stronger if you heat and quench them repeatedly; they get harder and more brittle.

    4
  10. Pylon says:

    @DrDaveT: Not to mention a movie prop sword is probably not the best example to use.

    1
  11. gVOR08 says:

    Schwarzenegger was a Republican, but I always regarded him as a naif and an opportunist and not a true believer. His heart’s in the right place.

    @DrDaveT: I’d assume there were more than one Conan sword and that most were aluminum, or rubber.

    1
  12. DrDaveT says:

    @Pylon:

    Not to mention a movie prop sword is probably not the best example to use.

    Not unless David Baker made it 🙂

  13. Jay L Gischer says:

    @gVOR08: Arnold’s politics endorse things like lower taxes, less regulation, and opposition to unions. He is what I would call a “main-street” Republican. On issues of identity – race, gender, sexual preference, and, of course, immigration – he tracks as a “liberal”. However, many other “main street” Republicans, and “big business” Republicans do as well. They just get shut out by the primary process.

    Personally, I think fiscal matters and regulatory matters are fair game – they are negotiable. Someone’s basic human worth, on the other hand, is not.

    6
  14. DrDaveT says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    Personally, I think fiscal matters and regulatory matters are fair game – they are negotiable. Someone’s basic human worth, on the other hand, is not.

    “Opposition to unions” is more in the latter category than the former. Even Adam Smith knew that.

    4
  15. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    Expect Arnold to be denounced as a RINO in 4… 3… 2… 1…

    2
  16. flat earth luddite says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    Of course he’s, at best, a RINO. After all, he’s just another carpetbagging foreigner, coming here to steal the jobs of “hard workin’ Merikans™”, right? Proud boyz are no doubt burying us in copies of his movies they’re throwing out their windows.

    1
  17. Gustopher says:

    Sure, but he should have named names.

    2
  18. gVOR08 says:

    @Gustopher: I’m afraid bothsides is too deeply embedded. We’ll see a lot of “We must come together”, “We must seek truth”, “Comity”, “Bipartisan, moderate” crap from people who won’t name names.

  19. Jay L Gischer says:

    @DrDaveT: I dunno. Unions exist to negotiate wages and benefits and working conditions. Negotiating over these things is acceptable – we don’t have an oracle that tells us what the correct wage is, after all. When I say he’s anti-union, I just mean he negotiates hard against unions, and says crappy things about nurses and their union in public.

    P.S. Given a nurse live in our house, and it’s not me, this did not play well at the Gischer residence, but he never said “unions are evil and should be destroyed”. Nevertheless, this still struck me as politics as usual – the old way.

  20. DrDaveT says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    When I say he’s anti-union, I just mean he negotiates hard against unions, and says crappy things about nurses and their union in public.

    OK. I wouldn’t call that “anti-union”. Anti-union is passing “right to work” legislation that in effect makes it impossible for unions to organize or collectively bargain. Anti-union is firing all of the air traffic controllers and replacing them with scabs. Anti-union is making it illegal for workers to collude against management. These are all default GOP positions.

    I do not reflexively support the union position in every negotiation*, and I am vehemently against union corruption. But I also believe that labor unions are absolutely vital to the long-term viability of labor markets, and to ethical society. The GOP… does not. They would outlaw labor unions if they could. I assumed that’s what you meant about The Governator.

    *Don’t get me started about Moonlight Mushrooms, or GM, or some of the things teachers’ unions have backed in the past.

    3
  21. dazedandconfused says:

    Tangential:

    Arnie’s Blueprint: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/8420216

    A hilarious story about Arnies beginning. The guy went AWOL from boot camp to compete in the Junior Mr. Universe competition in neighboring Austria. Tried to sneak back into boot when he returned, as if nobody would notice he’d been gone! What is really funny is how the German army reacted to this…AFTER they found out he had won. The blueprint? “Do your own thinking.”

  22. Franklin says:

    Someone sent this to me earlier. I don’t know if it might be effective, but it gave Trump supporters a way out by comparing them to (former) Nazis who had felt bad and suffered about their role. I suspect it’s too early for most Trump cult members to accept that message, but hopefully some people are truly asking what they have done.

  23. Gustopher says:

    @DrDaveT:

    I do not reflexively support the union position in every negotiation*, and I am vehemently against union corruption. But I also believe that labor unions are absolutely vital to the long-term viability of labor markets, and to ethical society.

    Is there any human structure that has no corruption? You might as well be opposed to gravity.

    Unions are simply held to a higher standard because people want to tear down the good they do. All things being equal, I’d rather not have someone pilfering a little here and there, of course, but if that’s the cost of a living wage, affordable healthcare, a process of redress against employer abuses, and overtime pay… seems like even in the worst cases they are doing more good than harm.

    2
  24. Gustopher says:

    @gVOR08: A couple scalps could buy a whole lot of comity.

    If Hawley and Cruz were widely condemned by their own party for enabling Trump, I really think that would help unify the nation.

  25. DrDaveT says:

    @Gustopher:

    Is there any human structure that has no corruption? You might as well be opposed to gravity.

    Exactly. You never hear the people who whine about corrupt union bosses whining equally loudly about corrupt CEOs or corporate lobbyists.

    1
  26. owen says:

    @dazedandconfused: The link appears to be down, but as I recall the competition was in Munich (Germany), Arnie was AWOL from the Austrian “Heer” (Army). It sounds like more of a deal in the US, but my experience working with conscripted forces in Europe for a number of years was that most of them sent conscripts home on the weekends so they didn’t have to care for and feed them.