Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger looked at his Republican party and decided to write an op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times, begging for his party to go back to the days of Reagan, to forget the right winged nonsense and be more inclusive.
A recent decision by Nathan Fletcher – a Republican State Assemblyman and Republican State Legislator Anthony Adams to leave the Republican party and become Independents, prompted Mr. Schwarzenegger to write his piece.
“In the current climate, the extreme right-wing of the party is targeting anyone who doesn’t meet its strict criteria. Its new and narrow litmus test for party membership doesn’t allow compromise,” Schwarzenegger wrote.
It’s time for the Republicans who are so bent on enforcing conformity to ask themselves a question: What would Ronald Reagan have done? He worked hard to maintain a welcoming, open and diverse Republican Party. He would have been appalled to see Republicans like Fletcher and Adams conclude that they had no other option than to leave the party.
The former California governor called on his party to compromise and he used Reagan as an example. “To succeed, Republicans need to embrace true Reaganism,” he said, “and that means embracing the true Reagan, a brave and independent leader who believed in solutions and compromise.”
And he mentioned other prominent Republicans who worked together for the American people and who believed in compromise like Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.
Teddy Roosevelt is still a hero among environmentalists for his conservationist policies. Dwight Eisenhower believed in the value of investing in infrastructure, and we can thank him for our highway system. Nixon, who originally attracted me to the party, nearly passed universal healthcare. He also created the national Environmental Protection Agency, which some modern Republicans want to close down.
Schwarzenegger offered this little piece of advise to the Republican leaders;
It’s time to stop thinking of the Republican Party as an exclusive club where your ideological card is checked at the door, and start thinking about how we can attract more solution-based leaders like Nathan Fletcher and Anthony Adams.
