Dear Ahnold, You're a Diplomatic Dunce, Not Ready for Primetime
by Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D.
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
Please know that I'm one among many Californians who are deeply disappointed in your increasingly-boorish gubernatorial misbehavior, which at best lacks ethical integrity, and at worst cannot stand the light of further public scrutiny without seriously tarnishing California's reputation. I will offer you two illustrative examples.
First, you've already betrayed the trust of your California constituents by breaking your much-ballyhooed pre-election promise: namely, that you'd never accept what are, in your own words, essentially bribes from moneyed special interests. Then, as soon as you were elected, you proved that you were only lying to us by: (1) promptly accepting large "donations" from Chevron, among other corporations, thus making yourself politically beholden to the moneyed special interests; and (2) even worse, accepting $350,000 from corporate donors merely to attend the Republican National Convention in NYC!
Governor, do you mistake us for naively-inattentive toddlers? Did you really think the citizens of California wouldn't notice this fraudulent betrayal of your sacred public pledge, which was merely an expediently made pretext to propel yourself into a political office that you never could have earned through the normal electoral process? Sadly, you've already become a corrupt special-interest slot-machine: "Just slide those dollars into The Governator, then wait for whatever legislation you want!"
Second, your polarizing speech at the Republican Convention was filled with unnecessary inflammatory comments, such as: (A) your irresponsible remark which denigrated the United Nations; and (B) your embarrassing reiterations of silly Hollywood lines like "economic girlie-men." Concerning the latter, inquiring minds everywhere still want to know exactly what that thoughtlessly puerile utterance is supposed to mean: if a man loses his job due to corporate outsourcing, is he then rendered a "girlie-man" within your troglodytic mind?
Finally, your speech's biographical comments crossed over the line by undiplomatically maligning your country of origin with gross historical falsehoods as set forth in this article, Austrian Scholars Question Arnold's Homeland Remarks.
Governor, these xenophobic expressions of ultranationalism do not establish you as a patriot, but rather expose you as a diplomatic dunce who's clearly not ready for primetime. Did you think you could just self-servingly declare yourself to be the uber-immigrant-who's-made-good, wrap yourself in the flag, wave the bloody shirt of 9/11, then falsely implicate Iraq in 9/11, and that we "simpletonians" wouldn't notice that you're irresponsibly engaging in divisive acts of demagogic salesmanship, rather than in unitive acts of gubernatorial statesmanship?
Sir, a growing number of California's loyal citizens fear that you're well out of your depth, not only due to your lack of political experience, but also due to your glaringly-obvious intellectual and emotional immaturity.
Therefore, unless both your hamfisted-palooka demagoguery and your integrity-negating unethical behavior undergo drastic modifications forthwith and posthaste, please be advised that a well-financed statewide gubernatorial recall effort will commence against you shortly, through which your entirely-undeserved brief reign of errors will be brought to a screeching halt. As in: "All those who live by the recall shall perish by the recall!"
Quite Sincerely,
Mr. Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D.
Loyal Citizen Of The Great State Of California
Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D., is both Executive Director of the American Center for International Law ("ACIL"), and a freelance writer. E-mail him at: evpeters8@aol.com
