Schwarzenegger: Flip-flopping Is Great
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in California, Independents, NewsHere’s Arnold’s POV on politicians changing their mind…
Flip-flopping is getting a bad rap, because I think it is great. Someone has made a mistake. I mean, someone has, for 20 or 30 years, been in the wrong place with his idea and with his ideology and says, ‘You know something? I changed my mind. I am now for this.’ As long as he’s honest or she’s honest, I think that is a wonderful thing. You can change your mind…
This philosophy served him well back in 2005 when he found his take no prisoners approach didn’t sit well with California voters, so he adopted his current philosophy and was easily re-elected in 2006.
However, a little less than two years later, his approval numbers aren’t so hot. A poll taken last month shows his approval among Californians is only at 31%.
Still, I agree with him in spirit, because I do think that the best idea should ultimately win. Maybe that philosophy isn’t serving him as well as it did in 2006, but I can’t help but think that he wouldn’t even be around right now if he hadn’t adopted a more centrist outlook.
What do you think?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 and is filed under California, Independents, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Changing your position based on factual shifts is a good thing, and I’m all for it. What I’m NOT for is changing your position while pretending you never did, and failing to come clean and admit you changed your position, and explaining why you did so.
And that’s what can quite righteously be pejoratized as “flip-flopping.”
So, no, I wouldn’t call flip-flopping great.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
This is such a double edge sword for politicians. As a candidate, I was accused of being “wishy-washy” when I wanted to get all the facts before stating a position. But as a citizen I want to know the candidate for whom I vote is solid with their positions on issues I care about…and will stay that way! So is it only OK for an elected to change their mind when they change it to agree with me? :) Gosh darn, this democracy experiment is messy.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:10 am
I am all for people having the courage to change their mind in response to an ongoing assessment of the facts. But changing your mind once on a given issue is simply one flip. Many flips on multiple issues indicates a flip-flopper.
Ultimately, its a question of whether you feel a given pol has changed his or her mind
• as a matter of expediency
_or_
• as a result of a genuine change of heart or flash of genuine insight.
The term “flip-flopper” is a pejorative, and I am persuaded by the notion that the usage inherently implies that a given pol is prone to frequent changes of position primarily as a matter of political expediency. And that such a pol will given the frequent appearance of trying to have it both ways. Exhibit A in my mind is probably John “I was for it before I was against it” Kerry.
The current state of the art for inveterate flip-floppers is demonstrated by Schwarzenegger…who conflates flip-flopping with the genuine change of heart. But as we can all easily see, there is a vast difference between an occasional change of heart and perpetually weasel-like positioning.