America and Electing Celebrities

NOTE: This article took longer to publish due to this being the longest article I've written myself, so cut me some slack.

This post is going to be more of a rant, I am currently frustrated at the success of Republicans electing inexperienced celebrities. In fact, the reason why most of these people even got elected to their office is because people didn't care about their main goals beliefs, they just thought it would be cool to have a celebrity in that position. That's why if Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had actually ran for president in 2020, he would win. He has been in much more movies than Trump, and before the 2016 Election, he was much more well known. In fact, in only one case I could find that a Democrat Celebrity with no prior experience is comedian Al Franken, a former SNL writer, who was elected to the Senate (Not the state Senate, The Congressional Senate). In total there are seven Republican celebrities elected that I found of note, and one Democratic celebrity elected. The highest position a Democratic celebrity has been elected to is the Senate. The highest position a Republican celebrity has been elected to is the Presidency. Twice (Well, technically one was governor of California before being president). The reason I hate celebrity politicians is because I find that inexperienced celebrities make very bad decisions in office, probably because they are amateurs.The following is a list of the seven most notable Celebrities and their elected positions, as well as their reason for fame and some other things. (NOTE: For the purposes of this writing, any conservative in any non-Democratic party will be clumped into the same category/section, the Conservatives. Usually, I would just clump in all the Independents with the Conservatives because I see most Independents as just closeted Republicans. Not including Bernie Sanders, of course. But this time I will seperate them by their policies).

Conservative politicians:

1. Sonny Bono - He was a singer/songwriter (who had four wives, including Cher) (he was also in a few movies).

Government Position: Mayor of Palm Springs (1988 - 1992) and later Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 44th district (1995 - 1998).

Info: One day Sonny tryed to open up a restaurant, but he found much diffiulty in achieving this, causing him much frustration with the local government bureaucracy. So, to solve this problem, as any normal person would, without a second thought he ran for mayor! Obviously he won, because how could he not (most voters probably ignored the fact that he was a Scientologist), and he promptly opened his restaurant. With now his main goal solved, he soon realized that he had four years left of his term. He decided that he would create The Palm Springs International Film Festival, an annual event hosted in his honor. That was the only thing of note that he did in his entire four year term! When is term was up, he decided that his stint as mayor was so great he ran for Senate! This time, however, he lost the nomination to more conservative Bruce Herschensohn, and the election to Democrat Barbara Boxer. He then decided to bring things down a notch, running two years later for the much bigger House of Representatives. He won this, and as far as anyone knows, only did one honorable thing in office. He campaigned to restore California's decaying Salton Sea, bringing the lake's problem to national attention. You see, in the 70's sea grew heavy with salt, sewage and agricultural chemicals, and disease outbreaks began to kill birds and fish. The rescue effort has even named after him. After that however, all of his other actions were quite dishonorable. He was one of twelve co-sponsors of a House bill extending copyright. Luckily, the bill was never voted on in the Senate, but a later infamous bill called the Copyright Term Extension Act (or as you may know it, the Mickey Mouse Protection Act) has a nickname after him, literally called the Sonny Bono act. He died while in office, in 1998, when he hit a tree while skiing. After his death, his wife came out and said thats he had been addicted to prescription drugs (mainly Vicodin and Valium) and that the drugs use probably caused the accident. However, there were no drugs found in his autopsy. Whatever it was, he remains the only member of Congress to have scored a number-one pop single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, as it should be. His wife then got elected to the office her dead husband! Right after him! Funny thing, her last name is still Bono even though she married a new man!

2. Alan Autry - He was an NFL Football player, and was also in a few films.

Government Position: Mayor of Fresno (2001 - 2009).

Number of Amendment Rights violated in Office: Two, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments violated against the poor, suffering homeless.

Info: NOTE: Alan is an independent, but when his terms ended, he endorsed a Republican to succeed him. He also had very Republican policies. One day in 2000, Alan just kind of, decided to run for mayor. He didn't have any experience, but Fresno has a habit of electing Republicans and people with likeminded beliefs, with the last Democratic mayor having their term end in 1993. He won, but he beat Dan Whitehurst by less than a percent! The problem is, however, I am not sure the Wikipedia article is correct in this matter. Dan Whitehurst was mayor of Fresno from 1977 to 1985, which got the two terms limit, so how can he run again if he already had gotten two terms? I'm really not sure, but it happened. When Alan got into office, he, as most other celebrities turned office-holders do, did one good deed and did everything else wrong. The good deed in this case was that he maintained a balanced budget with a surplus without cutting municipal jobs. That's it, and he was an absolute idiot for the rest of his time in office. He was a passionate supporter of California's Proposition 8, well known as the Anti-Gay Marriage Ban. He was reelected in 2004 with 72% of the vote, mostly because most Democrats boycotted the election while Republicans flooding the poll booths to keep their dear mayor in power. When he got into his second term, he immediately began a very, very ill-conceived and cruel plan to rid Fresno of the homeless. The "plan" was to order sweeps of the homeless encampments in the city's downtown. They would take and immediately destroy homeless peoples' property. Mayor Alan argued that the city had a right to keep city streets clean and that city sanitation workers were just doing their job. Unfortunately for Alan, as it turns out destroying people in needs bicycles, tents, clothing, their ID, and in one case someone lost an urn that contained their grand-daughters ashes is not, at all, legal. The Federal Court in Fresno found that these sweeps were illegal and violate the 4th and 5th amendment of the U.S. constitution because it destroyed property without due process. This story reminds me of This story by The Onion. Obviously he didn't get punished for this, that would be insane! Not even a recall effort (which is allowed under California law) was attempted! He then went without another incident like this for the rest of his term, and hopefully his political career.

3. Jesse Ventura - Former Professional WWF/E wrestler, was also in a few movies.

Government Position: Mayor of Brooklyn Park (1991 - 1995), and later Governor of Minnesota (1999 - 2003).

Info: When Jesse left WWE, an old teacher friend told him "Hey man, it would be kind cool if you were mayor of here." With this little piece of advise (and a zoning decision that angered him), with no further thought he ran for mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and won, defeating the city's 18-year incumbent. When in as mayor, he did nothing of note (he also didn't run for reelection). He then moved onto higher positions, running as the Reform candidate in 1998 for governor of the entire state of Minnesota. His campaign was mainly composed of aggressive grassroots events and television placements, using the slogan "Don't vote for politics as usual" (which honestly is the exact opposite of the main point I'm trying to get across, please vote for "politics as usual", aka experienced politicians). He spent much less than his opponents (around $300,000), being one of the first major political candidates to use the Internet as a medium of reaching out to voters. He won, obviously, however very narrowly and unexpectedly against actual hard-working politicians(though this may have been due to the spoiler effect). Even Jesse seemed to be surprised, declaring during his victory speech "We shocked the world!" As said by The Washington Post, "Jesse Ventura...won a three-way race for governor of Minnesota last night, delivering a harsh body blow to the political pros. He will be the nation's first governor to have his own action figure doll." After the election, a bunch of merchandise bearing the slogan "My governor can beat up your governor" was made around the state, because Strength > Intellect. This seemed to show, as a nickname, "Jesse 'The Mind'", was said sarcastically in reference to his frequently controversial remarks. After he went on a trade mission to China in 2002, he announced he wouldn't seek reelection, stating his heart was no longer in the job and he "tired of constant attacks on my family." This is very surprising to me, considering no other celebrity politician had realized "Hey, I'm really bad at this job" and decided not to rerun. However, I am not sure his decision was made purely because of "lack of will", as he announced this amid reports that his 22-year-old son, Tyrel, used the governor's mansion for weekend parties. His 3 1/2 years as governor were marked by scuffles with Democrats, Republicans and reporters, whom he branded "jackals", his response to the dot-com bubble that included tax increases and spending cuts that was rejected by legislators, and at one point even comparing himself to Che Guevara! A few days before the end of his term, he had the thought that he could install Minnesota's first female governor "by leaving office a few days early," and to have her portrait painted and hung in the Capitol along with all the other governors. However, he quickly retracted this after Media backlash, saying he was only "floating an idea", and it never came to fruition. He was also known to have vetoed 45 bills in his first year in office and numerous others in the years to come.

4. Arnold Schwarzenegger - Actor and Bodybuilder.

Government Position: Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (1990 - 1993), most notably Governor of California (2003 - 2011).

Info: Arnold was a very successful Actor, having one of the most recognizable names when he ran for governor. Little Backstory: Arnold had been a registered Republican for many years, and his political views were always very well-known because they differentiated highly with other prominent Hollywood stars. He even made an appearance in "Stop the Madness", an anti-drug music video sponsored by the Reagan administration, which featured many other high-profile celebrities (If you haven't already, please watch the video, it is amazing. A stupid amount of celebrities in it have taken drugs). He first entered the American eye of politics in 1988, when he accompanied then-Vice President George H. W. Bush at a campaign rally. Bush then returned the favor in 1990, appointing him chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, dubbing him "Conan the Republican." Skip ahead to 2003, when the California gubernatorial recall election was taking place, the second of its kind. This event was so interesting and unneeded that it warrants its own article, but for a later time. But, the basic thing is Gray Davis was getting recalled, who the public perceived to have been ineffective and mismanaging the states growing economic crisis. The Recall had many strange unqualified candidates, from Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, political pundit Arianna Huffington, actor Gary Coleman, former baseball commissioner Pete Ueberroth, to Schwarzenegger himself, a political theater at its most theatrical. Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy on August 6, 2003, on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He, as I mentioned earlier, had the most name recognition among all the candidates, but his political views were unknown to most Californians. Schwarzenegger refused to go to all of the debates (smart move to me, it's not his specialty) except for one, on September 24, 2003 (I highly recommend you watch it here, his responses are very bland. You can also read the transcript here, though it is black on blue, making it very hard to read. Highlight from Schwarzenegger: "Everything is not fine and dandy here in California"). On Recall day, October 7, Gray Davis was voted out by 55.4% in favor of a recall, however, most of the big-city counties voted against it, as shown on this map (Adobe Flash required). Schwarzenegger was elected with 48.6% of the vote, with Bustamante, his nearest rival, receiving 31% of the vote. He was the first foreign-born governor of California since Irishman John G. Downey in 1862. The vote was officially certified on November 14th, and he was inaugurated on November 17th. With media outlets dubbing him the "Governator", he wasted no time at all making his first action as Governor, as within minutes of being sworn in, he repealed a highly unpopular car tax increase. The registration fee when buying a car was set to 0.65% of the cars price for the majority of the five years before the election, but on October 1st, it was raised to 2%, and Arnold vowed to repeal it. Here's the problem though, since he wouldn't be Governor for more than a month after the bill was passed, there was a 10-20% decrease in car sales in that time period. The though process was that, "If it's going to be more expensive now, and if Arnold is going to repeal it on the first day he got into office like he said, I'll just wait until he's Governor to buy a car!" This was not completely Arnolds fault, but he could have made it not be as bad as it was. It was not necessary for him to immediately vow to repeal it, he would still have won by a wide margin. And if he didn't promise it, car sales would probably have gone down a bit less than they did. Arnold inherited the states budget crisis, and Ramona Finnila, who was a a Carlsbad council member at the time, said that car tax revenue makes up anywhere from a tenth to half of a city’s budget. She also said it was "extremely important" and "probably one of the biggest chunks of money that cities plan their budgets around.” Though the repeal was cheered among the public, it was loathed among city officials, who viewed the loss of tax revenue with trepidation. Statewide, the car tax reduction meant a loss of $4 billion to cities and counties. So yeah, it was great for public opinion, but terrible for the goddamn crisis the state was in. Funny thing, Gray Davis only formally ended the State of Emergency California was in due to the electricity crisis of 2000-2001 on November 13th, only four days before Arnold was sworn in. On December 9, Schwarzenegger announced that there was "No groping investigation needed" into his sexual harassment allegations. What had happened was that Rhonda Miller, a Hollywood stuntwoman, alleged that in January 1991 on the set of "Terminator 2," Schwarzenegger pulled up her T-shirt and photographed her breasts and touched them even as she fought and yelled at him to stop. She also said that she later found the photo on the ceiling of the set's makeup trailer. She came forward only the day before Schwarzenegger was sworn in, resulting in a bit of controversy. Obviously he denied this, calling it "...all news to me." However, he surprisingly issued a statement that admitted some things. Kinda. It said that he recalled seeing photos of crew members in the makeup trailer and acknowledged making what he called crude comments about them, but he denied taking Rhonda's picture or even being in the trailer at the time. What his campaign staffers did however was much more belligerent, going as far as claiming she had a criminal record. Rhonda had a news conference on October 6th, and less than one hour after that, Schwarzenegger's campaign staff "disseminated to dozens, if not hundreds, of media outlets, reporters and editors an e-mail ... that Rhonda Miller was a felon with a long criminal record."

Rhonda then filed a lawsuit alleging defamation, claiming Schwarzenegger's campaign spread lies. Paul Hoffman, her attorney, said "[Rhonda] has never been arrested in her life. She's never been convicted of anything." The lawsuit charged that the campaign staff knew she was not the same Rhonda Miller who apparently appeared in a Los Angeles court database. The site said that a Rhonda Miller had a criminal record for offences which included prostitution, forgery and drug dealing. However, that was a different Rhonda Miller. Gloria Allred, a famous (famous in the sense that she has her own Wikipedia page) women's rights attorney known for taking high-profile and often controversial cases, was also on the case. In the closing days of Schwarzenegger's campaign, he had said he would have the claims examined, and after his election said he would hire an investigator to look into the allegations. On December 9th, Schwarzenegger decided that breaking this promise wouldn't hurt his opinion polling too much, and announced that he had decided not to hire a private investigator to investigate the groping allegation (cue the surprise and shock). His reason he told the public for this? To quote CNN, "California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that an independent investigation ... isn't necessary because "the people have spoken."" His full statement was, "Their voices have been heard. They elected me to be governor, and they sent me up here to do the job. That's what I'm here to do, and so that's why I'm concentrating on this right now." His response was basically, "You know, I'm like, focusing on more important stuff right now, and that investigation thing is low-priority, so I'm not gonna do that." That is such a bullshitty reply, I don't know if I could have done it worse. He didn't even answer the question as to why he canceled the investigation, you have to read between the lines a little! Anyways, the lawsuit carried on until July 2nd, 2004, when it was thrown out by a judge. Judge Robert L. Hess of Superior Court ruled that because Rhonda had held the news conference, she was a limited public figure. As a result of this, her lawyers needed to furnish ''clear and convincing'' evidence that Schwarzenegger knew Rhonda had no criminal history, and the thing is, he probably didn't. It wasn't Schwarzenegger who sent out the email, it was his campaign staffers, and they did it without his permission. So, since that standard of proof was not met, the judge ruled. What Rhonda should have done is sued the people who actually sent the email, in which they would have won. Not only was the case thrown out, but the judge awarded Schwarzenegger the right to collect his legal fees and costs from her, because he obviously couldn't pay that himself. Rhonda did not want to pay the fees (she may have not even had the money), so she struck a bargain with Schwarzenegger: she wouldn't appeal the judge's ruling if Schwarzenegger wouldn't collect his legal fees from her. He agreed, formally ending the suit. These two things happened within the first two months of him becoming governor (except for the case settlement), and it would takes me weeks to make a complete examination of his tenure (this warrants its own article), so I am going to cut this one short.

Sources:

The Terminator and The Donald

Category:American actor-politicians

From Box Office to Ballot Box: 10 Celebrity Politicians

Sonny Bono Sources:

Salton Sea rescue to be named for Sonny Bono

Alan Autry Sources:

Whitehurst, Daniel K.

Fresno Mayor Election

Homeless Victory in Fresno has Implications for the Nation

Alan Autry Biography

Jesse Ventura Sources: