Arnold Schwarzenegger is best known for his roles as an action hero.
Having spent the majority of his adult life in California, Schwarzenegger felt compelled to do what he could to help his adopted home state through the Great Recession of the early 2000s.
When the actor was first elected governor, he was a hit among voters and beloved for the way that his voters felt that he genuinely cared about the country.
However, many Californians feel that Schwarzenegger never lived up to what he was supposed to be.
Was Arnold Schwarzenegger A Good Governor?
No, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not a good governor.
However, the actor wasn’t the worst, considering that he didn’t have a history in politics.
While some may blame his “middle of the road” decisions, others say that Schwarzenegger was simply handed a poor set of cards.
Most Californians remember Schwarzenegger’s term as one with the least amount of corruption and the most diverse executive and judicial branch appointments.
Although the governor was a member of the Republican party, he had no problem appointing Democrats, Republicans, and Independents equally.
When Schwarzenegger first entered office in 2003, he made promises to the working class that he would make California a better place for businesses and would help recreate a government that would actually be accountable.
What Californians experienced instead was a politician who some believed to be in over his head and others who believed that his ever-changing opinions on problems were only changed to save his political skin.
No Californian could deny that the actor was charming and had a sense of humor that often got him out of trouble.
Neither his charm nor humor was enough to make the citizens of his state realize that Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t willing to fix California in any other way than the way he planned.
Schwarzenegger had promised to make infrastructure a focus of his campaign, but legislators couldn’t agree on how to get the money.
Republicans argued that there simply wasn’t enough money to go through with his plan, while Democrats wanted to implement regular tax increases.
The governor knew that the citizens of California would not be able to afford another tax increase, but he also knew that the infrastructure problems couldn’t be ignored.
No one ever knew what kind of recommendation he’d throw out next or how he’d feel.
What Were Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Stances As A Politician?
Arnold Schwarzenegger has always been different from most other Republican candidates, although he firmly agrees with the group on fiscal manners.
Outside of financial decisions, Schwarzenegger was known for sharing similar views with Democrats on topics such as gay rights, gun control, and environmental matters.
During his first round of bill signings, Schwarzenegger signed a law that required health insurance companies to provide homosexual couples with the same benefits as unmarried heterosexual couples.
He also expanded California’s hate-crime laws to protect transgender citizens, despite members of the Republican party seeing these decisions as against their pro-family agenda.
Another move that upset the Republican party was when he approved a bill that allowed the sale of clean needles, in an attempt to slow down the spread of AIDS.
The Campaign for California Families considered this decision the promotion of drug use, coming directly from the governor.
Schwarzenegger also positioned himself as someone who cared deeply about the environment, understanding the health of the nation relies heavily on the health of the planet.
To limit the amount of air pollution, the Schwarzenegger administration was incredibly strict on auto emission rules and cruise ship pollution.
During his terms as governor, Schwarzenegger wanted to protect both the environment and the public.
He signed multiple bills to protect the Sierra Nevada and took a closer look at which kinds of guns were being sold throughout the state.
Schwarzenegger was supportive of the state legislature’s move to ban the sale of high-powered .50 caliber BMG rifles, despite the major objections that came from the California Rifle and Pistol Association.
Although these moves were applauded by the Democratic party, he would refer to them as “girlie men” when they wouldn’t agree to one of his budgets or put the measures he wanted to see on the ballot.
What Promises Did Arnold Schwarzenegger Make During His Campaign?
One of the biggest problems that California citizens had with Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor was all of his broken promises.
Many people often compared him to former Governor Pete Wilson, who was also a Republican governor of California who broke promises.
When Schwarzenegger started his political career, he promised not to raise additional money for his campaign because he was wealthy enough to support his own career.
However, it didn’t take him long to begin raising funds from special interests.
When he appeared before the Sacramento Bee editorial board, he asked for money by saying, “What’s important is that I can reform California.
And the way we can reform California is if I have the money to confront special interests.”
Another example of his broken promises came when he supported Proposition 58, which was a balanced-budget requirement for Sacramento politicians.
However, he also proposed $6 billion in borrowing for 2005 until 2007.
One of the biggest blows came when the California governor had to choose between his promise to improve education and his promise to never raise taxes.
He knew that he had to break one of these promises, but he also understood how badly it would damage his reputation as a centrist politician.
In the end, Schwarzenegger retracted his commitment to improving education in favor of never raising taxes or increasing the cost of living in the expensive state.
The move ended up undermining some of the work he had done in previous years.
Most of the support that Schwarzenegger had for the public school system hinged on whether he could get the economy in working order again, which never happened.
The school system ended up losing out on $2 billion and asked the public schools to pick up the $500 million share for teacher retirement funds.
The Scandal That Ended His Marriage
Becoming the governor of a state can change your life and have you go down in American history, but Arnold Schwarzenegger learned that becoming a high-profile politician has its downside.
With the whole state keeping their eyes on you, things that have been done in the dark often come to the light.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were seemingly the perfect couple and were the most attractive couple in politics.
Maria Shriver was part of the Kennedy dynasty and had grown up around politics her entire life.
The Schwarzenegger family had the same housekeeper for 20 years, during which Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mildred Baena had a sexual relationship.
After working for the famous family for a decade, Baena had a son named Joseph Baena.
Shriver and Schwarzenegger had been going through therapy when Shriver decided to bring up the maid’s child with the help of her therapist.
It was only then that Schwarzenegger admitted that he was the father of the housekeeper’s child and that he had slept with Mildred Baena.
The couple’s friends and family were gravely disappointed by this news and Maria Shriver filed for divorce on July 1st of 2011.
Between the two of them, their estate had a value of $400 million and they didn’t have a prenuptial agreement.
Despite what happened, Mildred Baena was able to retire from housekeeping in January of 2011 and left on good terms with the family.
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t like to speak about Mildred or Joseph Baena publicly, he is proud to say that he takes care of both of them.
The star of The Terminator wishes he could travel back in time and stop himself from making the mistake that he is still paying for to this day.
Joseph Baena has grown up to be a real estate agent and a bodybuilder.
The Sexual Assault Allegations
Fathering another woman’s child may have been the nail in the coffin for the marriage, but Arnold Schwarzenegger already had a history of sexual deviance that was coming back to bite him directly after serving as governor.
From the 1970s until the early 2000s, the action star had several accusations of sexual assault against him.
The sexual assault cases had been brought up during his political campaign, but his campaign managers were quick to shut down the accusations and saw them as baseless attacks on Schwarzenegger’s political career.
However, he admitted to having “behaved badly” while on multiple movie sets in October of 2003.
Six different women claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Schwarzenegger, with only two willing to be named while the other four felt that they would ruin their careers if they were to speak out against the beloved action star.
Three of them claimed they were groped. One woman claimed that Schwarzenegger reached up her skirt to grab her bottom.
Another claim was that he tried to take the swimsuit off another while alone in an elevator, and he pulled another woman onto his lap and asked if “a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her.”
One of the cases was from the 1970s, two were from the 1980s, another two were from the 1990s, and the last one was from the 2000s.
For a political candidate who promised to be a “champion of women,” it seemed that Schwarzenegger had once again broken one of his promises.
While he admitted to some of these claims, Schwarzenegger stated that he thought he was simply being playful.
When he originally heard about the accusations, he claimed that was doing a lot of crazy things at the time and that those stories came from a time before he was a married man.
Is Arnold Schwarzenegger Still A Politician?
Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still a politician, but he never plans to run for any kind of office again.
Instead, he prefers to see himself as an “elder statesman” and focuses on making public statements about political and public health situations.
Schwarzenegger prefers to serve as an advisor to politicians, rather than being in the direct heat of American politics.
He also likes to use his star power to raise awareness about situations surrounding public wellbeing or some political stances.
Since he was able to set away from being a full-time politician, Schwarzenegger has been able to take on a role as a bipartisan voice in American politics.
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the best-paid action stars in Hollywood, his pets are the ones who steal the show during his public statement videos.
Cherry is a small rescue dog, the smallest of the bunch, but this loyal pup loves to follow her owner everywhere.
Lulu is the mischievous and lovable miniature donkey that roams freely between the yard and house.
Whiskey is the brown miniature horse who can be found trotting around the property and the home, right alongside Lulu.
Whether Schwarzenegger is being interviewed or he’s making his own home videos, you’ll see his gang of lovable pets being featured just as much as he is.
When making public health videos, Arnold Schwarzenegger gets help from his girlfriend who is a West Los Angeles physical therapist.
He has also used his home videos to raise money for protective health gear, even donating $1 million of his own money towards making sure people had what they needed to stay safe during the pandemic.
After his time as governor, he also created the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California.
Arnold Schwarzenegger On The Trump And Biden Administrations
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger may not be an active politician anymore, he has been incredibly vocal about the moves of presidents since he has been in office himself.
Regardless of the political party, Schwarzenegger has given his honest opinion on how the presidents have handled the difficult situations plaguing the United States.
Despite Schwarzenegger and former President Donald Trump coming from the same political party, the fellow entertainer-turned-politician felt that Trump would “go down in history as the worst president ever.”
Schwarzenegger had questioned Trump’s leadership many times during his term as president, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was the United States Capitol riot.
It brought back painful memories of having to learn about Kristallnacht as a child in Austria while going as far to call it the United States’s own Day of Broken Glass.
However, Trump and Schwarzenegger’s feuds started shortly after Schwarzenegger replaced Trump on The Apprentice.
During Trump’s presidency, Schwarzenegger blamed Trump for promoting antisemitism and racism among his supporters.
When Democratic candidate Joe Biden became the next president of the United States, Republican Schwarzenegger was eager to be able to support the new president through advice and offered to give whatever resources were needed to help the country heal from the pandemic and divided nature of the country.
Schwarzenegger claims that he is simply following the advice that his former mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, once told him: “Never turn down a president. It doesn’t matter what party he’s from.”
Alongside the Biden Administration and the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to focus on topics such as pollution, universal healthcare, and immigration reform.
Schwarzenegger is currently focusing on using his celebrity status to raise awareness for different solutions to some of his most concerning problems.
Returning His Focus To Film
Like many different stars, Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to team up with Netflix to create a family series that will star Schwarzenegger as a CIA operative who has a daughter in the same profession.
Neither of them knows about the other’s true career, and both try hard to keep it a secret from one another.
His daughter is set to be played by Monica Barbaro during the eight-part series.
Not only will Schwarzenegger be starring in the show, but he will be the executive producer as well.
The showrunner is Nick Santaro, who has worked as a writer and producer for The Sopranos, Law & Order, and Prison Break.
This will be Schwarzenegger’s first step from the world of action films to the world of TV drama.
Although Arnold Schwarzenegger may not have been the greatest governor in American history, he will still be remembered as one of the most iconic action heroes of all time.
Schwarzenegger has been able to make a new identity for himself, despite the political downfall he had.
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