Cloud Cuckoo Land

California has just elected an adolescent fantasy as governor. One imagines fans, used to paying forSchwarzenegger's image projected on a screen, leaving rallies feeling blessed at having glimpsed him in theflesh - dyed hair, induced tan, eyebrow-waxing, capped teeth, and all - much as winners from a church bingo gohome feeling blessed.

The model for American society is fast becoming a set of gigantic lotteries, the final reduction of theAmerican Dream. While I dislike most nonsense about dreams and visions, at least the line about the AmericanDream did recall an epic struggle in a brave new world with its waves of vibrant, migrant population.

For years now there has been a growing view in America that opportunity consists in every citizen getting alottery ticket for some dazzling pay-out. It's an idea implicit in think-tank pamphlets and in the behavior ofmany American corporations. Of course, lotteries only work because almost everyone loses, but they are funalong the way, taking your mind off unglamorous reality, and anticipation is hyped-up for each new draw.

The lottery-society idea now has been extended from the economy to government itself. The people ofCalifornia voted to eject as governor a perfectly competent man overtaken by a wave of adverse economicchange. Never mind allowing him to make changes and adjustments - that is, allowing him to govern. Never mindorderly government. He's a loser, get rid of him. We want it all, and we want it now. In his place, bets areplaced on a celebrity whose every utterance is a cut-and-paste slogan from the Internet site of some Americanthink-tank.

And it doesn't seem to matter that his past is littered with nasty behavior. The right-wing is like that:ceaselessly preaching morality, but when one of its own is caught, as it were, with his pants down, he alwayssomehow still qualifies to govern.

The current President had a history of substance abuse and rich-boy drifting, but a few mumbled referencesabout the Lord made him a Christian warrior-President. And so Schwarzenegger's life-long lousy behaviortowards women and past Hitler-admiration are swept away. I don't know that he ever mentioned the Lord duringhis campaign, but clearly he is needed for the Lord's work.

Despite the tired slogans of his campaign, Schwarzenegger's opening gambit, as of this writing, is todemand money from the President for California's financial plight. Now there's an original idea. I wonder howmany drawling, sputtering Republicans over the last thirty years have excoriated liberals about money and"the damned fed'rah gov'ment"? Well, this is a sophisticated new breed of Republicans. They'vediscovered a magic formula: it's okay to spend more, lots more, as long as you also cut taxes.

Of course, Schwarzenegger will have an entrée at the White House the former Democratic governor couldnever have had, but it does seem an awkward time to ask for money. The new Governor may have to stand in along line of diplomats from countries seeking early installments of their War on Terror bribes, from Pakistan,Turkey, and Poland to some thirty or forty others. There are scores of corporate representatives lined-up,wanting their first bloated payment for screwing in light bulbs or replacing taps at American headquarters inIraq. There's also an impressive contingent looking to donate to the President's upcoming campaign, providingsome understanding over contracts in Iraq can be reached.

Well, Schwarzenegger probably will get in ahead of some of these people. Bush does want a warm greeting inCalifornia during the re-election campaign. Could it be that the principled Schwarzenegger is using politicalleverage for a bribe? No, this is the business of the nation, as conducted between Republican governments.

Well, a no-account, ranting, army-nut drifter in Germany about seventy years ago did set Germany back onthe rails from the Great Depression, just before he proceeded to blow up the entire rail system.

People do get the government they deserve, and California has elected a circus, complete with heady whiffsof elephant manure and an obscene cabaret act. My God, there's even America's Political Gothic, the ghastlyBorgia clan from Massachusetts, taking bows as toothy, sequined performers, drawn to new sources of power theway vampires are to fresh blood.

Oh well, they can always have another recall, can't they?