What Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't understand

From my upcoming American Conservative [subscribe here] article debunking the widespread myths about the politics of California (such as that Pete Wilson's support for Proposition 187 cost the GOP the state):

After getting off to a strong start, including repealing the illegal alien drivers license bill as promised, Gov. Schwarzenegger stumbled badly in 2005 by not realizing that his slate of initiatives to undermine the power of the public employees unions were perceived by his natural base, the white lower middle class, as an assault on their survival in California's outlandishly expensive housing market. Firemen, cops, nurses, and teachers, finding themselves squeezed between the Silicon Valley venture capitalists and Hollywood entertainment lawyers above them and the masses of illegal immigrants below them, and in direct competition for homes with extended families of Asian legal immigrants who often muster three or four paychecks per household, rallied support from their neighbors, who saw their union perks not as sinecures, but as life preservers.

This is the kind of thing that Mayor Daley of Chicago understands in his bones, but Schwarzenegger just didn't get.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer