There is a well-known saying that goes like this: “The way California goes, so goes the nation.”  This saying is about to be validated once again.  The parallels between the special recall election of Gray Davis in 2003 and the 2016 presidential election are strikingly clear and obvious.

Californians were angry enough with the Democratic political machine that pandered to the illegal aliens to force a recall of the then-sitting Democratic governor, Gray Davis.  Up stepped “The Terminator,” Arnold Schwarzenegger.  His campaign slogan, which he repeated as often as he could in his deep Austrian accent, was “I am going to Sacramento to clean house!”  The fact that Arnold had no experience whatsoever in politics and that he was an actor with close ties to Hollywood did not dissuade his supporters, including myself.  The fact that he was a member of the Kennedy family by marriage to Maria Shriver did not arouse suspicion about his conservative bona fides.

As it turned out, we Californians were taken to the cleaners, and then some.  Arnold went on to govern as an east-coast liberal.  He forsook his supporters for the praise and friendship of the Kennedy family and the Hollywood elites.  After one and a half terms as governor, he had not one conservative accomplishment.  Thanks to Arnold and our current governor, Jerry Brown, California is an economic basket case of unfunded pension liabilities, entitlements, and business-strangling regulation.  You might call it Greece on steroids.

A short thirteen years after Arnold was swept into office by public disgust with the “system,” we have the emergence of “The Donald.”  The phenomenon of Donald is Arnold all over again.  There’s even an eerie similarity in the magic of the use of their first names.  Donald’s third wife is a supermodel from Slovenia whose career brought her through the fashion capitals of Milan and Paris before she became a New Yorker.  Donald himself is about as an authentic a New Yorker as there is.  He is cozy with liberal politicians as well as Madison Avenue celebrities.  He himself is a TV celebrity in the mold of Arnold.  Only California can challenge New York as a laboratory of liberalism.  Arnold promised to “clean house” and did nothing of the kind.  Will Donald “make America great again”?

The analogy here between the two is so congruous, it’s almost spooky.  I hope and pray that my worst fears for this country are unfounded.  I am a Cruz supporter who would have to pull the lever for “The Donald” if given the choice between him and Hillary.  Heaven forbid I am thrown into that predicament.