Chameleon Arnold now says ‘simple ways’ of Austria made him a green fanatic

Feb. 2, 2013

By John Seiler

Ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to give an inspiring stock speech about how he grew up loving America’s freedom, and longed to live here. He contrasted that with the stultifying ways of Austria, where he grew up and opportunity was scarce. I heard the speech at least five times, beginning with a Reason Foundation dinner around 1989.

The speech obviously worked, because he kept giving the same one and it catapulted him into the governorship. The best known version was the one he gave at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, when he was riding high in the first year of his governorship.

Now he’s changed his tune.

It turns out that his upbringing in austere Austria made him a green fanatic:

“(Reuters) – Arnold Schwarzenegger credited his simple upbringing amid the lakes and hills of Austria for a recent conversion to fully fledged green activism, the latest stage in his varied career.

“The former body-builder, star of the “Terminator” action films and governor of California grew up in Thal, a small village in the Austrian province of Styria, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 21.

“‘Growing up in my house, we knew about sustainability before it was hip. We called it ‘necessity’,'” Schwarzenegger told an environmental conference he hosted in Vienna this week.

“‘We didn’t have video games, televisions or iPhones. We had the rolling hills, the castles, the ruins, and the beautiful lakes,'” he said. “‘Even after I made it big and became governor of California, I held on to this love of nature.'”

What a chameleon and hypocrite. Arnold lives in a massive compound in Malibu. He tools around town in a massive Mercedes (picture at right as he was given a parking ticket) and another massive Bentley (picture above).

Echoing his stock speech, Arnold just said:

“When I was a little boy in Austria, all I could think about was moving to America, to become the greatest bodybuilder champion in the world and make millions of dollars and be an action hero.

“My dream became reality. Who knew my greatest achievement would be in the real world fighting for a green energy future? Green energy wasn’t even in my vocabulary.”

In other words, he used America’s free-enterprise system to make $700 million. Now he’s using his money and political clout to make sure Americans no longer have that opportunity, but are reduced to the socialist poverty of Austria in the 1950s.

He also didn’t point out that, after about 32 years of socialism beginning with Hitler’s National Socialist Anschluss in 1938, Austria in the early 1970s (after Arnold had left) switched to capitalism and now is rich.

Austria’s per capita GDP now is $49,668, above the $48,328 for the United States. Austria is fortunate that Arnold exited to promote socialism elsewhere. Not so fortunate have been America, especially California.