Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [62]
Headline: SOME ADVICE FROM VENTURA
Jesse Ventura, the professional wrestling bully boy who parlayed his celebrity into one term as Minnesota’s governor, has some advice for a fellow entertainer-turned-politician. . . .
“Don’t be spin doctored and stay away from the Republican Party, who will try to make you something you’re not.”
—The New York Times, August 17, 2003
My strongest recommendation was that Arnold simply be himself. An honest man who doesn’t necessarily have all the answers. I told him to “keep your distance from special-interest groups, powerful lobbyists and their dirty money. The fact is, Arnold, you don’t need them. You can win this race by going straight to the people.”
Talk from your heart, be willing to take some chances and “expose the status quo politicians of both parties.”
I didn’t receive an invitation to Arnold’s inaugural. I understand why. He’s a Republican, and imagine what hoo-rah it would have caused if the so-called “high priest” of the independent movement had shown up. I did send him a bottle of champagne with a congratulatory note. But we haven’t talked or seen each other since he became governor.
Then, in 2004, I appeared on TV ads in California opposing his idea that the Native American gambling casinos pay 25 percent of their revenues in taxes. That’s at a time when corporate taxes in California were, I believe, at 6 or 7 percent. To me, the politicians had granted Native American tribes the rights to exclusive gambling and then, when they realized how much money it generated, they wanted to dip their hands into the till and change the game. The Native Americans had agreed they would pay what any other corporation did in taxes—but Arnold wanted them to foot the bill in order to close his budget gap. That way, like all good Republicans, he could tell the people it wasn’t coming out of their taxes.
His argument was that the Indian tribes can be taxed as much as we desire because we give them a monopoly. At first glance, that seems pretty valid. The other corporations are taxed at a lower rate, because they face competition. There’s only one problem with this logic, which I brought up at the time. If we’re going to do that to Native American gambling, then why isn’t it being done to baseball? Baseball is given a monopoly, yet you don’t see California’s government upping the taxes on the California Angels or the Oakland A’s or the San Diego Padres. I mean, the ballplayers and the owners are making millions every year, and they’re granted an antitrust exemption. But, of course, baseball is the great American pastime, and untouchable.
So, I sided with the Native Americans. Here you had the Caucasians ticked off at the Indians, because the Indians are making all this money—through an agreement that the Caucasians made with them! There we go again, breaking our deals, just like we’ve done to Indians for the last two hundred years.
When the press asked Arnold about my reaction, he said, “Well, what do you think friends are for?” And he laughed, which I loved. He still had his sense of humor, and I think understood that he and I simply stood on different sides of this issue. In fact, that summer Arnold ended up signing revised gaming agreements with five of California’s most prosperous tribes, guaranteeing the state roughly 10 to 15 percent of their profits. Then he came out against a ballot initiative calling for all tribes to fork over 25 percent, which went down to defeat that November.
On most every issue today, I see Arnold’s political views as being very close to my own. I highly commend what he’s doing for stem cell research, and he’s out in front of every other state in combating global warming—both of these directly in contrast with the hard-core Republicans. On all the social issues, in fact, Arnold has turned into a liberal Democrat.