At the heart of the Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign is a simple notion: The average Joe is being ripped off.
Sacramento has its hand in Joe's pockets, Gov. Gray Davis is the chief thief, and it's time to get even with him and rebuke the whole rotten institution he represents.
The point was beautifully made when Arnold gave the signal in Costa Mesa last week, and a wrecking ball fell on an Oldsmobile spray-painted with "Davis Car Tax." Spectators roared as if it were the Boston Tea Party. But on the road with Arnold's California Comeback Express, I noticed something at the rallies in Costa Mesa, San Diego and Arcadia.
The revolutionaries don't seem to be suffering as much as you'd expect, given their zeal for storming the walls. They dress reasonably well (particularly in San Diego), they drive cars the size of PT boats, and they struggle when I ask what exactly is missing in their lives.
"I guess taxes are too high," a retiree told me in Costa Mesa.
Maybe so, but they're higher in many other states. And although California doesn't have the friendliest business climate, or anywhere close to it, it's among the nation's leaders in wages.
The hike in the annual car tax puts it among the highest in the nation. But on the average car, we're talking about a jump from $70 to $210. Not exactly chump change, but it's quite a spectacle to see people delirious over a savings of $140, especially when it will mean $4 billion in cuts that Schwarzenegger has yet to explain.
In Arcadia, a real estate agent told me only Arnold can rescue us from these troubled times.
"Wait a minute," I said. "Aren't home prices higher than ever?"
You'd think these are salad days for a real estate agent. But I guess you can never have too much.
We're in the most prosperous state of the richest country in the history of man, but how can you feel good about yourself -- let alone worry about the textbook shortage -- when your next-door neighbor just got a big-screen TV two feet wider than yours?
For those who feel they're not getting their fair share, Arnold's medicine goes down easy, and it's an amazing thing to observe. A Hollywood actor worth $200 million is telling regular Joes he understands their pain, and they lap it up.
He rails against high electric bills even though he was reportedly hobnobbing with Enron villain Ken Lay at the height of the energy crisis, and Arnold's Army cheers.
