Arnold Schwarzenegger’s final speech is entitled “State of the State” and devoted to the burning issues of California. The speech begins with a funny story about the pig and the pony, referring to the idea of teamwork of two opposite parties. Schwarzenegger recalls the tragic events connected with wildfires occupied California during 2007 in his speech. Further on, he touches upon the burning issues of the state, including its economy, employment, and taxes. He tries to convince the citizens that he has done all his best to improve the economy of the state with the help of a constitutional amendment to control the budget, but it is not his fault that the budget has not been accepted several times. Schwarzenegger expresses the necessity of changes in the state concerning the environment, infrastructure, education, and energy. Although many improvements in these areas have been achieved, it is necessary to make more changes to make the state function better. He points out that these problems concern every citizen and the whole government. Only common efforts may demonstrate good results.
Arnold Schwarzenegger does not express his support to the Republicans directly. He appeals to everyone, including the Republicans and the Democrats, to stop their war between each other and unite their efforts to improve the state. His speech is very flexible as far as he does not use any hints of supporting the Republicans and opposing the Democrats. He points out that their interests are common, and their work should be united. When he provides the story about the pig and the pony as an example of teamwork, he points out that there are no particular associations of the parties with these animals. He highlights the idea of teamwork with the help of this example without any prejudices.
It may seem that Schwarzenegger tries to express the Democrats’ plans for the improvement of the state. These plans are the building of hospitals, schools, roads, the rise of the minimum wage, more attention to public works and emergency response services. Schwarzenegger points out these ideas to attract the Democrats’ attention to the fact that they have common aims with the Republicans. Despite the same aims of these two opposite parties, the ways of their achievements are different. The Republicans base the realization of these projects on the debts while the Democrats strictly reject these debts that make the country be a deadlock. Arnold Schwarzenegger structures his speech in such a way that the aims are paid more attention than the ways of their achievement that make the Democrats believe that the governor supports them.
Schwarzenegger’s rejection to support the health care reform provided by the Democrats presented at the beginning of his speech testifies to the fact that he is not going to support the Democrats and he belongs to Republicans. He uses very interesting tricks to attract the Democrats’ attention to his speech touching upon the problems that are so important to the Democrats. His speech is structured quite reasonably. In the beginning, he expresses his main idea of the teamwork of the Democrats and the Republicans, further on he rejects the Democrats’ health care reform that testifies to his support of the Republicans, and then he expresses the aims of the government that resemble the main goals of the Democrats’ program. Schwarzenegger’s speech seems not to support any party, but it may seem to the Democrats as well as to the Republicans that the governor is on their side.