Le 5 Janvier 2007, le chef de l’exécutif d’un Etat d’envergure comparable à celle de la France a fait un discours que n’aurait pas renié François Bayrou. En voici des extraits :

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Like Paul on the road to Damascus , I had an experience that opened my eyes. And what was it that I saw? I saw that people, not just in California , but across the nation, were hungry for a new kind of politics, a politics that looks beyond the old labels, the old ways, the old arguments.

As a matter of fact, the California historian Kevin Starr says that we must think of ourselves as belonging not just to the Republican Party or the Democratic Party…but to the Party of California … because California is a collective ideal worth preserving.

The Party of California is beyond ideology and one to which all of us belong.

There are growing numbers of independent voters in this state. In fact, if the current trend continues, they will outnumber each of the major parties in 20 years from now. They like some of the Republican ideas. But they also like some of the Democratic ideas. At the same time they think some Republican ideas are too far right. They think some Democratic ideas are too far to the left. And they rightly know that if you stick to just one party’s proposals you miss half of the good ideas.

Some pundits said that I won reelection because I co-opted the Democratic agenda. Some said that the Democratic Legislature, by working with me to increase the minimum wage or to reform prescription drug costs, abandoned the Democratic nominee for governor. This is the kind of partisan thinking that frustrates the voters and diminishes our democracy.

The people are disgusted with a mindset that would rather get nothing done than accomplish something through compromise. I want to thank the Legislature for taking action this past year on behalf of the people, not politics. I thank them for taking that risk.

The question is not what are the needs of the Republicans or the Democrats? The real question is what are the needs of our people? We don’t need Republican roads or Democratic roads. We need roads. We don’t need Republican health care or Democratic health care. We need health care.

We don’t need Republican clean air or Democratic clean air. We all breathe the same air.

When California ’s leaders have worked together, we have accomplished great things.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we face important issues that should unite us. I believe that we have an opportunity to move past partisanship… to move past bi-partisanship… to move to post-partisanship. Post-partisanship is not simply Republicans and Democrats each bringing their proposals to the table and then working out the differences. No, post-partisanship is Republicans and Democrats actively giving birth to new ideas together.

I believe that it will would promote a new centrism and a new trust in our political system. And I believe that we have a window to do it right now.

At one time, the greatest public policy innovations came from the liberals, such as during the New Deal. Then the most innovative ideas came from the conservatives, such as Ronald Reagan. It is time we that combined the best of both ideologies into a new creative center. But this is a dynamic center that is not held captive by either the left or the right or the past.

Centrist does not mean weak. It does not mean watered down or warmed over. It means well-balanced and well-grounded. The American people are instinctively centrist…so should be our government. America ’s political parties should return to the center. They should return to the center where the people are.

No one ideology can solve prison reform or immigration reform or any other of the challenges facing us. It will take the best ideas of everybody, everyone. It will take creative thinking. It will take negotiations. And it will take letting go of the past.

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So as I begin this new term as your governor, I make this simple pledge to the people of California . I will look to the future. I will look to the center. And I will look to the dreams of the people.

Pour ceux qui ne l’auraient pas reconnu, il s’agit du second discours d’investiture d’Arnold Scharzenegger en tant que Gouverneur de Californie. Comme quoi les idées centristes font leur chemin même dans les contextes les plus inattendus.

Remplacez le nom du pays et ceux des partis, traduisez en français… On y croirait non ?

Alors, François Bayrou sera-t-il le Terminator de l’élection présidentielle 2007 ?

No problemo !

YARPP