Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps a statue of an evil dictator in his home. His reasoning is perfect.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a movie star that accomplished the American dream in movie-like fashion. Starting from humble beginnings in Austria, he made his way to the United States for a better life, fame, and fortune, and eventually got elected into public office. The immigrant Arnie is proud of his adopted home. So, why does he have a bust of noted Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin in his mansion?

Well, the Lenin bust isn’t the only notorious statue Schwarzenegger has owned. He actually had several busts of “Stalin, Khrushchev, Andropov, Chernenko—every Russian leader but Brezhnev and Kosygin,” according to a 2015 Rolling Stone interview. His then-wife Maria Shriver told him to get rid of them, but he kept the one bust of Lenin. But why did he have them in the first place? And why keep the Lenin bust?

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“I like to show people losers…,” he said pointing at the Lenin statue. “And winners.” He then gestured to busts of American leaders he admired, such as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. While many consider his time serving as governor of California a mixed bag, whether a person is on the left or the right politically, few can doubt that Schwarzenegger wants what he believes is best for America, even when he doesn't personally benefit from it.

This is why Schwarzenegger has been especially vocal on social media. His concern is the current dust-up between Texas and California regarding their voting districts. Texas Republicans’ plan to redistrict voting districts in the state to obtain more seats in the House of Representatives at the request of President Donald Trump. As a means to counter this move, California governor Gavin Newsom is pushing to redraw maps in his state to match up those new seats, should Texas make the first move. Such moves create an advantage for political parties currently in power in those states, and lessen the impact of the ballot box should officials fall short in the eyes of their constituents. Schwarzenegger, in his view, believes this gerrymandering standoff leaves voters out in the cold.

“It’s not a battle between Democrats and Republicans,” Schwarzenegger said to The Houston Chronicle. “This is a battle between the politicians and the people. I go with the people.”

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"He believes gerrymandering is evil, no matter which party does it, and he has opposed it everywhere since his first unsuccessful campaign in 2005 in California. He considers the successful campaigns in 2008 and 2010 some of his proudest moments,” said Schwarzenegger's spokesperson, Daniel Ketchell, to ABC News. “For the politicians, this is about the next election. For him, this is a 20-year battle to 'terminate gerrymandering' regardless of the party at fault.”

As Ketchell mentioned, Schwarzenegger’s fight against gerrymandering isn’t a recent one. During Schwarzenegger’s time as governor, he passed Proposition 11 in California to set up a nonpartisan redistricting commission in the state. Since then, even though he no longer holds political office, he has continued to push and endorse similar nonpartisan commissions to form in other states. In 2018 and 2022, he filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in efforts to stop gerrymandering from taking hold in congressional districts. Clearly, he saw this as a problem in the past that’s coming into a giant partisan battle in the present.

Regardless of where a person stands politically, Schwarzenegger appears to come from a now-rare breed of American thinking. He just wants the people to have their voice heard without it becoming skewed through the manipulations of the elected, regardless of whether they’re Republican or Democrat. After all is done (or undone) regarding the state redistricting, the real questions are which persons will become statues to be added to Schwarzenegger’s collection. Who will be alongside American leaders with his respect or placed next to losers like Lenin?