The Kookocracy continues not to disappoint. Their draconian cutbacks mean that new state archives building will be closed less than two weeks after being dedicated. State parks have, or are on the way to being, closed -- with no provisions being made to protect these priceless sites from looters. Meanwhile, the Kooks are rushing a bill through the Legislature that would bar Arizona from participating in the Western Climate Initiative -- a mild but promising effort by states to begin curbing greenhouse gases.
This is what you get when you don't vote. This is what you get when you have an ineffective opposition party, which made few noticeable gains in local and legislative offices during the reign of Saint Janet. This is what you get when the party of Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower -- even of Coolidge, Hoover, Reagan and George H.W. Bush is taken over by a nihilistic bunch of extremists. They want a radical individualistic law of the jungle, where the strong rule and profit, and devil (or Arpaio) take the hindmost.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg -- the press in the state has been suffering its own draconian cutbacks, and fear of crossing the right-wing thugs by reporting on their activities.
I want the Kooks to have their way, and really implement the agenda they have been braying about for years. Do it!
Eliminate the Department of Environmental Quality and other regulatory agencies. Eliminate the income tax. Put in place supermajority rules against any future tax increases, even for cities. And while we're on the subject of cities -- eliminate state shared revenue (that's OUR money!), hamstring the ability of cities to do infill or revive their downtowns, and shut down these money losing transit operations (freeways MAKE money!). Privatize EVERYTHING.
Guns -- get them everywhere. An armed society is a polite society. How about school ammo dispensers next to the Coke Machines? Five bucks for a Speedloader of .357 magnum rounds. One of your Big Brainos suggested a while back that Arizona could afford only one university. So get cracking -- shut down ASU and NAU. Slash money to "government schools." Give money to our pals who run charter schools, where the "cafeteria" is a roach coach that drives by noontime and the "library" is a city public library we hope to shut down anyway. We like being "America's dumbest state!" And round up them Mescuns and deport 'em. Meanwhile, build even more prisons -- make money off that, too.
Or are you cowards? I notice you taking federal money to widen freeways...oh, but that's different, right?
For too long, the Kooks have been allowed to be a veto elite -- operating to snare and hobble the efforts of the adults actually in positions of responsibility. The Kooks couldn't advance a positive agenda. They have nothing constructive to contribute to Arizona's most pressing real issues. Yet they could block, limit and eviscerate reform. They play a useful role for the shadow government that is the Real Estate Industrial Complex, which profited from their stance against regulation and revenue appropriate to a populous, urban state. (And where is the LDS in all this, behind the scenes...)
Now they're completely in charge. Only if Arizona gets the full dose of Kookocracy in Action might its sun-dulled residents wake up and vote these civic wreckers out. That's why I am rooting for the Kooks, and will be their Rush Limbaugh -- calling them out for any backsliding (although I promise not to give speeches dressed in a black bathrobe and bounce).
We already know their prescriptions won't work. If low taxes and no regulation, poor schools and a low-quality economy -- if these things worked, Mississippi would be the richest, most powerful economy in the world. Neither have they worked in Arizona, where they have been tried for years -- but never to the satisfaction of the Kooks, who cried, like faded communists, "we haven't really implemented conservatism!"
Nothing could be worse for Arizona than to elect another Democrat -- or a Republican with some footing in reality -- as governor. The Kook platform must be implemented. I hope it succeeds.
Follow the action on Rogue's Kookocracy Watch, updated frequently.
We've been watching this storm gather strength for years. We knew it would be bad but this is worse than anything we could have predicted.
Arizona was selected for this experience because of some arbitrary characteristics. There's the rootlessness and restlessness of the place. There's the nostalgia for the frontier and new beginnings. There's the weakness of buffering institutions like colleges and foundations. And there's the tectonic plates of Mexican and Anglophone culture pressing against one another.
Everyone is confirmed in their suspicions and prejudices. You're not going to persuade the construction tradesman that he would be better off voting for higher taxes in order to educate the offspring of the framer he works with. They're not linked by tradition or history, just time and circumstance. This is too new, too confusing and too sudden. It's Arizona as we collapse before the onslaught.
Posted by: soleri | March 04, 2009 at 01:55 PM
There is a bill making its way through the legislature to abolish the property tax! I guess that is to make up for the sales tax increase (but who's buying anything anyway?).
Posted by: eclecticdog | March 04, 2009 at 03:05 PM
Speaking of the sales tax, Jon, it's not like they don't want to tax people. They want to tax the *right* people, i.e., the working and middle class. I mean, c'mon! Someone's gotta pay for those private prisons.
Posted by: Donna | March 04, 2009 at 06:07 PM
I'm thinking about moving to New Mexico, so all of these crack pots can entertain me rather than agitate me.
Posted by: Matt Self | March 05, 2009 at 05:17 PM