My favorite hotel, adjacent to the Willo Historic District, is full. Two large conventions are downtown. This was all booked before Arizona passed its Jim Crow anti-immigration law. Now every restaurant owner and person associated with the tourism industry I speak with is terrified about the growing backlash against the state. Many here are outraged about boycott calls. But it's fair game: Without the boycott, Gandhi, King and Chavez would not have had a key weapon against a grave moral injustice. I wish people would boycott by legislative district, while spending money and time in central Phoenix and Tucson, as well as with Hispanic- and progressive-owned local businesses. The rocks come with the farm, and the residents of the state allowed the Kookocracy to run wild, not only with SB 1070 but a host of madness.
Phoenix is in trouble anyway. Mayor Phil Gordon, a good man who loves the city and came into office seven years ago amid such hope, seems adrift. The composition of the city council has changed and for the first time since the reforming Charter Government movement took power six decades ago is becoming politicized. The ability to do the big things accomplished by Skip Rimsza and seen through by Gordon appears gone. Huge swaths of the city look like Dresden after the rubble had been carted away. The largest business, based on signage, remains "Available." Light rail (we built it, you bastards) is a big success; for example, I see many guests at the hotel taking it to restaurants, the convention center or to and from Sky Harbor. Yet the fiscal crisis is causing cuts in frequency, which will hurt ridership. The bus system has already been reduced to service levels seen in small cities.
I was talking to a greybeard civic leader, one of the last of the breed and a real conservative, not a kook. He wanted to make clear that people are trying to counter the extremism, but the metro area is too big now for a Phoenix 40 to call the shots. Yet he also had to admit that with the loss of headquarters over the past 20 years, Phoenix lacks the leaders who can knock heads and write checks. He calls it leadership "throw weight," something cities such as Seattle have and Phoenix once enjoyed. The business powers that ousted Evan Mecham are gone. Now business complains that the Legislature doesn't listen to them, but no wonder. A bunch of back offices and bankrupt developers won't cut it. Jerry Colangelo is now part of a development group on the far west side, trying to corner a priceless and irreplaceable aquifer to build exurban tract houses -- if "successful" drawing further energy from the center city he worked tirelessly and often thanklessly to save. Such is the magical thinking going on here.
Meanwhile, the Kooks just keep moving up the food chain. The odious John Huppenthal along with the, at best, misguided Tom Horne and Barbara Leff are all running for higher office. The infrastructure of the extreme right is the only thing here that isn't in or near collapse. The Democrats can't even begin to match it and one wonders if they even try. Terry Goddard would be elected governor by a sane state and his supporters believe he is a shoo-in to win. I worry. He can't coast. He has to contend with the bizarre infatuation of so many people to reaffirm the very policies that caused this disaster, nationally and statewide. The media are terribly narrow here. And, again, the white-right infrastructure is extremely powerful. It would be grand to see J.D. Hayworth defeat wealthy Republican John Sidney McCain III. J.D. is a kook but such a wild man he could do anything, such as vote against Wall Street. It's fascinating to see the national media's schoolgirl crush on McCain melt away. "He's changed!" they cry. No. McCain has always been a bad-tempered opportunist. Cindy deserves better. But watch him win. Too many national corporate interests can count on him supporting the quiet coup. The old folks love him still.
A temporary sales tax was approved. This gives Gov. Jan Brewer another "victory," along with SB 1070, to run on. She's not very bright, but neither is she insane or mean. The perfect tool for the Kookocracy, and a formidable foe for Goddard. The tax will fall hardest on the working poor, which Arizona has in abundance. Heaven forbid that the idle rich be taxed or a real-estate transfer tax have been enacted during the good years to build up a reserve. In any event, it's temporary and will only partially stanch the bleeding in only part of the budget. With real estate dead and tourism threatened, the state's fiscal crisis remains the biggest impediment to even a modest recovery. Retailers expect to lose sales, driving even more out of business. Unemployment is near 10 percent, and likely far higher whatever the underfunded state employment office reports today. Illegal aliens have been leaving by the thousands not only because of the nasty atmosphere, but because the economy remains in depression.
Which brings us back to SB 1070. It's a national Rorschach test. The unemployed American watching his living standard fall sees it as the beginning of getting his or her life back. Those disturbed by so many damaging changes in the country are for it, even as they motor off to Wal-Mart to vote for the continued destruction of their communities, wages and domestic industries. Progressives see racism. I've read the law. The biggest problem is its deep unseriousness. It may or may not lead to widespread profiling against brown-skinned people. It will divert police resources from actually dealing with the dangerous criminals in people and drug smuggling (Goddard showed how to really take them down). The key problem is not the aliens; they didn't put a gun to our heads and make us hire them. The problem is our appetites, for cheap labor and for drugs. The law does nothing to address that. Nor does it target the lead offenders: Employers. A previous such law is barely being enforced. It certainly doesn't address the Anglo gun dealers supplying the cartels and helping fuel violent crime in the state. So this is a law against the working poor who built much of the state's economy. The law will do nothing to address the real causes of unemployment, falling wages, deindustrialization and huge gaps in income and opportunity. It will do nothing to build an Arizona that might pull itself out of this depression.
People who support SB 1070 should get out their checkbooks and pay more -- for everything, so we can employ citizens at a living wage (as opposed to exploiting migrants, living ten to a room or in cardboard shanties). They should support unions. They should take down the gun dealers. They should back some kind of sensible guest-worker program and reform in Mexico's economy. But they won't. So in addition to its cruelty, in a long line of cruel actions by this state, the law is hypocritical and largely symbolic, and, the white-right hopes, a potent political weapon. The white-right doesn't really want the illegals to leave; without them the economy would collapse. Like Jim Crow, the real agenda is to keep Hispanics in their place, intimidated. And hope others remain apathetic in the long, hot summer.
I don't plan to watch McCain win.
There IS an excellent alternative.
Independent Democrat and former long-time Phoenix area investigative journalist John Dougherty is well-qualified, well-positioned and well-poised to mount a serious grassroots campaign for the US Senate seat now held by McCain.
Remember that Dougherty is the journalist that broke the Keating Five story in the late 1980s. That was only the beginning. Dougherty is the man who can and will capture the imagination of a broad range of Arizona voters and even more so, the imagination of America in what will be a major game changing campaign this fall.
http://www.JohnDougherty2010.com
The time is NOW.
Posted by: Steve M. | May 20, 2010 at 11:57 AM
Steve M: thanks for the info. It looks like Mr. Dougherty will get my vote.
Posted by: Joanna | May 20, 2010 at 01:28 PM
Mr. Talton wrote another great article here, but I offer these thoughts.
I support the Arizona law. It is not perfect, but immigrants are stealing jobs from Americans. I personally know of many instances where Americans have been fired and immediately replaced by illegal immigrants. In one case, management bragged that illegals don't ask for overtime pay or lunch breaks.
Anyone who wants to stop the replacement of Americans with immigrants gets my support.
It would be better to impose severe, crippling penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants. If I were King, the government would provide access to systems that would allow employers to verify a person's citizenship status. Anyone who knowingly hired an illegal, or who failed to verify, would be sent to prison and fined millions of dollars.
Americans are begging and groveling for work. Every day, I see American citizens diving into dumpsters for food. No one can get a job.
We don't need illegal immigrants. Cities would not collapse without illegal immigrants. Instead we would be much better off -- employers would have to hire Americans who are begging for jobs.
This debate has absolutely NOTHING to do with racism. This is only about WAGES and how much workers are paid. Employers don't want to pay Americans to work.
The United States needs an absolute moratorium on immigration. Employers need to hire Americans instead of firing Americans and replacing them with anyone who will work cheaper that day. We are caught in a cycle where Americans are fired and replaced by Immigrant A. Immigrant A is fired and replaced by Immigrant B, as soon as Immigrant B will work for less than Immigrant A. Next, Immigrant B is replaced by Immigrant C, who works for even less. So now the American citizen and Immigrant A and Immigrant B are begging for jobs.
This is the root of the problem. Racism is a red herring. It has absolutely nothing to do with this.
This debate is 100% about jobs and wages.
Posted by: Mick | May 20, 2010 at 01:40 PM
It's possible to make a coherent critique of unchecked illegal immigration, but it would necessarily have to come from the left. Low wages, decreasing union clout, and hostile labor law have made the playing field all the more attractive for cheap imported labor. The Growth industry has driven the economy to extremes along with the geography of wealth distribution.
The right should have been compromised by its toe-tapping dalliance with the open-borders folks. Just who do the plebes think has funded the campaigns of Republicans? Corporations have a vested interest in cheap labor and growth. Illegal immigration was a double-barreled blast for the plutocracy. For the talk-radio audience, not so much.
As with so much in our politics, the lack of a genuine populist party has enabled these "malefactors" to simply disguise their real aims by hiding behind xenophobic smokescreens. It's instructive to read Bob Robb for this reason. He was against SB 1070 for libertarian reasons, but was happy to join the xenophobes in condemning boycotts and the moral outrage that impels them.
John McCain will win re-election and promptly set out to restore the luster to the laurel wreath prop he wears inside the beltway. The national media will swoon as he self-deprecatingly explains his sinfulness as the inescapable evidence of too much partisanship in our politics. He'll vow to elevate the discourse by booking himself on Meet the Press more frequently.
Since it's probable that the new law will not usher in a restoration of sparkly whiteness, what will the 'phobes think when McCain takes off his nativist warrior paint? My suspicion is that they'll simply move on to some new faux outrage, like a certain circuit court's strike-down of their favorite new law.
Posted by: soleri | May 20, 2010 at 02:18 PM
Wonder if Candidate Dougherty still has his pony-tail? He's cleaned up nice!
Posted by: eclecticdog | May 20, 2010 at 05:28 PM
Joanna:
Immigrants haven't "stolen" a damn thing, although they've been accused of doing just that forever. Google "Irish immigration" and you'll see that the same thing was said in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Globalization (in which the US plays a huge role) has activated immigration on a massive scale. I'm astonished that people think that low prices come without a cost. Also, while I'll take you at your word that your support of SB1070 isn't based in racism, for far too many people, it is exactly that.
Posted by: Diane D'Angelo | May 21, 2010 at 10:31 AM
South Carolina is the latest state to sign into law tough, new illegal immigration measures. SB 1070 does not stand alone as a sovereign state legal tool.
Posted by: terry dudas | May 21, 2010 at 10:50 AM
Diane D'Angelo,
It sounds like I must have misunderstood something. Or vice versa. Don't think I mentioned supporting SB 1070. As a matter of fact, I am producing a video about the history of immigration, particularly women losing their right to citizenship when they married. It effected women who married between 1907 - 1922. So, maybe we have a communication snafu?
Posted by: Joanna | May 21, 2010 at 03:57 PM
I just added a comment to Part I. A comment to Part II will be forthcoming. Please read -- and consider -- the comment to Part I, which asks Rogue Columnist readers to consider an important (and perhaps unfamiliar) argument in discussions about "sprawl".
Posted by: Emil Pulsifer | May 22, 2010 at 11:57 AM
Wow, the most grounded and well-informed AZ-based political analysis I've read in recent memory. I'm an instant fan of yours.
Posted by: Kelly | November 18, 2010 at 05:01 PM