Rogue Columnist

When conservatism was smart

Yes. Such a time existed. It was National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr.'s lifetime project to change the know-nothing reaction of American conservatism into something intelligent, discerning, evolving and human.

He was always in a race with the Birchers and, later, the theocrats. And some of you may say, what difference did it make? I'd rather have smart conservatives, ones that embrace the intellectual. Buckley died in 2008, his dream in tatters, virtually excommunicated from today's conservative movement.

For Black Friday, I give you Whittaker Chambers' devastating 1957 takedown of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. It's worth reading to the end.

 

Suffer the children

The latest scandal involving Arizona's Child Protective Services agency involves thousands of abuse and neglect reports that were not investigated.

I don't have much to add to the able reporting of Mary Jo Pitzl and Mary K. Reinhart at the Arizona Republic. This includes a year-long series.

Not much to add, but a little context.

This is what happens when you spend decades cutting the state budget, even as population and need grows, as part of worshipping the god of small gub'ment.

State spending as a percent of personal income in Arizona fell from 5 percent in fiscal 1994 to 3.5 percent for fiscal 2014. CPS has been underfunded for decades as the state added huge population, especially in vulnerable groups.

The starting salary for a caseworker is a little more than $33,000 — and he or she get to be vilified as a public employee, never mind the crushing case load.

So when you read or hear of failures such as Child Protective Services, just remember: Your tax cuts at work.

What killed liberalism

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy, circa 1967.

Writing earlier this week on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I stated, "The Vietnam War killed liberalism. Bobby (Kennedy) might have avoided that fate."

The comments on the column are superb, so go back and read them if you can. But Emil rightly called me out for such doing an intellectual Jackson Pollock with such a broad brush.

So let me clarify.

Today, most Americans don't even know what "liberalism" means in this context. For examples, right-wingers are all for "neo-liberalism" in the economy, but rush to the barricades at the whiff of liberalism in politics. Liberals themselves have moved to the century-old term "progressive."

JFK identified my liberalism well:

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal."

But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

JFK

I am young to have a Jack Kennedy memory, but I do. It was November 1961, and the new president came to Phoenix to celebrate Carl Hayden Day at a VIP event at the Westward Ho Hotel.

This was when downtown Phoenix was the center of commerce and power in the Southwest and the Westward Ho was a swanky hotel. When Carl Hayden, as president pro tem of the U.S. Senate, was third in the line of presidential succession.

Hayden looked old. He had been in Congress since statehood and was the single most important figure in the legislative fight for the Central Arizona Project. But, according to his biographer Jack August Jr., Hayden was as formidable as ever. The joke that Ol' Carl was embalmed and aide Roy Elson raised his hand on votes was just a joke.

Back to JFK. I was in my mother's office on the sixth floor of the Greater Arizona Savings Building (nee Heard Building), where the Arizona Interstate Stream Commission was headquartered. I joined the lawyers and engineers at the window to watch the presidential motorcade come up Central.

I will be traveling Friday in advance of my event Monday with Scott Turow at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU. The blog will be updated as time allows. In the meantime, enjoy the archives and topic pages (to the right).

Mesa rising

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, right, with federal officials at the new Able Engineering facility, announcing an Obama administration initiative to boost manufacturing.

Mesa has landed an Apple factory and 2,000 jobs (provided the Gilbert school board goes along with the tax incentives), the latest in a series of triumphs as Phoenix falls into eclipse and the big issues are "pension spiking" and the "food tax."

Is "the city of wide streets and narrow minds" finally starting to punch at its weight?

Unlike most of the "boombergs" that have encircled Phoenix despite the aggressive annexation intended to prevent just that, Mesa always had a special identity. Settled by Mormons, Mesa had a distinctive set of small-businesses and agriculture-based industries and was surrounded by miles of citrus groves.

This began to change in the 1970s when the Superstition Freeway, as it built east, killed Main Street shops. Worse, the city inflicted a series of wounds on itself even as it notched huge population growth.

Election postmortem

The mainsteam media looked at Tuesday's results and see big trouble for Democrats.

In Virginia, Clintonista and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe outspent his opponent, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, by three-to-two and only won by 2.5 percentage points. In New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie won a commanding victory in a blue state.

In this narrative, the president looms large. Obamacare suffered a troubled rollout. His approval rating has hit a new low. Unstated: He's black.

Progressives shouldn't whistle past the graveyard, but I'm not sure how much this is true.

For example, Virginia held the capital of the old Confederacy and is not a swing state anyone should count on. Some experts like to see the Old Dominion and North Carolina as at least potentially purple states. I'm not so sure.

District 4

[UPDATE: As of 9:30 p.m. MST Tuesday, Pastor held a 498 vote lead over Johnson and counting may continue until Friday]

The race for Phoenix City Council District 4 might seem like small ball for this blog, but it tells us much about where Phoenix stands and where it is going.

One candidate is Laura Pastor, daughter of Rep. Ed Pastor, without whose efforts we would not have a popular light-rail system (WBIYB*). The other is Justin Johnson, son of former Mayor Paul Johnson. (Another race pits Kate Widland Gallego against the Rev. Warren Stewart, but for simplicity's sake, I will focus on District 4).

The contest has been distinguished by mudslinging, with Pastor, for example, being compared with Paris Hilton — and a remarkable lack of substance.

Early Obamacare soundings

I'm hesitant to draw many broad conclusions about the Affordable Coverage Act based on early glitches to the federal Web site. Much of the journalism has been shoddy, lazy or driven by politics.

Readers of this blog know I had my doubts. If universal coverage was not politically possible — not even a public option — then was it worth it for President Obama to stake his presidency on this.

This: A conservative, "market-based" plan that originated in the Heritage Foundation when it had more integrity and implemented at the state level by the GOP's most recent presidential nominee. This: A massive giveaway to the private insurance industry.

But it's done and I want it to succeed as far as is possible with the many compromises that were necessary to achieve a portion of what is considered a basic human right in other advanced countries.

At this point, here is what I know: