Keep Arizona green. Bring money. — Old expression
It was well and right to let a day pass for celebration that Gov. Jan Brewer finally vetoed the anti-LGBT Jim Crow SB 1062. To thank the better angels of Arizona's nature and imagine more appeared. To join in the boozy cheering at Seamus McCaffrey's downtown. A day when, as one observer put it, "we (could) be gracious in victory and in defeat."
Now it is time for a serious assessment. The illusion that with the international spotlight off, Arizona can "move on," the usual "nothing to see here, move along," could not be more misguided or toxic.
I don't see much profit in dwelling on Gov. Brewer and wondering if she is more complex and pragmatic than thought. Do not be fooled. She is no surprising "liberal hero."
If that were the case, she could have made it clear to legislative Republicans that the bill would be vetoed even before it was passed. She would have avoided letting the bill sit for days like a vagrant's turd deposited on her desk.
She could have issued a veto statement clearly, strongly grounded in morality. Instead, it was largely fuzzy proceduralism and nods to the "religious freedom" crowd (probably drafted by fixer Chuck Coughlin) cloaking a fear of the state losing billions. Her manner was that of a pouty teenager being forced to clean her room. She is a kook. She is not too bright. But she is ambitious and can take orders. And she might want to become a U.S. Senator.
To be fair, Hendrik Hertzberg disagrees with me.
II.
One fascinating aspect of this situation is how SB 1062 collided with two forces not in play with the odious anti-immigrant Jim Crow SB 1070 (which Brewer happily signed and rode to a smashing defeat of Democrat Terry Goddard).
One is that it happened at a time when social media are much more potent than even four years ago. Twitter and Facebook helped spread Arizona's reputation as a bigoted and backward place around the world and like a firehose pumping from to the ocean.
The second is that we're in a moment of gay ascendancy. Unlike 2004, when George W. Bush leveraged anti-gay hysteria to (maybe) victory over John Kerry, most Americans are more tolerant.
Support for gay marriage has shown a dramatic increase, according to the Pew Research Center. Equal rights for all people, regardless of whom they love, is accepted by a majority, by the culture and increasingly by the courts.
It was easy to legislate against the brown immigrant working poor with no legal rights. To do so against Americans — and ones with better purchasing power than straights — was another matter.
While Brewer dallied, the story grew like a wildfire, reaching televisions and front pages around America, constantly on the Internet — the only destructive absurdity missing was Valinda Jo Elliott and her flipflops, towel, cigarettes and lighter. The message was worse than "Arizona is crazy." What was left of the state's "brand" was burning down.
III.
Arizona has always been unusually dependent on outside capital. Today, lacking major local banks or much mining, ranching or agriculture, it is more vulnerable than ever. It lacks the economy of Texas or Georgia, but it has a large population. Thus, Arizona's carrying costs are far higher than the average Krackpot state of the New Confederacy.
Arizona's economy is far less diverse than in the 1990s, even as it has added more people. It needs tourism more than ever. It needs people moving in to mortgage tract houses, especially the ones being laid down farther out on the fringes, and buy at ubiquitous malls and shopping strips more than ever. The growth machine must be fed or the unsustainable contraption will crash into the Sonoran dust.
The Ponzi scheme — with championship golf — has to be kept going.
And, whatever the happy talk, things remain wobbly and wounded from the Great Recession. Housing is deeply troubled. Another terrible blow waiting to fall: The full consequences of the merger of US Airways and American Airlines.
Thus, the veto was inevitable as the business bigs lined up and demanded it. This was not the Phoenix 40, with a deep, personal and business attachment to the place. But the fact that these were out-of-state moguls who can take their investments elsewhere may have made their admonitions even more powerful.
Another potent force was the Mormon Church. Although the LDS played probably the decisive role in the 2008 California gay marriage ban, in Arizona we were talking real money at stake, both the church's land speculation at the Eastmark sprawl and the real estate and tourism businesses of individual Saints. Thus Sen. Jeff Flake was an early proponent of a veto. Wealthy Republican and former LDS Bishop Willard "Mitt" Romney joined him.
Finally, the NFL, hardly a bastion of tolerance, began feeling out Tampa Bay, in a state hardly known for its progressive leanings, to move the Super Bowl from the Glendale cotton field. For the local-yokel business hustlers and what passes for political leadership, this may have turned what began as queasy second-thoughts about this bigoted law into full-blown panic.
None of this is to diminish the sincerity with which the Resistance and others fought against this measure. But most of them also fought against the other horrors of today's Arizona, unsuccessfully. Chad Campbell and some other Democrats battled valiantly. It's nice to be on the winning side of a galvanizing event.
But in the end, to paraphrase the president, the outcome was not about red or blue — it was about green.
IV.
Insufficient attention in l'affaire SB 1062 has been paid to the other side. The ladies and gentlemen are bigots and there's an end on 't, as Dr. Johnson might say.
That's not how the right sees it. Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, labeled Brewer's veto "foolish" in Politico. Like Lowry, Mike Huckabee claimed the bill had been misunderstood and mischaracterized. In Rush Limbaugh's view, Brewer was "bullied by the homosexual lobby...the nationwide drive-by media...(and) certain elements of corporate American in order to advance the gay agenda." U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann said the veto "eviscerated free speech." Tucker Carlson opined that forcing businesses to serve gay customers was fascism. Russell Pearce showed up after the veto to blame "radical leftist activists."
It's easy to say these people are unhinged. But lazy, too. According to Gallup, 36 percent of Arizonans describe themselves as conservatives vs. 21.6 percent as liberal. To me, "moderate" means low information. So attention must be paid. A large number of Arizonans listen to the opinion-makers above and rarely venture into the world outside the right-wing closed loop. One should not doubt their commitment or level of belief.
"Conservatives" — I use the quotation marks because I don't know what they want to conserve — have controlled state politics for decades. Anyone who wants a political future, e.g. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a one-time Green, must genuflect before them.
For conservatism as constituted today, the culture wars have been very profitable. Now they have suffered a crushing defeat.
Who owns this drubbing? Majority Leader Andy Tobin ("married to his wife Jennifer for 25 years. They have lived in their home in Paulden since 2004, where they have been raising their five children") sped the bill through the House. Sen. Steve Yarbrough of Chandler, who according to his member page "has been married to his wife Linda since 1968," sponsored it in the Senate.
Senate President Andy Biggs of Gilbert ( who "is married to Cindy and they have six children") was another big force behind it. His member page brags that he was named “ 'Champion of the Taxpayer' from Americans for Prosperity for his cumulative service in the state legislature." Americans for Prosperity is a big-time national conservative group that, among other things, requires candidates to take a pledge denying climate change.
The legislation was passed by majority Republicans on a party-line vote, although as the firestorm grew three said they regretted their votes.
The Center for Arizona Policy, described as a "social conservative group," was also behind it. This group flies below the radar; it is not, for example, found on the Open Secrets site. It was apparently founded by right-wing politician Len Munsil. President Cathi Herrod's bio states:
CAP is a nonprofit research and education organization committed to promoting and defending the foundational values of life, marriage and family, and religious liberty. One hundred-twenty-three CAP-supported bills have been passed into law since CAP made its first appearance at the state Capitol in 1995.
Is it grassroots or astroturf? I don't know. I couldn't find its major donors or 1099. Munsil campaign material makes cryptic mention of the organization being "associated with" Focus on the Family, one of the most influential national fundamentalist groups. Talking Points Memo has this look at the national "religious freedom" movement.
We do know that Republican and fundamentalist Christian groups have been introducting similar legislation in New Confederacy states. Brewer's veto leaves many unanswered questions. One: How would Cathi Herrod react to a Muslim dry cleaner refusing to serve Christian customers? Would that be dandy?
But the more important question is how deeply national conservative big money and dark money have penetrated Arizona conservative politics on every level.
Finally, remember the self-mythology of the right is that it is always losing to godless liberal socialism. It is a movement that thrives on the myth of constant grievance and oppression by the dominant left. The reality since the 1970s has been far different, but the lore has a powerful pull. Will real defeat energize the extreme, know-nothing right or break it?
V.
Unfortunately, the veto actually does not move us forward into the broad, sunlit uplands. It does not break the spell and return to a "normal" Arizona, conservative to be sure, but not crazy.
Normality in this state, alas, means more shoot-em-up gun laws, more attacks on women's reproductive rights, more voter suppression, more cruelty to immigrant laborers in the shadows and the working poor in general. The High Sheriff for Life is as powerful and pernicious as ever. Dismantling public education to favor private schools and their theocrat and charter-school racket backers continues apace.
The private-prison racket is thriving. The "Goldwater" Institute has become a brawny legal SWAT team for the right, dropping even the pretense of scholarship. The religion of tax cuts makes it impossible to even backfill needed 20th-century investments, much less those needed for a competitive and high quality of life future (state parks get no general-fund money; passenger rail between Phoenix and Tucson, are you joking?).
Nor should we forget the 2011 assassination attempt on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, which resulted in the death of six including a federal judge. The local-yokel apologists keep saying this was merely the work of a madman ("Move alone, nothing to see..."). But he did not attack, say, John McCain or Trent Franks. He chose a Democratic member of Congress whose election contest had been marked by a flood of right-wing hate and threats. The connection of this horrific crime to the larger political, social and economic ills of the state are persuasively argued by Tom Zoellner in his book, A Safeway in Arizona.
As long as these policies, attitudes and acts define Arizona, the bright beginning the sunnysiders claim the veto promised will be stillborn. The next national embarrassment will be coming. And the media/social media radar is locked on the state now.
Contrary to some national coverage, it is not the result of Arizona being a "Wild West" state. No. Big Sort Midwestern reactionaries moving to my home state are mostly to blame. The problem, as "Soleri" eloquently described, is closely tied to a suburban built environment that discourages connections. It is Jim Kunstler's "geography of nowhere," populated by people from elsewhere (or natives who made a killing on real-estate hustles).
It is also difficult to know if things would have been different had St. Janet not decamped mid-term for D.C., as a reader asked. Napolitano saw her "sensible center" increasingly fall away. She was frustrated with having to "play defense" against the Kooks in the Legislature, year after year. She had no future in Arizona politics. Alone, she could not change the state's trajectory — especially as the Kooks found the Mexican Bullet to use against their opponents in SB 1070. Could she have done more to build a Democratic Party in Arizona? Perhaps.
Now, as Stephen Lemons asks in New Times, can Democrats capitalize on the SB 1062 disaster in this year's elections? If they can't, the outlook for Arizona is dim indeed. But let's be clear: This embarrassment originated in the Legislature, the most powerful arm of state government.
Want to help Arizona? You have to return the Legislature to Democratic control. Not some dreamy coalition of Dems and "moderate Republicans." The latter were mostly forced out as RINOs years ago; a few hide under cover, but not in the Legislature.
It would be bracing if the overreach of SB 1062 was a turning point. Whether that turns out to be true will heavily depend on whether Democrats show up as Democrats — and the people who came together to oppose the bill will see the state's crisis clearly and be willing to do what is necessary to fix it.
Read more about this developing story on my Arizona's Continuing Crisis page.
What a great article... er, I mean informative. It doesn't bode well for Arizona, the "geography of nowhere" the Ponzi scheme of luring outsiders to tract houses and shopping strips further out on the fringe. Not much holding the economy in place - is this where the next bubble bursts?
Posted by: Sheila Seclearr | February 28, 2014 at 09:47 AM
I concur with Sheila, this column is very good, Rogue.
It left me thinking about a NYT article I read yesterday by Gail Collins. Gail wrote Yes! Part of the super-weirdness of Arizona politics appears to be the result of the state’s 1998 public financing law, which provided tons of matching funds to unwealthy-but-energetic candidates from the social right at the expense of the pragmatic upper class. The Supreme Court took the teeth out of the law in 2011, but, by then, the traditional Republican elite had lost its place at the head of the political table.
I had not thought of Clean Elections with “super-weirdness” as an inevitability. Gail then wrote, I know, I know. Many of us would like to empower the grass-roots with public campaign financing. Don’t give up. Just remember to make sure that the roots in your neighborhood have a more expansive vision than the ones that popped up in the Grand Canyon State. Gail ends with Thanks, Arizona
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/opinion/collins-the-state-of-arizona.html?smid=fb-share#permid=11243134
Posted by: Suzanne, tourist not troll | February 28, 2014 at 09:57 AM
Good piece Jon. Is there a photo credit? I could not find.
Posted by: Steve Dreiseszun | February 28, 2014 at 11:21 AM
glad I am no longer part of this travesty
Posted by: donna b | February 28, 2014 at 11:53 AM
Great article, Jon....
Return or vote the State to Democrat?? Have you seen what Obama, Holder, Clinton REID, PELOSI have done to destroy the US??
I say research every Candidate for every office, and vote for the one who you feel will do the best job.. I certainly have NOT seen our "leaders" in DC doing well...
And...then look at the worst Court of Appeals....the 9th Circuit!!
Lord help us...
Posted by: Skip | February 28, 2014 at 12:35 PM
I'm a little tetchy about this subject. Some gay Facebook friends were besides themselves with good thoughts about Jan Brewer. I demurred, pointing out that the veto was more likely caused by dire economic warnings than a new-found love of Republicans for the lavender menace. I was accused of cynicism for my non-Aquarian thought. Facebook, as it happens, is a kind of incubator for Very Positive Thinking, an example of which says love will conquer everything and another which says you must become the change you would seek. Virtually every thought of this kind is eventually ascribed to Albert Einstein and/or the Dalai Lama. At some point, I suspect, Zig Ziglar will be revealed as the master of the universe and we can all go back to Words With Friends.
I am impressed by the beating Movement Conservatism took on this issue, but I'm depressed by the woolyheadedness of my tribe. Change of this sort happens over a long period of time, so it's a good thing not to get too despairing about its pace. Conversely, it's also a good thing not to assume that Arizona is almost Vermont with saguaros. There are a couple of political tensions in the state that ought to be in conflict with each other, libertarianism and social conservatism. But both are at home in the Republican Party, and provide one another with ideological cover at crucial times. They even blend together, as the Prosperity Gospel shows. And it's this very blending that tells me citizens are vague about what's really happening in the state. Yes, the live-and-let-live aspect is gaining the upper hand. But there's a darker side here, too, where citizens see money as the solvent for every social friction. No, I want to scream (helpfully, of course): sometimes you have to put your ideals ahead of your wallet. Money is not going to fix a state living in denial about unsustainable environmental costs. It's not going to make the lives of the marginally employed better. It's not going to help the vast and growing underclass cope better with a very harsh judicial system. And it's not going to create a civic matrix where we can wrestle with these problems. But the answer, at least this week, is that buying power is the only freedom that matters.
I recall the idea Herbert Marcuse, a Marxist, had about our idea of freedom. In actuality, it's "repressive tolerance" because it disguises the inherent corruption and violence of the system itself. I get a little antsy about sweeping inversions like that one but I can't help but wonder if there's some truth about Arizona in it. The richer and more comfortable we got, the less we tended to see the losers, except as caricatures. We segregated socially and economically, which meant there was no longer a healthy community conscience. And while you want to cheer someone like Chad Campbell for showing that people of good conscience can still work in the Arizona legislature, the sorry fact is he very seldom wins.
I recently started watching the local news in Portland in order to understand what other people are always yammering about. I discovered something unsettling: the news is almost exactly the same, from the Ron Burgundy newscasters, to the trivialities posing as news stories, to the breathless traffic reports, to the thousands of personal stories and tragedies aggregated under the lede "human interest". People, it appears, are the same in both states. And it's easy to understand why: outside of Portland proper, people live in housing pods instead of communities. They drive everywhere. And they hate taxes. Behold your fate, dear republic. Even growth boundaries can't stop the bleeding of our civil society. But it can protect the remnants that still exist. Maybe that's the best Oregon can do. It is, by any measure, vastly preferable to what Arizona is not doing.
Posted by: soleri | February 28, 2014 at 01:15 PM
Rogue: A couple observations from my perspective on the ground...
The media in this state fell into the Center for Arizona "Policy" PR spin that this bill was, in fact, a "religious freedom" bill. In addition, the same media said that it was only "gay rights" groups that were in opposition to this legislation. First, as one of the maintainers of a list of all of the groups that expressed opposition to SB1062, I was impressed at the diversity of groups united in opposition: business groups, tourism groups, communities of faith, and, even downtown neighborhood groups. Second, I'm reminded of the George Orwell quote on the media: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
The other observation on this is the timing of Ms. Brewer's veto of SB1062. One wonders if the N.F.L. hadn't made an announcement just hours earlier that they were considering moving the Super Bowl away from Glendale if action wouldn't have been taken until today (Fri Feb 28) or even tomorrow morning. In addition, one wonders how this will affect Google's decision to bring its Google Fiber service to Phoenix and the long-shot of Tesla's multi-billion dollar battery factory.
Posted by: Edward Jensen | February 28, 2014 at 02:19 PM
Cathi Herrod and the Kooks messed up by allowing it to be framed as an anti-LGBT measure. I suspect they realized that when I saw CAP spokesman Aaron Baer cite Hobby Lobby as a justification for the bill during an interview with Channel 5 last week. Had the public focus on SB1062 been on whether or not pharmacists should have to dispense the whore pills there would have been much less outcry and nary a peep from the business community because the ladyparts, they're so controversial! There's a good chance the bill would have been quietly signed into law.
Posted by: Donna Gratehouse | February 28, 2014 at 02:46 PM
I concur with the others - the speed with which you posted this really shows how deep and wide is the information at your fingertips. Impressed.
I wanted to cheer this one statement:
...as it is a pet peeve of mine. To hell with the moderates, the middle-of-the-roaders, the "serious" people. Perhaps in some Utopian society it might be the right thing to be, but this ain't that by a long shot.
Posted by: Petro | February 28, 2014 at 06:13 PM
Donna Gratehouse hosts an interesting blog called The Democratic Diva. She has an excellent rebuttal to NYT Gail Collins column that I referenced earlier relating to Clean Elections and "super-weirdness".
It's good stuff:
http://www.democraticdiva.com/2014/02/27/oh-look-theyre-blaming-clean-elections-again/comment-page-1/#comment-519893
Posted by: Suzanne, tourist not troll | February 28, 2014 at 06:21 PM
Does John Kavanagh get held accountable for his noisy support of SB 1062? Or does he wrap himself in the comforting arms of his Kook supporters? To me, he is Teflon-coated and bullet-proof. He doesn't have the cover of being stupid . . . like Al Melvin, or Messianic . . . like Kathi Herrod.
Posted by: morecleanair | February 28, 2014 at 06:34 PM
Currently liquored up so best not to post too much.
Really, really enjoyed "the lavender menace" and "Vermont with saguaros".
Petro, speaking of low information: Are we agreed that SB 1062 was in the news "just a bit" this past week?
I did an informal survey in the office today. I found only one person out of ten who had heard about the hoopla.
Heads in the sand. Not a care in the world. God bless them.
Posted by: AzReb, Troll, Ruben | February 28, 2014 at 06:35 PM
The article was great.
But it took me a while to quit looking at the picture. A complete story of hate in one photo.
REB: one out of ten is about the same percentage you get in any cause.
Jon, U will never change my mind that St. Janet was not a deserter from the Democrats army. The party was weak but her dropout left it in shambles and allowed the kooks to gain complete control. Her choices have been for personal enrichment not unlike many legislatures in AZ. Which makes me wonder is it worse to become a politician to try and impose your religious beliefs on others than to become a pol for financial gain for yourself and others.
As long as the Tea Party nuts and the LDS dominate there will be no changes. Its like saying they got Chapo the worlds biggest (capitalistic) drug dealer and his going to jail will stop Americans demand for drugs.
Brewer had no choice but to veto the bill otherwise she would never see another opportunity to run for any elective office.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 28, 2014 at 09:05 PM
Suzanne, thank you so much for the plug!
Posted by: Donna Gratehouse | March 01, 2014 at 12:07 AM
Sen Brewer? God I hope not. Her, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul will be the 3 Mousekeeters of Right Wing Lunacy.
Posted by: Jack | March 01, 2014 at 05:55 AM
In this morning's NYT, Gail Collins talks about SB1062 and the politics that makes gay rights a winner and abortion rights a loser in many American states: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/opinion/collins-arizona-sort-of-helps-out.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 Of course, it always helps to cut to the chase for busy readers: the difference is that the attack on abortion rights is deployed against the poor. Arizona shows that the attack on gays seems unfair to other citizens because it's against people with money. The sense of justice we extend to gays reveals our capacity for empathy is more about class than anything else.
There are corollaries here, as well. We don't get riled up about incarcerating huge numbers of minority males in prison, often for non-violent offenses. The war on drugs is really just another war on poor people. Rush Limbaugh gets rehab and urban blacks get hard time.
So, the abortion issue isn't really about loving babies. It's about hating poor people. We hate them to the point that we want to deny them health care, food stamps, reproductive freedom, and for the gays among them, basic civil rights. The rich gays can always go to lawyers (and do, as a matter of fact) to write contracts that approximate the privileges of marriage without relying on the institution itself.
I got into an argument a few years ago with a gay millionaire who is avidly Republican. I got testy with him and suggested that he could buy his freedom like a can of soup at the supermarket. For the rich, freedom is that simple. For the non-rich, it's both abstract and dependent on the empathy of other people. Try being a lesbian person of color and single mom who is a high school dropout. You're batting zero on the empathy scale.
When LBJ engineered the civil rights revolution in the 1960s, the first step was getting laws in place that supposedly gave rights to people facing discrimination - blacks, that is. LBJ didn't stop there because he was canny enough to understand that political rights were meaningless without economic power. The War on Poverty was the result, and in the space of a few years, America's poverty rate fell by half. It was an amazing achievement that is widely regarded as a failure because....well....just because. Maybe we saw people getting uppity at the supermarket. It's an unshakeable truism that giving money to people makes them lazy. Unless they're old, veterans, defense contractors, corporate farmers, or the many professional cartels that muscle out competition from below with protective legislation.
I bang the drum for compassion like the burnt-out hippie that I am because I needed so much of it myself. That's my self-interest. I doubt I could have survived in a harsher society. But I was also lucky to be white and just middle-class enough in my social attributes that doors opened for me rather easily. I didn't have to scrap to find a niche. For many poor and minorities, civil rights is a bridge that mysteriously disappears over the deepest part of the river.
Posted by: soleri | March 01, 2014 at 06:12 AM
Excellent column, Jon. I'd like to add my two cents, of course.
Most of the AZ press and some bloggers insist on treating the far-right whack-job legislature with detachment, respect or, when they're absolutely beside themselves with frustration over their antics, a kind of sardonic humor. The champions of Lege - Chad Campbell, Katie Hobbs, Ruben Gallego -are mentioned as an afterthought, if at all.
Further, among the Republican-lite Democratic crowd (and Independents) is no small amount of holding one's nose at the grass roots organizing it takes to make the necessary changes in state government. "You can be against them but must you be angry? Must you be emotional? The bill was vetoed. Can't we talk about something more pleasant now?" It's like sending poodles in to fight pit bulls. Politics is driven by emotion. The right knows this and uses it relentlessly, hence their success.
When Brewer FINALLY vetoed this bill, people on the left and the right fell over themselves in expressing gratitude. One lesbian actually called her "our wise governor." This kind of obsequious response -- trying pitifully to reshape the extremists in the Lege via flattery, via "reaching across the aisle" is a HUGE problem in AZ. Donna Gratehouse refers to it as the AZ Stockholm Syndrome, and she's right on the money. It reminds me of victims of domestic violence who think if they're just nice enough, the abuser won't strike again. And we all know how that turns out, yes?
Finally, I am greatly dismayed at how few Arizonans understand how the state is seen on the national and international level. The relentless idiocy has taken its toll, one that will likely last a generation at least. The President of Uganda used the AZ bill as justification for signing draconian anti-gay laws and the roundups of gays have started there. Let that sink in for a moment.
Regardless of this veto, AZ is known as a haven for bigotry and small-mindedness. No amount of the clever PR gimmicks and boosterism that too often substitutes for leadership in AZ will change this.
Posted by: Diane D'Angelo | March 01, 2014 at 08:43 AM
From a friend, "went to a meeting of progressive dems last night. i understand the resentment of the tea party now. Thomas Frank is right--it is class resentment."
From the following article by Franks.
Democrats believe demographics alone will defeat the Tea Party. It's a smug fantasy: Economic populism's the answer
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/16/the_matter_with_kansas_now_the_tea_party_the_1_percent_and_delusional_democrats/
Posted by: cal Lash | March 01, 2014 at 09:25 AM
I know the term "Kabuki Theater" is annoyingly overused of late, and there's hardly room for another political conspiracy theory, so I won't suggest that Herrod and Brewer cooked up this whole thing, picked a couple of dummies at the statehouse to introduce the bill, and made Brewer appear somehow more "big tent." Nope. Won't suggest that.
Posted by: Pat | March 01, 2014 at 09:34 AM
I didnt know what that meant ("Kabuki Theater" ) but such thoughts did cross my mind when all this started. It just seemed like a big PR thing for the "religious" and put poor Jan in the satanic vise, squeezed by the devil of big money and "abnormal" people. She vetoed the bill while apologizing to her religious supporters.
Vote Senator Brewer
Posted by: cal Lash | March 01, 2014 at 09:55 AM
Meanwhile, I hear some intelligent people saying variations of "why is everybody picking on Arizona?"
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | March 01, 2014 at 12:36 PM
Here's the thing about the class resentment and the Tea Party. It is true that they resent some elites, like academics and Hollywood figures, they revere people who make their fortunes in business. Also worth noting that many teabaggers are, themselves, affluent. I submit that your average successful Republican is more likely to be a fire-breather who mainlines Glenn Beck and Limbaugh than his working class counterpart.
Fountain Hills has two separate Tea Party groups. Scottsdale had about half a dozen at one point. Maryvale does not have one that I'm aware of. You have to have at least some economic security and leisure time to cultivate the crazy.
Posted by: Donna Gratehouse | March 01, 2014 at 08:46 PM
Reb, yeah, most people don't care what's going on beyond what they can and cannot afford to consume.
I'm trying to assemble a blog post to discuss some aspects of this SB 1062 "incident" that I don't hear being discussed. I was going to comment here but I'm having trouble articulating it. I'll post a link here for any folks who might be interested, if I manage to pull it off.
Posted by: Petro | March 02, 2014 at 01:50 PM
SB 1062 & The Soul Of The U.S.A.
Posted by: Petro | March 02, 2014 at 04:33 PM
Excellent sir Petro, excellent.
I'm reading about the time when mankind came out of their caves and claimed a piece of land as "theirs".
That plus your article has my mind in a tizzy.
Posted by: AzRebel | March 02, 2014 at 08:14 PM
Thanks for the input, Reb.
It's only incidental to me that it was positive. ;)
Posted by: Petro | March 02, 2014 at 08:29 PM
Petro my friend, WTF?
It is natural to give a clear view of the world after accepting the idea that it must be clear.
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus.
PS, Paul Jean Sartre, sucks.
Donna my sources advise me you are not an elitist but a real human being.
Posted by: cal Lash | March 02, 2014 at 10:15 PM
As does Foucault.
Posted by: cal Lash | March 02, 2014 at 10:37 PM
Jon, Goddard is a nice guy but a LDS nobody with a fly swatter could ride to a "smashing defeat" over Terri.
U wanta win u gotta run a killer.
...
Posted by: cal Lash | March 03, 2014 at 12:11 AM
Petro, I enjoyed reading your blog post!
Posted by: eclecticdog | March 03, 2014 at 03:05 PM
Petro, my negative attack is a result of my lack of education and intelligence.
I will work on my education but I fear I get dumber every passing day.
Petro, I was unable to understand your blog.
It took me about five reads to get a little understanding of the first paragraph. Then U hit me with the second paragraph, not only did I not get it I had to look up words.
"the "meta" of sicknesses, and we are more than happy to leap into the mud and wrestle with these meta-symptoms with clarion and heroic effort. Since the underlying disease is never addressed, these exercises sometimes result in amelioration, more often in exacerbation by unintended consequence."
What?
Posted by: cal Lash | March 03, 2014 at 03:47 PM
It's very clear, cal.
He's saying we should get our flu shots or pay the price.
Posted by: AzRebel | March 03, 2014 at 05:22 PM
Thanks, e-dog! I got a comment from a whiny photographer worried about his "rights." I told him to hang a "We Discriminate" shingle and see how that worked out for him...
Apologies, cal. Left a reply over there.
Posted by: Petro | March 03, 2014 at 05:24 PM
Nailed it, Reb. Thanks.
Posted by: Petro | March 03, 2014 at 05:41 PM
Suzzane didn't get her flu shot!
Posted by: cal Lash | March 03, 2014 at 06:18 PM
I get it
thanks Petro
Posted by: cal Lash | March 03, 2014 at 06:31 PM
REB R U sure it didnt mean?
"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is." ― Albert Camus
Posted by: cal Lash | March 03, 2014 at 08:02 PM