The ghost of Ev Mecham

Given Arizona's population churn, many living there now probably know little of Gov. Evan Mecham. He's the one who opposed a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday ("King doesn't deserve a holiday") and thought it was fine to call black children "pickaninnies."

A broad coalition came together to impeach and remove this embarrassment in 1988. Tolerance won over hate. The beloved Rose Mofford became governor. And Arizona marched forward into its greatest era of (population) growth ever. Or so the elevator speech goes.

Now I'd like that, as Samuel L. Jackson's character says in Pulp Fiction, but that shit ain't the (entire) truth.

Which is why we should study Mecham as people come together again to press Gov. Jan Brewer to veto the Jim Crow, anti-LGBT "denial of service" law. Backed by today's coalition, Brewer can use her power as governor to stop the bill that has brought fresh infamy on the state, much as in the 1980s the Legislature stopped a hateful governor.

Mecham became an accidental governor in 1986 when the Democrats divided and Bill Schulz ran as an independent, peeling away votes from Democratic nominee Carolyn Warner. (The reader should know that Warner was one of my mother's closest friends, and my first job was painting sapling stakes for W.R. Schulz & Associates — yes, small town). Mecham received only 40 percent of the vote.

But that 40 percent contained the seeds of today's Arizona radical political ideology: Retirees, John Birchers, many Mormons (Ev was LDS) and right-wing newcomers who didn't know of Mecham's checkered history as a failed candidate. Brewer, a member of the state House of Representatives, supported Mecham.

When Glendale car dealer Mecham lost badly to Sen. Carl Hayden in 1962, he was a "US out of UN" Bircher. He lost four attempts to become governor, demanding the elimination of income taxes and welfare, and the return of all federal land to state control among many other things.

Mecham's victory was a sign of how much the state had changed. In the past, Republicans had been happy to use the fervor of the Birchers, then largely ignore them in governing. In the 1986 primary, the party lined up behind the longtime legislator Burton Barr. So did the Pulliam Press and Barry Goldwater. Barr lost.

Evan Mecham, right down to his distaste of facts and knowledge, was tea party before tea party was cool.

Once in office, Mecham was almost immediately over his head. Back to Pulp Fiction, he wasn't the tyranny of evil men. He thought he was the righteous man. Yet in reality, and despite being a decorated fighter pilot in World War II, he was the weak.

His closed-loop ideology dreamworld was little use in the day-to-day of governing, much less in dealing with a Legislature that was then formidable and businesslike — and the quirky, bulldog Attorney General Bob Corbin. Ev was convinced Corbin was using lasers to spy on him.

Compared to the toupeed, foot-in-mouth Ev, Jack Williams was Pericles. The comparison to his well-liked and effective immediate predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, was especially damning. Mecham couldn't keep his mouth shut and his interactions with the press revealed a man not only prone to racist gaffes but seemingly unhinged.

What put a relatively quick end to Mecham was that he was seen as bad for business. That will be the same reason Brewer "decides" to veto the Jim Crow denial-of-service bill.

But interesting differences are in play.

In the late 1980s, Mecham's paranoia was not entirely misplaced. The establishment, especially the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette, was out to get him. But this establishment was locally owned and very powerful. That's not true today.

The state Republican Party was much more sane then. It was not a theocratic party. Mecham was far to the right. Importantly, he lacked the robust national infrastructure and enormous money that supports today's Republican Party — a party that has adopted virtually all of Mecham's tenets as orthodoxy.

They're all Mechamites now. This is the Kookocracy that is the Arizona and national Republican Party.

Even the "happy ending" in 1988 gave the state Fife Symington. This time, if Brewer does veto the bill, the damage will still be considerable. This is the state of Joe Arpaio, immigrant "sweeps," SB 1070, guns in bars, attacks on voting and reproductive rights, etc. Oh, and don't forget Jan Brewer's finger in the face of the president of the United States.

It is a deep red state, conforming to the national-template of reactionary legislation, but one that depends much more heavily on "image" to keep the growth machine going than its red siblings.

So once again, a broad coalition is in place. Even Jeff Flake wants a veto. Once again, self-interest and idealism are at work.

But I wouldn't bet on an outcome — particularly if the anti-bill forces don't throw the GOP out of control of the Legislature. Otherwise, fresh outrages will be stamped out like ideological widgets.

Read more about this developing story at Rogue's Arizona's Continuing Crisis.

 

Comments

[AzReb, Troll, Ruben]

Three senators who voted for the bill, INCLUDING ONE OF THE CO-SPONSORS, is asking Brewer to veto the bill.

Folks, we've entered the Twilight Zone.

[Homeless]

Veto or not, the damage is considerable.

Arizona once again builds on its already formidable reputation as a place of intolerance and right wing extremism.

Republican Party Nirvana.

[Donna Gratehouse]

It is a deep red state, conforming to the national-template of reactionary legislation, but one that depends much more heavily on "image" to keep the growth machine going than its red siblings.

It's a delicate balance held in place by what I call Amiable Wingnuts - Republicans who adhere to the kook doctrine but who are also affably inoffensive and/or "maverick-y" enough to fool enough non-kook voters to get elected in swing districts and statewide races. Also, credulous nitwits in the news media tend to swoon over them.

Jeff Flake is the personification of this. He had a reputation of being nice and reasonable, even among a lot of Democrats, for years despite having one of the most right wing voting records in Congress. In 2011, the Heritage Foundation gave him a 97% rating. Michele Bachmann got a 94 that year. Flake voted identically with Todd Akin on women's reproductive issues but was smart enough to lie to debate moderators that he was for exceptions for rape and incest (he actually voted against them).

Similarly, there are numerous GOP legislators whom I've been told time and time again are really moderates who secretly yearn to vote reasonably but can't because they fear primaries. Yet even when they have no primary challenger they often vote kook, as we saw here with SB1062. All it would have taken was two Republican Senators to vote no to kill the bill yet they all voted for it, including the three who are now backpedaling. I guarantee Driggs and Pierce were never worried about a primary.

But if someone still wants to insist that primaries cause all of it the solution is still "elect Democrats" either way.

[soleri]

I was marching in a Martin Luther King parade through downtown to the State Capitol in early 1987 when I overheard someone say he was going to recall the newly installed governor. I was curious, needless to say. On what grounds? As if to answer to my unasked question, came the meta-explanation - Mecham is too hot and he'll melt under the slightest scrutiny. That voice was Ed Buck's, successful businessman with a homosexual agenda. For the next year, his recall movement hounded the governor and governor responded in kind. He melted because he didn't understand ordinary political reality. You don't exacerbate differences, you blur them. You don't flail at gnats. You simply ignore them. Every provocation of Buck's was treated as a live grenade. Mecham blew himself up because he really had no idea what politics was about.

Even today, America's culture warriors assume they're going to win on a battlefield that is really a minefield. What possessed Republicans to think a child rapist, Ted Nugent, would be a good political asset? Or that America might be hungry for the gynecological wisdom of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock? Or that a wide-eyed naif like Christine O'Donnell should play human proxy to ideals like sexual continence? Or that a self-dramatizing birdbrain like Sarah Palin ought to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Mecham's pathetic political career enjoyed its Pyrrhic triumph just as the nation's attention span was cueing to really uncool public figures. Jerry Falwell was making headlines as a too-hot fundamentalist hypocrite. So was Pat Robertson. Late-night TV comics were tripping the wires of the American id. Who are these clowns, they jeered. And the American right still doesn't get it. They make heroes out of thugs like George Zimmerman. In Maine, the governor is a crude caricature of malevolent dullness. Chris Christie bullies his way across the political stage and into an easily prevented scandal.

Mecham's gaffes were like the twitchy reflexes of the high-school nerd defending himself with an almanac and a slide rule. Mecham's defenders, ironically, were alert to the man's underdog nature, his need to be appreciated and esteemed. Their sympathy never rose to the level of insight, however. The right simply cannot fathom empathy for the weak. Mecham, they told us, was the victim of a liberal media conspiracy.

And maybe they were right that Mecham's "high crimes" might be unseemly but they weren't quite Nixonian. Arizona's realists had one job - get rid of the poor guy before he started costing the state real money. So, they co-opted the recall movement and impeached him instead. And once they completed the defenestration, they prepped J Fife Symington for his election bid. They got him on KFYI on a regular basis where Symington promised he'd sooner remove one of his sons from school than allow him to be taught by a homosexual. Symington, nearly the stylistic and social opposite of Mecham, beat the unmarried Terry Goddard twice in 1990.

I sat next to Dennis Mecham, Ev's oldest son, on a flight from Nashville a few years ago. I didn't identify myself as a figure in the recall movement. We talked about his father (then at the VA long-term care facility and suffering from Alzheimer's). At one point, the pilot came on the PA system and stammered over some weather information. Dennis's wife exclaimed: "he's just like Clinton! You can't trust anything he says!". I felt the gap between, while human, was unbridgeable. They were and are decent people too alert to painful differences. Maybe someday we'll all laugh at the various ways we magnify them for the sake of tribal unity. But not then. And not today.

[cal Lash]

These nut jobs just keep flogging the same ole stick. Possibly causing a deficient flow of blood to the brain on top of their shoulders.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/22/1279622/-Mormons-Declare-War-on-Masturbation?detail=email

[cluelessReb]

Watching these guys backtrack on TV yesterday was scary. They're sociopaths. No shame. No morality at all. their souls are black.

[Rogue Columnist]

The Jim Crow law is lead story on the front page of the Seattle Times today. Priceless exposure. You don't have to shovel sunshine. Championship golf!

[Suzanne, tourist not troll]

This is funny.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/02/arizona-confronting-awkward-realization-that-gay-people-have-money-buy-stuff.html?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=facebook&mbid=social_facebook

[Leavenworth #1632]

Sign SB1062 Brewer.

Show the full frontal right wing stupidity of Arizona and the vast majority of Arizonans.

Arizona-Land of Stupidity

Arizona-Spiritual Home of the Republican Party

Even the hicks in Topeka are having a good laugh off the serial stupidity of Arizona

[cal Lash]

Chapos out of harms way.
wife and twins get a deal
drug biz goes on as usual.
As I sip my Americano at the Che Cafe.

[cal Lash]

Jon, Im waiting for my last post about 1:30?

[Pat]

Wouldn't ya like to be a fly on the wall in the Governor's office right now?

[Rogue Columnist]

Not all comments are posting. I'll put in a help desk ticket.

[cal Lash]

There is a fly (bug) on the wall Pat. Its monitored somewhere in Utah. And probably responsible for my posts here, vaporizing.

JON,Previously I think I said.
At MCSO records got a report in less than 15 minutes compared to the many days and sometimes weeks and months for a report. A professional improvement. Currently other valley law enforcement record departments are running 14 to 30 days on producing criminal reports upon request.
Security in the downtown are has reached a military robocop army presence.
Dropped report off at Renaissance bld, 2 N Central. At the corner of Central and Washington a towel had been draped over the male statues obscenity.
The screech of automobiles and light rail accompanied by the voices of nonsensical mumbling humans made me flee to the non human voices in the wilderness and the solitude of a Saguaro.

[cal Lash]

The good news, Brewer voted the bigot bill. the bad news, it gave her another up on running for US Senator.

[cal Lash]

As I stated under the Hate State blog,
"Hopefully the boys in Salt Lake will intervene as they did with Pearce and kill this thing."
This is evident in the responses from Romney, Flake, Pierce and all the others that back tracked.
Like I noted bad image and bad for recruiting.
So LDS says they NOW allow "Blacks", will they NOW open the gates to their Heaven to a Homosexual? Will god speak to the big boys in the Temple?

[eclecticdog]

Which came first -- morons or Moroni?

[cal Lash]

First, They have now "scientifically and Historically" established that the LDS are a lost tribe of Israel. Moses to the Mountain.

[cal Lash]

Good piece by Lemmons in New Times

[AzReb, Troll, Ruben]

If the Democrats used their campaign money to run continuous ads showing Cathi Herrod as the Arizona Taliban and listing her as the most dangerous person in AZ.

And if they ran continuous ads referencing SB 1062 and the Center for Arizona Policy as the most dangerous group in AZ.

And if they ran continuous ads showing the photos of the Republicans who are puppets of this Taliban organization.

Then maybe they might fire up more Democrats and Independents to get off their butts and finally vote in the primaries.

But, they won't. The Democrats will try to REASON with the potential voters. And the potential voters will go to sleep and forget to vote.

The voters should be scared by these lunatic religious groups.

Somebody better get them scared.

TV, Newspaper, Internet....

SCARE THEM !!!

[toughteri]

I'm Scared - of YOU!

[AzReb, Troll, Ruben]

You may have a point there teri. I just reread it and I scared myself.

A little clarification. I sure don't want Democrats in control of the AZ legislature, Lord no.

I would like a nice mix of middle leaning Democrats and middle leaning Republicans who meet in the middle to only address real issues in the state.

I know, I wasn't born yesterday. That ain't gonna happen.

But is it asking too much to want the place cleaned out and have sane people put in their place?

I think I mentioned this years ago on this blog, our political process is great at weeding out the good people and leaving us with the slime at the bottom (of both parties).

Sorry I scared you.

[cal lash]

Reb, I do not believe you scared Tough Teri.
I don't think much scares Tough Teri.
But then U do have that take no prisoners and hang scalps from your belt attitude pop up every so often.
What is most scary to me is I am a Registered voting republican!

[Suzanne, tourist not troll]

Teri, I am frightened by Cathy Harrod, the Center For Arizona Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom. I am amazed that a guest column in the East Valley Tribune 'Setting the record straight on SB 1062' received 13k facebook likes.

Considering that Arizona has no law that prevents discrimination against gays, that so many people want to codify discrimination like that is scary.

Granted they may not all be from Arizona, but still.

[cal Lash]

I have electrifying cannabutter dreams of a planet far far away where organized religion is not known.