I operate the Arizona History Shop for journalists, amateur historians, and curious civilians — free and an email or phone call away. It's sometimes shocking how little Arizona's millions know about their (mostly adopted) state. The situation is even more startling with the East Coast media.
Today's exhibit is a story in the New Republic. Headline: "Arizona’s Democratic Senators Are Already Angering the Left." Subhed: "The activists who sent Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema to Washington aren’t happy with their early moves in office." Kelly and Sinema voted for an amendment that would prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving pandemic stimulus checks. TNR reports:
Latino advocates aren’t happy about it. “We are extremely disappointed by the vote that they have taken to strip stimulus funds from immigrants in the Covid stimulus bill,” Hector Sanchez Barba, executive director of the Phoenix-based group Mi Familia Vota says. “So we are sending a clear message, early in the game with a new administration, that this is unacceptable. We immediately mobilized our people on the ground, we immediately reached out, but we’re going to use all the political capital that we have. We’re going to use everything that we’ve been building in terms of political power to keep all the politicians accountable.”
In addition, President Biden's very narrow victory combined with Kelly's election doesn't mean Arizona has turned dependably purple. Tellingly, Democrats were unable to pry the dead reactionary hand of Republicans from control of the Legislature. There, the GOP is busy with vote suppression laws, as well as the usual garbage stew of tax cuts and starving public education in favor of private and parochial schools (many of which have financial ties to Republican lawmakers).
Kelly, who won more based on his resume than because of activists, will have to run again in two years.
If Arizona was Washington state, its U.S. Senators could be so woke their eyes would never close. Arizona? Not so much. The electorate remains closely divided, with Big Sort right-wingers and retirees still in strong positions. As Sinema's career shows, victory depends on being a conservative Democrat. This way, she can sell herself as an independent pragmatist to the center and center-right. Kelly would be wise to follow.
The last time Arizona had two Democratic U.S. Senators, both Carl Hayden and Ernest McFarland were conservatives in a mass political party that included conservatives, centrists, and liberals. They were called pintos. This didn't keep them from supporting liberal policies — Hayden the New Deal and Mac as "father of the G.I. Bill."
For all their sound and fury, the awokened left can't carry statewide elections in Arizona. At least not yet. Arizona is fortunate to have two smart, appealing Democrats representing them in the U.S. Senate. Don't walk into the propeller by demanding purity.
The siren song of purity is a seductive melody to the woke warriors of the utopian left but politics is less about one's moral superiority than tactical skill. True, if there were two sane political parties, they might be able to bridge enough differences to make compromise palatable and even productive. If...If....If. Sadly, the only way forward through the current minefield is on pointed toes and dizzying pirouettes.
I would love Sinema to take a stand against the anti-democratic filibuster in the worst way. That said, Joe Manchin, whose position is even more precarious than hers, is already the insurance the GOP needs to continue stifling democracy. For Sinema, opposition becomes proof to skeptical centrists that she's not Che Guevara with a lavender wig.
If and when the definite left begins winning statewide races in Arizona, it will be proof that a new day has finally dawned. But it's still dark and scary out there with few beacons of hope to light the way forward. Impatient lefty idealists need to pause their outrage reflex long enough to understand that Pyrrhic victories are not so much ennobling as a sign that human perfectibility is still far far away on an ever-receding horizon.
Posted by: soleri | February 16, 2021 at 06:52 PM
Jon, excellent short
.
Soleri "Impatient Lefty Idealists"
Hope they are smarter than me.
I had to look up a number of words.
"Few beacons of hope."
Reminds me of the ending of the movie
"All is Lost" with Robert Redford.
For me it ruined the movie
The Arizona Hispanics "finally " showed up. Will they keep coming?
And Arizona is pretty much leading the nation in house sales. I bet the majority are pale faced. Likely more right wing than left.
Speaking of CHE I wonder what the Arzona GOP Will do to the legislator traitor from Glendale?
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 16, 2021 at 07:54 PM
Arizonans and we on the left and center must take note of this: Two Democrats who are maddeningly to the right of the modal Democratic voter ... are still two votes better than zero Democrats.
If you get down to the day-to-day business of lawmaking -- and unless you're a lobbyist or journalist who has to train their eyes on the process -- you'll see that pintos will still meet the modal voter a vast majority of the time. Maybe not 90%-100%, but 70% is still passing.
The most substantive Senate action was the Trump conviction vote this past weekend. Is it disheartening that 67 Senators couldn't vote to convict despite having Trump dead to rights on instigating the insurrection? It is if you believe Republicans have a shred of conscience or empathy. (To be fair, seven Republicans did a mitzvah and voted to convict.)
Look at it this way: A majority of the Senate voted to convict, and the Republicans are fracturing over Trump beating the rap. Republican party registration is leaking away; Democrats are enjoying modest gains but are attracting a plurality of young voters. Biden is enjoying the best honeymoon among most modern presidents; Trump always had a majority of the country disapprove of his job. It's also a relief that after four years, we are able to have genuine debates over policy once again. I for one am relieved that we can have a debate over whether we should raise the minimum wage, give out stimulus payments or shut down the Keystone pipeline.
These are issues that are grounded in reality, and allow the opportunity for empirical and moral arguments to be weighed and contested.
Of course, there's a large subset of the country that has not been able to escape the hedge maze of a mobbed-up, malignantly narcissistic man-child dragging the world into humanity's most demented reality show.
Posted by: Bobson Dugnutt | February 17, 2021 at 12:31 AM
Well said Bob.
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 17, 2021 at 07:53 AM
"I for one am relieved that we can have a debate over whether we should raise the minimum wage, give out stimulus payments or shut down the Keystone pipeline."
There can be no debate on these issues as Biden has E.O.'d all of them.
No, to the left, a debate is when they can run roughshod over the people and take unilateral action.
Posted by: Jerome Petruk | February 17, 2021 at 08:44 AM
I think the failure to convict and bar Trump from running is yet another positive. It will feed his ego and empower him to fracture the party and further drag it down. It apparently hasn't sunk in for much of the cult yet that, under Trump, they lost the House, then the White House, then the Senate.
McConnell gets that he is toxic to the Republican brand and is trying to draw a distinction that may help the party become something other than a refuge for scoundrels, conspiracy theory lunatics and extreme right wing radicals. The party needs to sober up, look in the mirror and figure out what they want to stand for.
Posted by: DoggieCombover | February 17, 2021 at 11:06 AM
Jerome, I spend a lot of time on this site moaning over the left's detachment from reality. Thanks for showing me that the right is even less tethered to the real world. No, Biden didn't EO a minimum wage increase. He's thinking about putting a raise in his stimulus package, which would have to pass through budget reconciliation. That bill would also include stimulus payments. His EO on the Keystone Pipeline overturns Trump's EO, which I have to assume you were perfectly fine with. So, relax and get back to hating Hillary or Hunter Biden or whoever your side's devil du jour is.
Posted by: soleri | February 17, 2021 at 11:39 AM
Just an fyi, the Keystone Pipeline all ready exists. The Keystone XL is/was the project in question, it was a shorter route and larger. Most if not all of the product it would have carried was for export after being turned into a finished product.
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline
Posted by: 100 Octane | February 17, 2021 at 05:13 PM
Thanks Octane.
But it has become obvious,
Man is of NO benefit to the planet!
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 17, 2021 at 07:50 PM
Between R.C. And Soleri have convinced me that the Pintos vote the right way .Originally I was surprised by the vote by Kelly,but not Synema. Until the dems prove they can win a legislative vote,they are voting the way they should.The most important thing is elections and winning
Posted by: Mike Doughty | February 17, 2021 at 08:35 PM
Yep Mike.
Purity is a sin!
Dats what did Bernie in!
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 17, 2021 at 08:56 PM
Consider:
The battle over raw materials will decide who rules the world
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 17, 2021 at 09:05 PM
Purity is a very attractive delusion for people who confuse politics with religion. Since the real world is anything but pure, its pursuit becomes a fantasy construct that better belongs in young-adult fiction. Wishing away the grubbiness of ordinary political reality is a nice way to bond with other dreamers but if we're going to take democracy seriously, it's a good idea to understand the difference between idealism and the actual possibilities we might achieve. When we don't, we end up creating unnecessary cynicism, anger and paranoia.
There is no political salvation but if you insist there is, you will be seduced into thinking that your inevitable frustration was a sinister plot engineered by nefarious "others". The prevalence of conspiracy theories in our public life is now a good sign how haywire America is becoming. Please: don't feed the insanity. It's killing real democracy.
Posted by: soleri | February 17, 2021 at 09:53 PM
Soleri's words put me in mind, I think it was on this site, that I came across the book, "Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire." One of the best books I read all year.
Posted by: DoggieCombover | February 18, 2021 at 08:53 AM
I ask for forgivness as i have sinned.
Sorry Bernie.
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 18, 2021 at 09:33 AM
Glendale RINO?
Getting elected?
Glendale Hispanic numbers?
https://www.azmirror.com/2021/02/17/senate-moves-to-repeal-az-law-banning-undocumented-immigrants-from-in-state-tuition/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=133c95df-cae3-431e-8561-db0bab924c42
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2021/02/08/sen-paul-boyer-refuses-arrest-county-supervisors-saves-senate/4443819001/
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 18, 2021 at 11:37 AM
Back to raw materials: What are we talking about now?
Posted by: Stephanie | February 19, 2021 at 09:37 AM
Al Franken's comments about the filibuster make sense. Any chance Sinema and Kelly would agree?
https://alfranken.com/read/regarding-the-filibuster-by-al-franken-and-norm-ornstein
"Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema have made clear that they are adamantly opposed to eliminating the filibuster. OK. Great! They revere the tradition of a minority willing to go, literally, to the mattresses for something they believe deeply. So they should be enthusiastic about supporting a rule that provides just that."
Posted by: IA_Ed | February 21, 2021 at 08:32 AM
The Great Progressive Cultural Revolution will eventually eat its own.
I wish they’d get it over with.
Posted by: Reality Street | February 21, 2021 at 09:29 PM
"Manunkind" is currently eating Saints.
Reality Winner (not Street)
Chelsea Manning
Edward Snowden
Julian Assange
But not to worry I hear the indestructible JFK Jr is coming back to do war with USA Supermen Nixon and Kissinger
Posted by: Cal Lash | February 22, 2021 at 01:05 PM
I like my senators without purple hair.
Posted by: Tony Pettit | March 11, 2021 at 05:29 PM
I often wonder about folks that pour chemicals on their heads? Or stick colored poisonous ink drawings on their skin?
Posted by: Cal Lash | March 13, 2021 at 04:08 PM