The latest Kookocracy folly in Arizona is a nullification bill. According to the Arizona Republic, "proponents, including Gov. Jan Brewer and many GOP lawmakers, call their effort renewed federalism and cheer the push to reassert states' rights." States' rights, of course, is longstanding American paranoid code for de jure racism. Now, beyond that, it's used as a trope to do away with Obamacare and the EPA. But does anyone think a GOP federal government would allow, say, California to nullify a white-right law? This is just another set piece of white-right theater to keep the duhs and ignos distracted. Or is it? With more than six million people, Arizona has turned from national joke to national trend-setter, from its Jim Crow anti-immigration law to its becoming the most prominent hotspot for political violence (and isn't it interesting how quickly the national media backed away from any censure of the climate of violence and "anti-liberal" hate speech that led up to the assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords). What happens in Arizona doesn't stay in Arizona. And indeed, other red states want nullification, especially of the hated Obama health care revamp.
It's useful to recall the last time nullification was part of the national conversation. South Carolina passed a nullification act in 1832, to assert that the state would not be bound by a federal tariff that adversely affected the agrarian South. The South Carolinians backed down when they realized that President Andrew Jackson, no Barack Obama to put it mildly, would administer federal law with armed force — and if push had come to shove, Old Hickory would have done so with a bloody-mindedness than would have made Abraham Lincoln look like a pacifist, and the hotheads in Charleston and Columbia knew it. All this being history about which the Huppenthal home- and charter-schooled white-right are abysmally ignorant. Nevertheless, the Nullification Crisis was a step along the road to the Civil War. It was a sympton of an underlying unsustainable situation.
The crisis took place during a national economic downturn, as well as increasing sectional tension. Both of which apply today — and if the battle lines appeared more neatly drawn than today, it's useful to recall that most Southern states had strong pro-union movements. One of the most articulate anti-secessionists was Sam Houston. Again, we have sectional strife combined with a severe recession, and while the economy is on the mend the federal protection afforded the risky practices of the banksters virtually ensures another panic, sooner than later, and globalization is making the losers hurt ever more. All this drives political extremism.
Consider Ohio, whose new governor, John Kasich, promptly refused federal money to at least begin a high-speed rail route linking Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. He's charting a typical white-right path for the state, the old Voinovich Republicans apparently gone the way of their common sense brethren around the country. Imagine what an aggressive effort to build high-speed rail might have meant for a state that has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs? But, no. Better to work at Wal-Mart and a call center, before the latter is outsourced to India. Unlike Arizona, Ohio is an example of what happens when Democrats don't deliver progressive reforms that help average people immediately (say, Medicare for all, rather than the Obama dog's breakfast that benefits the insurance companies, and the above-mentioned investment in 21st century transportation).
The problem facing the white-right, of course, is that this aging cohort and these red states are all net takers from the federal government, in everything from water projects and agricultural and energy subsidies, to social security, Medicaid and food stamps. They feed at the trough of empire with the military-industrial complex, a majority of military bases and the military as the employer of last resort for their desperate young people. The blue states pay the bills. How will all this play out, particularly as unemployment stays high, inequality continues to widen, the ballyhooed state "belt-tightening" deepens the misery, and the banksters cook up a new panic? And then higher energy prices kick in on the way to the big climate change shocks set for around 2020? It's impossible to tell, but, as economist Herb Stein said, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."
It won't be pretty.
The Americans who watch, on average, 34 hours of television a week must have been seeing a bit of what's been going on in Egypt the past two weeks. The surface narrative is almost entirely wrong ("it's a social media-driven backlash against dictatorship that will result in "democracy."). The vicious cutbacks in international news by newspapers and what were once real network news operations have only fed American ignorance, ironic given our international responsibilities, expanding and costly soft empire, and the ability of world events to slap us in the head. A few things can be said with some degree of confidence: Revolutions never happen among the most oppressed or benighted people; they happen when a people have rising expectations and the old regime shows weakness and internal rot (France, Russia, Iran). We continue to support odious authoritarian regimes in the Middle East to secure cheap oil so the duhs and ignos at home can drive to Wal-Mart to buy cheap crap from China, then drive to the casino. And to sustain an unsustainable Israel policy. As the old CIA hands said, "He's an S.O.B, but he's our S.O.B." It's hard to see anything good coming out of the Egyptian chaos — maybe more military dictatorship, maybe the beginning of a new wave of Islamic extremism taking over nation-states. Rising food prices have received surprisingly little coverage as one trigger for the latest instability. And the dominoes? My spook friend bets the Saudis already have Israeli special forces to bolster the old Arab king's tenuous hold on power. Yes, it's a complicated world. And there's Iran making an atom bomb and our friends the Pakistanis with their loose nukes. When oil goes to $300 a barrel, high-speed rail will seem like a smart investment (our good friends, the Red Chinese, think so).
Back at home, the loudest "revolutionary" talk seems to have gone out of the white-right for the moment, nullification notwithstanding. The House is as placid as John Boehner on a golf course. Maybe, like the socialists after World War I, they've gained responsible governing power and don't have a clue what to do with it. But Americans seem to have no rising expectations, even as our institutions do indeed show advanced rot. President Hoover continues to grovel before big business, promising tax relief to moguls who pay little if any taxes and have little intention to hire Americans at decent wages. The actual mechanics of government are totally controlled by a corporate elite. The Super Bowl, now that's important. Having nullified our brains and our sacred responsibilities as citizens, we are nullifying our future. Maybe the white-right just needs a break to take some Geritol before starting out on the next distraction. The Koch brothers and the U.S. Chamber will then tell them what to do next.
The thing about theater is its utter unpredictability. It's unlike movies or TV because a live audience is right there, influencing what happens on stage. In the performing art, this makes magic. In the Tea Party theater of the right, someday push may really come to shove and the results, as with all theater, may surprise.
I have more to write, especially on how Jan Brewer needs to grow a pair and put Russell Pearce and John Kavanagh in their places.
Stupid bills from Arizona are always graced with the signatures of these two wackos. I’m surprised Jon didn’t write about Peace’s bill that would allow a private citizen to commandeer a public agency’s vehicle (bus, car, truck, etc) if that agency violated their rights or for other grievances.
What I feel should be mentioned first in response to Jon’s piece, is that while the military historically would fill their ranks with the unemployed and often undesirable element of society, that has largely changed.
Now, less than a quarter of all (enlisted) applicants qualify for service. Many more fail to complete basic training or AIT, Tech School, etc. This is due to three main shortcomings by today’s youth: academic achievement (high school graduation now is a requirement for most recruits, and all Air Force personnel), physical fitness, and criminal background.
Many in the ranks today, more than ever, are from middle class families and many have college training. I am a little biased coming from a military family and having served myself, but this is based on statistics from Recruiting Commands; the military is seen less as an employer of last choice since standards are higher than any time in the past.
Good piece Jon
If U aint white U aint right
It’s going be a killing field
right here in the Good ole USA.
I am taking my dog Spot, my recumbent and getting into my motor home and going to San Carlos.
Indeed, the surprise Jon mentions may come from some totally unexpected place. Say, some latter-day Archduke Ferdinand, an anarchist, and toppling dominoes in directions we could scarcely imagine before the fact.
Glenn Beck imagines a caliphate stretching from south Asia to the British Isles. It’s all a plot, we’re told, by the American left and Islamofascists. President Obama himself is a key conspirator. Personally, I can’t wait for the application of Sharia law on my sorry excuse for secular-humanist decadence.
William Kristol, perhaps remembering Beck’s anti-semitic vitriol about George Soros, has finally said enough to all this. Some say Beck is on a short leash but millions depend on his chalkboard explanations about liberal Badness. Without it, they might start to doubt their own Goodness. There’s no right-wing majority without the Real Americans and all the diagrammed conspiracy theories keeping them informed. Still, Beck is heightening the tensions within crazy base-land and Roger Ailes might well ask him to dial it back a couple of notches so the Neocons don’t freak out. The base got high on Kristol meth when it came to invading Iraq but Beck’s rants are starting to threaten the glue-sniffing comity of this oddfellow coalition.
Arizona’s True Believers imagine a restoration of Mayberry but with extra bullets in Barney’s front pocket. It’s Reagan’s centenary and the Shining City on the Hill is, at last, (mostly) white, Christian, gated, and endowed with a mighty armada of SUVs. The Badness they see on their big-screen TV sets is now in high definition. Likewise, their Goodness is sharply defined and Rapture-ready. Why not nullify the Badness before it contaminates their Goodness? That way, Arizona can remain true to the REAL principles of the Founding Fathers, which had nothing to do with Kwanza, Earth Day, Nancy Pelosi, or untold millions of anchor babies stealing our Social Security.
America is the greatest nation in the history of Earth. No, make that the universe. But the enemies within have brought us to our knees. Only God can save us, so make sure the candidates you vote for support the 2nd Amendment. God helps those who help themselves. It’s in the Bible, but liberals don’t want you to know that.
When Rand Paul, the face of the Tea Party movement, refuses to touch Social Security and Medicare, it’s obvious that our two-party system is destined to failure. It remains to be seen if this fact, along with stagnant standards of living, are enough to wake the American people from their comas.
Gee whiz Soleri my tongue got stuck in my cheek reading your diatribe.
This crusade against perceived outside impositions is partially fed by a fear that ever more rules constrict the dynamism of America the ‘frontier’ country. Whatever problems beset us today, they can supposedly be solved by unleashing the American spirit and metabolism. This has been the story since R.R. But the story shows its ugly anarchic, anti-civilizational streak in hard times or if it’s followed to the end.
Judging by Jon’s writings it hasn’t been too conducive to solving problems in AZ, either. Reality doesn’t care about stories, since they reduce reality. Solving problems of governance by absconding from proper governance is a gamble. Isn’t there someone insisting that driver’s licenses are unnecessary?
But aside from the funny freak show, there is a legitimate question of how necessary change (that ‘toxic’ word) can come about – in a time where structures are paralyzed or ossified and the general course is self-destructive.
In other news, the bloviations about the “Twitter/Facebook revolution” are quite amusing. Tom Friedman (“danger to public safety” – Taleb) and the Egyptian edition of his Happy Globalization story don’t fail to entertain. I do however wonder why TV news with all the time in the world to fill doesn’t have the resources to put together even the basic facts for its viewership. Reports 10-15 minutes long about basic history and geography would be a start for the 34h of weekly TV consumption to make a little sense.
When my fairly conservative Republican friends tell me that they’re ashamed and embarassed by the legislature’s antics, maybe we’re nearing the point where they’ll turn and push back on the Kooks. One can only hope!
Jim, you summed up my sentiments. Luckily for the readers of Rogue, I’ll add, since my explanation would have been verbose (LOL)!
I’ve heard the same from Republican friends and family in Arizona about the Kooks. Even the Republic “shamed” Pearce and cohort for their extreme politicking. Going so far in literally condemning Pearce as an “extremist.” I was surprised:
“Madness, yes, but every state legislature has its members who grumble and grouse and trade in folly, right?
The difference lies in who those members are. In Arizona, they include the president of the state Senate, a practitioner of extreme politics who has a national following. Other state leaders seem to cower in his presence.”
https://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/02/06/20110206sun-state-reputation-1-06.html
I just have to comment on the average American watching 34 hours of TV; how do they find the time? This must be a temporary phenomena since the unemployment rolls have increased?
On my too long weekend, I tried to watch that much TV and it didn’t work out. I’ll admit though, I have to watch some absolutely dumb programming because it keeps my attention for awhile. So I am not completely innocent. For instance, I am trying to watch the Bachelor now.
Mainly because Brad Womack (sp) is dreamy and I’ve dated men like him before. I call them finger dates. Usually the date begin with my finger on their lips saying: “Shh, Shh, don’t speak, just shut up and kiss me.”
I can only talk about great arms and abs for so long; TV is very similar to a lot of my dates, now that I think about it. Sad…let me put down the wine and contemplate our serious world issues now.
Suns Fan, I doubt any Rogue reader — even under torture — could be the average American TV viewer.
That’s true Rogue. Because we are wild and crazy misfits……we read books.
A rim-rattling dunk of a post Jon….
(And I feel even more justified in buying that signed first edition of “Concrete Desert” from a collector.)
You are correct in your pending conclusion:
“In the Tea Party theater of the right, someday push may really come to shove and the results, as with all theater, may surprise.”
Murdoch and the Kochs have created an armed monster. They are only in control of it to the extent they don’t anger it themselves. And they don’t fathom just how hard that thin line will be to walk…
I don’t think the Kochs and their ilk really fear anything at all. They have enough money at their disposal to simply up and leave the country if their Frankenmob of pin-heads, angry old white men and gun-humpers turns their blind hatred on them someday. It’s the rest of us who will have to deal with the consequences, both socially and economically.
I watch from afar – I do volunteer work in Rwanda – and what I see, hear and read (oh yes, count me as one of those who still does that old-fashioned thing)horrifies me. Often I feel silly when my African colleagues, and sometimes even outright strangers, ask me to explain what’s happening in America. My favorite is:
“Why do all Americans need guns? Who’s trying to invade?”
I have a front row seat as China spreads its empire by building railroads, roads, and influence all over Africa. In America we cannot even build rail in our own cities, our roads are crumbling and our influence is waning, as is our reputation for being the nation countries turn to for leadership and inspiration. Look at what we’ve become. Who would be inspired by us?
Anyway, another home-run post Rogue. You’re a beacon illuminating the hard truths afflicting the country, but sadly it seems the socio-political climate of today’s America has rendered a fog too heavy for even the most sensible, intelligence light to shine through.
Keep up the great work.
So, RC, are you now with the sane bits of us that the 14th Amendment applies to all babies and that the Dream Act should be passed?
Sidebar: General Pearce may be running short of sidekicks. Ron Gould is basically a heating/cooling contractor who is turning out to be little more than a zealot with a funny moustache. John Kavanagh is (to me) looking more and more like a toady who is thinly armed with a PhD. Who else will he get to carry the mail? Jack Harper? Some of the fringy-loonies from Anthem? May be wishful thinking, but I sense a slow-mo implosion.
With the help of Sal DiCiccio, the State Legislature just decided to mess with the largest cities in Arizona: Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Glendale, Tucson…
They wish to impose rules on these cities that will force them to bid out any contracted services over $50,000 to private contractors. This would include transit, garbage/recycling, water, etc but exclude public safety agencies.
https://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/02/09/20110209arizona-lawmakers-impose-state-rule-on-phoenix.html
The cities, especially Phoenix, are preparing to fight the State and I think Phoenix has the upper hand here. Let’s hope the taxpayers/voters realize just how detrimental the Kooks are to everyone, conservative and liberal.
eclecticdog, I continue to have reservations. As I’ve written, the 14th Amendment was exclusively intended to help undo some of the judicial malpractice of the slavery era and give civil rights to the newly freedmen and women. I stick by my earlier post.
A couple of thoughts about Jon’s radio interview (along with Keven Ann Willey) on today’s Here and Now: there’s a kind of etiquette of caution that afflicts many smart and knowledgeable media types. Never say anything that might upset anyone! What results is something like Willey running in circles around some radioactive if obvious thoughts. Willey knows Arizona as well as anyone. She’s seen the rightward drift from afar but also from the high inside at the Republic. Yet she shrinks from saying much if anything about this remarkable series of political wounds. Instead, she briefly acknowledges the issue before verbosely sanitizing it of any provocative content.
Thanks Jon for stating clearly what you think. Let’s disagree rudely if we must since the opposite is usually something really hurtful to our discourse: bewildered confusion.
Sigh…
Listened to the above mentioned “Here and Now” and concluded that Keven Willey is both out of touch with AZ and sanitized by some sort of ivory tower thing. 9 years ago when she left the Rep., the Kooks were on the margins and now they run the show. Too bad Steve Goldstein missed the opportunity to steer the discussion along those lines.
I went a few rounds with Willey in the past. First she always plays it safe.
And real investigative reporters and factual comprehensive journalism scares the bejebez out of her. But Keven is a really nice person unlike some of us and particularly that Rouge columnist guy.