Politics: Arizona/Phoenix

Carl Muecke illustration

It seems impossible that we’ve reached this crossroads. The choice between a disgraced, convicted felon who denies the validity of the 2020 election and incited an insurrection versus a seasoned, if flawed, vice president in one of the most successful administrations in my lifetime. But here we are. And Arizona might represent the tipping point that allows Donald Trump to win the election.

If he does, America’s experiment in self-governance will be over. In the future, our “elections” will be similar to those in Russia and China. Anyone who believes we can live through a second Trump presidency and move on is kidding themselves. Trump 2.0, with the lying J.D. Vance (who was no hillbilly but grew up in a middle-class family and attended Yale), will utterly change the nation.

Anxious? I certainly am. And you should be as well.

Carl Muecke illustration.

Rogue readers have been imploring me to write again. So I will put my shoulder to the wheel, even though much of this will be repetitive, whether dealing with what Soleri aptly called the Arizona Problem or our national existential crisis.

I hesitate to use the T word, because he and his cult feed on media attention. Whether voters are paying attention is another matter. Many Democrats are panicked by President Biden’s debate performance this past week — even though he became much more impressive as the night continued. However, by that time too many viewers had tuned out.

When I was growing up, Arizona was a low-population state with only three congressmen. It didn’t matter much in national elections. Now, with an unsustainable population of more than seven million people, Arizona has become a swing state with dangerous possibilities in November. When the totally unqualified former news-reader for the local Fox affiliate comes within a few thousand votes of becoming governor, you know we’re in trouble.

If you follow the online Regional Dispatch Center maintained by the Phoenix Fire Department, you’ll frequently see calls labeled “snake removal,” especially in north Scottsdale. As I understand it, firefighters respond to the tony manses Slightly North of Bell (SNOB) to pull rattlesnakes out of pools, away from doors, or their expensively xeriscaped  properties.

The Regional Dispatch Center isn’t as inclusive at Seattle’s Real Time 911, and it usually consists of calls to automobile collisions (962s) — often involving pedestrians, bicycles, and motorcycles — as well as mountain rescues of idiots hiking up mountains in mid-day high summer. But the call for snake removal seems especially apt for our moment.

As the wealthy Anglo subdivisions have pushed ever deeper into the desert, they’ve destroyed and disrupted the habitat of the creatures that live there. It’s no surprise, then, that  a diamondback — not a baseball player — suns himself on a championship golf course or gives a new meaning to the “water hazard.”

When I was growing up in what’s now the Willo Historic Neighborhood north of downtown Phoenix, we never saw snakes. Believe me, we looked! As a teenager, friends and I would hike around Arizona with a varmint gun at the ready, but never saw a rattler, much less a deadly coral snake or Gila monster. For one thing, I knew to walk with a heavy tread so the snake could feel me coming. DDT had killed off the scorpions and black widow spiders. They’ve made a big comeback, especially on the ever-expanding fringes. And snakes? Call the fire department.

I suppose readers expect me to comment on Sen. Krysten Sinema's switch from the Democratic Party to independent. Entire digital forests have already been felled examining it, as shown on the Phoenix and Arizona links over the past several days.

She was obviously afraid of losing a primary to someone such as Rep. Ruben Gallego. This allows her a chance to split the vote among her, the Democratic challenger, and the Republican Senate candidate — and maybe come out on top. Arizona Democrats are furious with her for tag-teaming with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-Coal, to undermine President Biden's agenda, and will do everything to ensure her defeat.

But don't be so sure. Behind the sophisti-cute nerd girl eyeglasses and abundant looks privilege is an ambitious brain. Her hole card is that although she's a Jack Mormon, she earned her bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and the LDS never give up on their own. The Mormons remain a formidable voting bloc in Arizona.

Carl Muecke illustration.

When was the last time you changed your mind? Be honest.

I can think of a few times in my recent life. I was skeptical about human-caused climate change until I read Elizabeth Kolbert's seminal reporting on the subject in 2001. I changed my mind. When I was business editor of the Charlotte Observer, where we covered the major bank consolidations of the 1990s, I had misgivings. About the repeal of Glass-Steagall. But I was convinced the system was secure. When it nearly melted down in the Panic of 2008, I changed my mind. Being raised a Goldwater Republican in Arizona, I adamantly changed my mind in the coming years.

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" to use a quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes.

But the evidence on the ground indicated that fewer Americans are willing to change their minds about anything.