They can dish it out but can’t take it

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Dish it out

If there’s one thing as constant as the sun rising over the Arizona desert every morning it is that Arizona conservatives love to rag on California. Since I moved here close to twenty years ago I’ve been hearing right wingers characterize California as the epitome of every bad liberal thing imaginable. If you are a Republican running for office it’s practically a requirement to dis those commies on the Left Coast and, if at all possible, paint your Democratic opponent as an effete “San Francisco Nancy Pelosi liberal”. Our current Governor Doug Ducey wasn’t shy about getting his digs in on the Golden State when he was running for election, insisting that companies were leaving California in droves due to its terrible business climate, a claim that was fact-checked and found wanting.

But California Governor Jerry Brown said something unflattering (and true) about Arizona so, of course, Arizona conservatives including the Governor had a giant stupid hissyfit over it.

STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR DOUG DUCEY REGARDING COMMENTS BY GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN

PHOENIX – “All of Arizona mourns for the victims in California. To politicize a tragedy of this magnitude and use it as an opportunity to attack our state is out of bounds. Not only will we be ignoring Gov. Brown’s advice, but I call on him to retract his incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised comments.”
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Oh, grow up, Doug! What Brown said about the ease with which anyone can get weapons and ammo in Arizona is objectively true and he’s hardly the first person to point it out. Those highly lax gun laws, not to mention our idiots who brandish their guns, contribute to the negative image outsiders have of Arizona. On the very day that Governor Ducey released that petulant statement, Arizona was in the national news because a guy accidentally shot his friend at a gun show in Phoenix.

The Ducey administration and supporters like the AZ Chamber seem to think getting defensive and demanding that everyone in Arizona plaster on cheery smiles like we’re a dysfunctional family in the 1950s putting on a brave face for the neighbors is an effective strategy for making the rest of the world not notice how messed up it is here, but it’s not. We have a gun problem and everyone knows it.

2 thoughts on “They can dish it out but can’t take it”

  1. jerry brown was very moderate in his criticism of the republican fascist police state of arizona.

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