Ancient Arizona Republic columnist befuddled by diversity

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

We can’t bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don’t go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m’shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you’d say. Now where was I… oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn’t get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…

Grandpa MacEachern is projecting again.

Tea party activists oppose many GOP candidates who fail to match up identically with their priorities on taxes and the growth of federal influence, even if it means losing elections. Democrats are enduring similar schisms between their own party’s self-defined communities.

In terms of those communities, these are sensitive times for state Democrats. State Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, who is African-American, was ousted as minority leader, prompting accusations of racism. Kate Gallego, who is White, endured much criticism during her successful campaign for the Phoenix City Council District 8 seat, which historically had been held by an African-American.

Obviously, such communities of interest can overlap. Intentionally or not, state Sen. Gallardo expanded his own potential range of support communities when he announced on Wednesday that he is gay.

Gallardo insists his declaration was not politically motivated, but it could strengthen his prospects among District 7’s substantial LGBT community, which has been viewed as a stronghold of Sinema, who is bisexual.

Yes, the rivalries can make your head spin. Such divisions certainly can place notions about the pursuit of the greater good into a finer light.

Doug MacEachern was blunter in his Insiders post on Wednesday:

Racial-gender-sexuality politics are delicate matters by definition. But Arizona Democrats are in turmoil right now and there simply is no avoiding the fact that Democrats, who are fundamentally organized according to racial-gender-sexual identity interest groups, are in serious conflict, if not open political war.

Yeah, speaking of fundamentally organized along race and gender lines:

It is adorable to see a conservative columnist straining to equate what’s going on in CD7, which is nothing more than a typical primary in a Dem-dominated district attracting (shockingly!) a lot of Democrats to run in it, to the Tea Party. Sorry Doug, but the Democratic base has not been astroturfed and radicalized into a hysterical froth over imaginary threats. Liberals and Democrats, by and large, are not white supremacist climate change denying Birthers who fetishize guns and think the UN is plotting against them and that there’s such a thing as “legitimate rape”. That’s your side’s problem.