While the midterm elections won’t be decided until next year, one thing is certain: The QAnon crazies in the Arizona legislature are about to face a reckoning, as rational Republicans run from the party of Trump.
The spike in the GOP exodus came in the days after the January 6 insurrection.
There were 233 Republican defections in Arizona in the first five days of January, snowballing to 3,317 in the next week.
The Confederacy of Dunces shot themselves in the foot by censuring three of the state’s most prominent Republicans.
They include:
- Governor Doug Ducey, ridiculed by Trump for calling the election for Biden.
- Cindy McCain, who also endorsed Biden and was censured for embracing “leftist causes.”
- Former Senator Jeff Flake quit the GOP in disgust in 2018 and has been an alt-right critic ever since.
After the censures, Flake tweeted a picture of himself, Cindy McCain, and Ducey at Biden’s inaugural, writing, “Good company.”
The fact that a majority of Americans are confident that President Biden is leading the U.S. in the right direction “could tame the normal angst of midterm voters toward the party in power,” Nathan Gonzales of Inside Elections wrote in CQ Roll Call.
Most reasonable Republicans support the stimulus package. They know global warming is destroying The Earth. Before they were fully vaccinated, they wore masks and heeded Dr. Anthony Fauci’s advice, not Trump’s drivel telling Americans to pour bleach down their gullets.
Katie Hobbs’ WAPO Editorial
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs wrote a Washington Post editorial on June 14 opining that:
“Republicans aren’t just protesting the results of our most recent presidential election; they are laying the groundwork to steal the next one.
“They are sowing doubt about our electoral process to justify a crackdown on voting rights. The 2020 election was insecure, they say, and so our next election must be airtight.
“This twisted logic has propelled voter suppression laws across the country, in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Montana, and other states.
“Here, Republicans just got rid of one of Arizona’s most effective measures, the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL), Hobbs writes in her WAPO editorial.
“This subtle adjustment–changing the Permanent Early Voter List to the Active Early Voter List–could prevent more than 100,000 Arizonans from receiving their ballots.”
Senate Bill 1485, sponsored by Republican Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita, takes the “permanent” out of PEVL. Her legislation corrupts the law to strike voters from the voting rolls if they don’t use their early ballot at least once in two consecutive two-year election cycles.
Voting in person at a polling site doesn’t count.
Usually, midterm elections are a referendum on the party in power. This time, they’re a referendum on whether Trump should launch a Presidential comeback, as well as on the cruel voting and abortion laws Arizona enacted.
Insurrectionist legislators, including Mark Finchem, Andy Biggs, and Chair of the Arizona GOP, Kelli Ward, are too myopic to see beyond their white, Evangelical, pro-life, non-college-educated voters.
Since a younger electorate, including Blue state transplants and minorities, compose a larger slice of the electorate than ever, MAGA legislators may be ousted by progressives, such as Kirsten Engel, running for election for U.S. House to represent Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District.
Ending Lifelong GOP Affiliation
A CNN story, “Arizona Republicans wrestle with their party’s future,” describes a Republican who switched parties while in the voting booth.
“C.J. Diegel scrolled down the Arizona Secretary of State’s website until he saw the box for ‘no party affiliation.’
“He clicked it, ending his lifelong registration as an Arizona Republican in just seconds.”
“Diegel had hoped that his state party, after seeing the U.S. Capitol insurrection …would reverse course away from Donald Trump.
“Instead, Arizona Republicans took Donald Trump’s side,” said Diegel, a married father of two and Air Force veteran,” CNN wrote.
“Those people don’t represent what being conservative in Arizona means, and I finally had to say, ‘No, I don’t want to be associated with the Arizona Republican Party.”
GOP chair Kelli Ward thinks otherwise. She said in a video released earlier this year:
“Are we going to continue to be an America first Arizona, or are we going back to the dark days before Donald Trump?”
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Back in the day I made some snide half-reasoned comment about “When Jan Brewer is the calm, rational one in the room…..” Little did I know how far this would go. This is just beyond the pale. And by that I mean literally beyond rational thought, coherency or any framework of a continuum of value/belief based, political thought that leads to coherent policy.
These are literally the inmates running the asylum. Although I am afraid that even if we understand their delusions, we cannot cure them. There is no attempt at governance, at any framework of consensus to identify solutions to difficult problems.
I hope the Grand Old Party finds a way to purge the shallow, reactionary people who run their party that want so desperately to assimilate in such an outlandish, in your face, shallow group, that they don’t even examine the drivel they are espousing.
It’s sad. Pathetic. Scary. And most of all wastes resources, efforts and time. Valuable time. And perhaps that’s the point. This is the ‘let them eat cake’ time. We are scrambling and arguing over the crumbs of ideological extremes as a distraction, while long term, impactful things happen in front of our eyes.
such educated remarks.
Thanks, Guys.
brudedesertrat said “poutrage”.
I don’t know if you coined that term but it’s perfection.
Oh, don’t worry “Il Deuce” Ducey is well on to worming his way back into their good graces with his temper tantrum, I mean “Executive Order” the other day proclaming the nonexistence of Covid-19 and thus the insidious attack on LIBRTEEE! and FREEDUMBBB!!! that is…requiring incoming students to get vaccinated for Covid-19 before attending the State Universities.
There’s also mention his poutrage over not getting his flat-tax stripmining of Arizona jammed through followed almost the next day with his demand that we-the-taxpayers cough up a quick $100 million to fund fighting wildfires that just conincidentally keep happening, no one knows why. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Maybe we’re just not raking the forests enough.