Terri Proud of Tea Party Tyranny

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have never quite understood the Tea Party's odd dichotomy of conservative victimhood on the one hand, and their sense of privileged entitlement to govern on the other hand. Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post offered the most cogent explanation of this odd dichotomy the other day in Debt talks reveal the Republicans’ apocalyptic war on government:

Republicans, to be sure, have long waged a war on government, but only now has it become an apocalyptic and total war. At its root, I suspect, is the fear and loathing that rank-and-file right-wingers feel toward what their government, and their nation, is inexorably becoming: multiracial, multicultural, cosmopolitan and now headed by a president who personifies those qualities. That America is also downwardly mobile is a challenge for us all, but for the right, the anxiety our economy understandably evokes is augmented by the politics of racial resentment and the fury that the country is no longer only theirs. That’s not a country whose government they want to pay for — and if the apocalypse befalls us, they seem to have concluded, so much the better.

I will also never understand the Tea Party fixation with conspiracy theories. This is something that has existed on the fringe of conservatism going back at least to Father Charles Coughlin (the original Rush Limbaugh) in the 1930s, the John Birch Society, and a myriad of similar conspiracy theory acolytes and organizations which have sprung up with the rise of conservative talk radio and the Internet.

The latest conspiracy theory of the Tea Party is the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, created by the voters of Arizona with Prop. 106 in 2000 by a vote margin of 56-44 percent. I emphasize "Independent" because teabagger Rep. Terri Proud (R-LD 26) seems to think that the commission exists to create a permanent Republican majority in Arizona through gerrymandered political lines. And if the commission will not acceed to her demands, well "screw the voters of Arizona who want an Independent Redistricting Commission!"

Proud wants to either remove the registered independent chair of the Independent Redistricting Commission on a trumped up conspiracy theory (Colleen Mathis exercised her independent judgment and voted with the Democratic commissioners! Ack! Bias! One wonders whether Proud would be making this same unhinged accusation of bias if the registered independent chair had voted with the Republican commissioners — but of course not).

Failing her hair-brained conspiracy theory to remove the chair of the Independent Redistricting Commission for pure partisan politics, Proud wants the Governor call a special session and to hold a special election to repeal Prop. 106, so the Tea-Publican legislature of Arizona can create a permanent Republican majority in Arizona through gerrymandered political lines. The Tea-Publican contempt for our democratic process and the will of the voters of Arizona borders on sociopathy. Tucson lawmaker seeks to return district-drawing power to Legislature:

[Rep. Terri Proud (R-LD 26)] wants a special election to ask voters to scrap the Independent Redistricting Commission and return the chore of dividing up the state politically to legislators themselves.

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Proud conceded that her move, if successful, would return Arizona to the days when the lines were drawn behind closed doors by legislators themselves — and when one of the prime goals of those who drew the lines was to preserve “safe’’ districts for themselves.

That's a big "F**k you Arizona voters!" who approved Prop. 106. Authoritarian teabaggers know what's best for you. "You will obey!" When is the Tea Party finally going to issue the crisply starched brown shirts and spit-shined jackboots to go along with the Glock 19 concealed carry handgun the lady carries? Ga-ga for Guns – Phoenix Magazine. Show your true face to the voters. If you want to be our authoritarian overlords, do tyranny right. C'mon teabaggers!

House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, said he and other Republicans share Proud’s frustration. He said there is reason to believe that the commission, as it is currently operating, is hostile to GOP interests.

Not acceeding to your every demand to create a permanent Republican majority in Arizona through gerrymandered political lines is not being "hostile to GOP interests." It is being independent, fair and even-handed to all the voters of Arizona, most of whom are not registered Republicans (Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, Independents or "No Party Preference").

At least Speaker Tobin had the good sense, unlike Terri Proud, to stop short of saying the system should be scrapped in favor of going back to the way it was done before. “I do not believe the voters want the legislative model,’’ he said.

Governor Jan Brewer, whose office has been inundated lately with messages from the crazy wild-eyed conspiracy theorists of the Tea Party riled up by Terri Proud and others is at least not hyperventilating over this faux scandal du jour.

Gubernatorial press aide Matthew Benson said his boss has “no imminent plans’’ to call a special session. But he said Jan Brewer, a Republican, “is aware of the concerns of some of the legislators and she shares some of those concerns.’’

Benson said, though, Brewer believes any talk of overhauling or reforming what voters approved “is purely speculative at this point,’’ saying she instead wants to be sure the current system “is executed fairly and in accordance with the law.’’

When you can make Jan Brewer look like the calm, rational, mature adult in the room, that should be your first clue that your unhinged accusations of bias are way off base. This just exposes Terri Proud for the crazy wild-eyed conspiracy theorist partisan hack that she is.