The Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, and the mouthpiece of the establishment Republican Party in Arizona, is schizophrenic when it comes to your constitutional rights to a citizens referendum and voting.
Columnist Laurie Roberts published a series of reports on the Legislature plotting end run around voters on election law: “a fair amount of skullduggery is afoot.”
Coliumnist E.J. Montini published Voters can suppress the suppressors: “The only way voters can guarantee it never happens again is to note of every politician who goes along with the scheme and, when those names appear next on the ballot box, suppress their re-election.”
But the “editorial board” of The Republic has twice now published editorial opinions essentially telling the voters of Arizona to “go screw yourself.”
The hostile tone of these editorial opinions smacks of the Rush Limbaugh of The Republic, Doug MacEachern, or the prevaricator for the plutocracy, George Will’s mini-me, Robert Robb. As I said back in January with the first editorial opinion, The Arizona Republic is all for denying you your constitutional rights:
We are soon to embark on another election cycle of Laurie Roberts’ “De-Kook the Capitol” campaign, where she tries to convince gullible voters that there are “moderate” Republicans who can save us from the far-right GOP crazy base (and that Democrats are “irrelevant”). Just ignore the insanity at the Arizona GOP Winter State Committee Meeting this past Saturday (that the Republic failed to report).
I would posit to you that “De-Kook the Capitol” begins with “De-Kook The Republic,” the mouthpiece of the establishment Republican Party in Arizona. Getting rid of George Will’s mini-me, Robert Robb, the patrician prevaricator for the plutocracy, and the Rush Limbaugh of The Republic, Doug MacEachern, would be a good start.
Friday’s editorial opinion was even more bitterly partisan than the first. No pleasing disenfranchised Dems. Note that the caption concedes that voters were disenfrachised by HB 2305. But the caption is incorrect: it is not just Democrats, but Libertarians and other minor parties, and independent voters who would have been deprived of a choice of candidates in November with HB 2305, in addition to the voter suppression provisions.
The “editorial board” exhibits a complete lack of regard for the “skullduggery” by the GOP legislature of concern to Laurie Roberts, and dismisses E.J. Montini’s prophylactic response to make certain that this never happens again:
So last week, the Legislature voted to repeal the bill, eliminating the need for an expensive political campaign. And again, the activists objected. They’re still being disenfranchised. The Legislature, by bowing to the will of those who signed the petitions, was denying the voters their say.
You just can’t please some people.
What the “editorial board” is so dismissive of is your constitutional rights. More than 140,000 Arizona citizens signed the petitions for a referendum of the GOP Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, exercising their constitutional right under the Arizona Constitution to refer HB 2305 to the voters of Arizona to decide the issue. The repeal legislation voided the referendum and once again deprived the voters of Arizona of their right to vote to decide this issue.
We will now see elements of HB 2305 enacted piecemeal, quite likely through “strike everything” amendments before this legislature adjourns. And the “editorlal board” of The Republic will be down with that because “county recorders and elections directors” wanted these reforms.
As I’ve said before, It is editorial opinions such as this that renders The Republic’s editorial page “irrelevant.”
Letters to the editor, please.