“They’ve not paid attention to who they’ve voted for,” Chabin told a gaggle of reporters just prior to the House convening on the floor. “This is the chaos that you buy.

“Voters in Arizona are shortsighted, disinterested and disengaged.”

I’ve been asked many times what I think happened in AZ in the 2008 election. Why, when most of the country went in an arguably more progressive direction, did Arizona put more rabid reactionaries in office? My answer doesn’t sit well with a lot of people but I stand by it. I mostly blame the voters. Sorry, I just do. I say this as someone who didn’t bother to vote in Arizona for the first six years that I lived here, so I shoulder my share of that blame. It was the craven and evil stupidity of the Bush administration that stirred me from my disengagement and got me involved. I started going to John Kerry meetups. I have since learned that there has been a concerted effort by the MSM and movement conservatives to cultivate political apathy. Still, it wasn’t anyone else’s fault but mine that I blew off my responsibility as a citizen.

You can regard the voters as passive consumers who respond to the party or candidate with the more appealing “message”, as they do with any other product, or you can think of them as active participants in their own government. I believe that they are always the latter. Always. Even if they appear for all the world to be the former. If they decide that Dancing With The Stars or their sports teams are more important than their government, then that is their prerogative and they (and unfortunately everyone else) will suffer the consequences. If they choose to believe supply side malarkey without checking the facts themselves and then proceed to vote against their own best interests to give tax cuts to the wealthy that is also their prerogative.

You can’t say they weren’t warned about what would happen if the Republicans took control of everything. We told them over and over, until we were blue in the face. Candidates and volunteers knocked on the doors and made the phone calls and wrote the opeds and LTTEs and tried to persuade them. In the end a plurality of Arizonans chose to put more Republicans in office. We do have some pretty gerrymandered legislative districts here but that doesn’t force the voters who live in Republican strongholds to return rabid ideologues like Russell Pearce and Jack Harper to the State Capitol term after term, but that’s exactly what those voters do. Voters in more competitive districts ejected moderate Dems like Jackie Thrasher and Theresa Ullmer and replaced them with right wing Republicans. 30% of the Arizona electorate opted to let others make decisions for them by abstaining from voting. Think about that. This wasn’t a city council race or a school bond election, where a GOTV effort could mean making a miniscule turnout slightly larger. This was Barack Obama running against John McCain in the longest, most expensive, most reported on election ever. It’s not like people didn’t know it was happening. It’s not like it wasn’t plainly obvious that Janet Napolitano was going to hightail it to DC as soon as Obama got elected. But nearly a third of the Arizona electorate had better things to do than vote on November 4th, 2008. I get into arguments with people all the time who want to lay the entire fiasco on the Democrats but the truth is no matter how badly you think the Arizona Democratic Party sucks, that level of apathy and ignorance in the public is depressing.

To illustrate this: On June 30th I protested with educators over the proposed harsh cuts to the schools at the Capitol. In a Senate conference room I sat next to a pink-slipped teacher who told me that she always voted R all the way down the ballot. She considered herself to be a moderate and had no idea what hardcore reactionaries her legislators were. She had no idea. Her Senator is Pamela Gorman. This self-described moderate Republican pink-slipped schoolteacher had no idea how far to the right Pamela Gorman is. Seriously. I’m not mad at her, though. Given my own history, why would I be? Clearly this woman, and others like her, need to spend some time living in the chaos they bought. I derive no satisfaction from saying that and I know that many, many people in our state will suffer greatly so that people like that teacher will suffer just enough to start paying attention to whom they are putting in office. Unfortunately, that’s what has to happen. Tom Chabin was telling the truth.

I have some more thoughts about this topic and I will return to it in an upcoming post. Right now I’m at the State Committee meeting, where we will discuss strategies and message in the caucuses and get an update from the state party on where we are headed. Pardon my less-than-cheery attitude but hopefully it will brighten if I hear some good news.

What began as a collegial airing of views abruptly changed when McCain spoke about immigration, according to these sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Anonymity was also requested by a third source, who was not at the meeting but was told, independently of the other two, that McCain had displayed his notorious temper.

“He was angry,” one source said. “He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn’t even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset.”

McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people — you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!’ We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that.”

McCain’s tantrum stemmed from his perception that he was snubbed by Hispanic voters in the election, despite his considerable efforts on immigration reform. And just like a tantrum-throwing child, he’s taking his toys and going home. I don’t suppose it’s occured to him that Hispanics care about other issues besides immigration. It’s also entirely possible that it wasn’t McCain who was the problem with that particular voting bloc, but the people he was palling around with during the election.

I’ve got another post to do about the budget memo but I’ll have to get to it tomorrow.   I just thought this story was noteworthy in the context of this week’s events.   Can you imagine President John McCain in Europe right now?   Shudder.

I’ll tell you what this carrot-topped Diva did on the cusp of her 40th birthday:  Agreed to join a breakfast panel discussion about the election, to provide the Democratic perspective.   Not the first time I’ve done something like that but this time the panel included a prominent local Libertarian.   I’d been asked to do it by my friend who runs the twice monthly event.   He’s a lefty but is very welcoming to people from all over the political spectrum.

Sigh.  As most of y’all know, the single most freaking annoying person on the planet is a Libertarian.   And the only thing more annoying than a Libertarian is a bunch of them in the same place.  A group of Libertarians applies a force multiplier effect to the stupidosity of the ideas of each individual Libertarian, culminating in this sort of hive mind Echo Chamber of Dumb thing that makes every unfortunate soul in its noxious presence want to kill him/herself.   This is only a slight exaggeration.  Much to my consternation, at least half of the assembled attendees at the breakfast were Libertarians. 

The meeting started at 7:30am and after a few introductions and pleasantries we proceeded to get down to the panel discussion.  The Republican started and spoke for a few minutes about the national and local races.  I followed him and did the same from the Democratic side.  

Then came the Libertarian dude.   Oh lordy.   See Divas, there’s a reason that Libertarians rarely hold elective office.   Aside from the fact that they embrace an economic and political ideology that has never worked anywhere outside of an Ayn Rand novel, there is also the fact that no Libertarian has ever stopped making florid soliliquies and ill-formed rants about the Fed and fiat currencies long enough to show anything resembling an actual interest in governance.   Some of them love to run for stuff, though.   Libertarian Speaker Dude is a perennial candidate.  He’s run for something pretty much every 2 years since I’ve lived in Arizona.   At the same time he proudly admits that he hasn’t voted for years and that the whole notion of elected government is a farce.   He was quite entertaining, as he churned out one metaphor-laden analogy after another, none of which made any sense nor had any relevance to the recent election.

The Q and A session that followed was a grueling two hour root canal wherein I was bombarded with questions from the Libertarians about Obama’s “missing” birth certificate.  I made a futile attempt to explain that Philip Berg, the attorney who is making the case to the Supreme Court that Obama is not a U.S. citizen is, a) a well known litigious nuisance and b) pursuing an argument utterly devoid of merit.   This did not deter my interrogators in the slightest.   They proceeded to demand to know what would happen IF Obama was proven not to be a U.S. citizen.  At this point even the Republican was getting annoyed.  Finally, in exasperation, I surmised that unicorns might fly out of all of our butts at some point in the future and maybe we could cross that bridge when we got to it. 

As I suggested before in a previous post, Libertarians are essentially Republicans minus some of the moralizing*.   That’s pretty much true except that Libertarians really cling to the free market religion.   I mean, take the most hardcore Republican politician or businessman you can imagine.   You know that he doesn’t really believe all that hooey about free markets.   “Free market” means “fill my greedy pockets with everyone else’s money and use the barrel of a Government gun to accomplish it, if need be” to him.  But my Libertarian breakfast companions have slurped down tumblers of the Milton Friedman koo-koo koolaid.  Here’s what one of them had to say about the role of government:

“You know what I say to people who ask how the roads would be built without the government? I tell them that if the government had gotten out of the way we’d have personal jet packs by now!

Whee!  Overdosing on science fiction can be unhealthy.  I’m just saying.  Anyway, it got to be 10:30 and I was getting ready to start drinking if I stayed a minute longer so I skedaddled.

*A surprisingly large percentage of Libertarian males are anti-choice. I have my theories as to why this is but I was tempted to ask some of the breakfast guests about it. Of course, I refrained because I’ve learned through painful personal experience to never ask a Libertarian anything.  Ever.

While I was partying down with my AZ Dem peeps on the VIP terrace (oh yeah, that’s how Divas roll) I had more than one person tug on my arm and inquire as to my intentions to run in LD20 again. “You were such a great candidate!” They are, of course, referring to Ted Maish’s hugely disappointing loss to John Huppenthal for the Senate. They are also laboring under unfounded assumptions as to why I came closer to unseating Hupp in my 2006 bid (I lost by 3000 votes) than Ted (who lost by nearly 8000).  

While I’m flattered by the compliments, I can tell you one thing with certainty: I was NOT a good candidate. I hated canvassing and phone calls and made every excuse to get out of doing them.  In public appearances, I would invariably make some intemperate or ill advised remark.  Like suggesting pot should be legal at the Clean Elections debate.  Seriously, I did.  I was in over my head and had no support from the state party.  I drove my campaign manager and volunteers crazy. Tempted as I am to indulge myself in face-saving revisionist history, I can’t.  I sucked.  I know it.  I was there.  I was me.  It’s okay.

Ted Maish was, by every measure, my antithesis. A workhorse who went out and knocked on doors every day from the moment he filed. He’s a retired teacher and a former Republican, which lent him credibility on education and should have reassured non-Democrats that he would be a moderate voice in the lege. His performances at the Clean Elections debate and other forums were flawless. Plus the state targeted our district, and understandably so. Not only did they have a great candidate in Ted, but there was an increase of 3000 (my loss margin) in D voter registrations in LD20 while Rs had seen a small decrease.  All of the elements for a perfect storm to pick off the seat from Hupp were present. 

And then Hupp accosts a 78 year old woman over a sign on Election Day!   Geez Louise. 

You know what my theory is? I did good because of my hair. Behold the glamour shot, done by the aces at Southwest Photos of Tempe, of me that was on signs strewn all over LD20 in 2006:

Those lustrous Auburn tresses and the makeup were the handiwork of Heather at Rumors Salon in Tempe.  I mean, seriously y’all, is my hair not amazing in that photo?  For the record, my ’do never looks that good.  My visage was like 3 feet high on those signs, with all that glorious hair.  A pal who serves on a board in Chandler told me that a fellow board member told her she was voting for me because “Ohmigod!  I LOVE her hair!”  Make what you will of it but I maintain to this day that I got a not-insignificant hair bump. 

Catch y’all later with more on the election!

If you haven’t voted yet, go and vote!

That said, here is what I WANT to happen tomorrow:

Decisive Obama win.  The hands-down best poll analyst of the season has decreed it to be so:  http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/  Nate Silver knows what he is doing.  Read his site and you will be edified.

Bob Lord win.  Because John Shadegg is a whiny little crybaby who can’t legitimately defend his record on veteran’s issues in his ads.  Plus he’s a snowbird who really wants to be a Senator. 

Harry Mitchell:  As if David Schweikert could really convince people to vote against their Grandpa, who has a big honkin’ statue in honor of him in Tempe. 

Gabby Giffords and Ann Kirkpatrick:  Obviously.

LD20:  Ted Maish and Rae Waters.   Because it’s my district and they rawwk!

LD12:  Angela Cotera rawwks!  And is a rocket scientist. 

LD23:  Rebecca Rios.  Because she’s a good Legislator and Andre Campos is a creep who hearts Ron Paul and strip clubs. 

Dan Saban:  Because Joe Arpaio is a fascist thug and Dan is a decent guy who will do a good job.

Tim Nelson:  Ditto Andrew Thomas and ditto Tim.

Ed Hermes:  Because panty-obsessed right wing blogs need to brought down a peg or two. 

Steven Sarkis (Arcadia/Biltmore JP):  Because his opponent, Syd Steven Booth, is a violent felon who tried to intimidate me.

Other states (not all inclusive by any means):

Elwyn Tinklenberg for the win:  I hope he opens a can of whupass on McCarthyite Michelle Bachmann. 

Kay Hagen for the win: God doesn’t like you, Elizabeth Dole.

Joe the Plumber: The end to your interminable 15 minutes and the return to Ohio, where you will have to repay your back taxes and child support.

Sarah Palin: Ahh…. You will return to Alaska, where you will finish your one term, while facing more ethics charges. I don’t care what you do. Get Joe’s record deal, get a show on Fox, go on the lecture circuit, I don’t care. Just get out of my face, with your ignorant science-hating religious extremist ass.

The “socialism” and concommitant “redistribution” memes: Die an ignominous death as Americans realize that Trickle Down economics is the biggest fraud ever to be perpetuated upon the American people, and that we need things like bridges that don’t collapse and breast cancer research.

Earmarks: Will be examined for efficiency and effectiveness, under Obama, but will no longer be a convenient bugaboo for conservatives to use to distract Americans from the many ways our gov’t REALLY wastes money, i.e., defense contracts and tax cuts to billionaires who outsource American jobs. Will continue to be used to help states pay for things like ensuring that bridges don’t collapse and toward breast cancer research.

That’s it for now. Will update if I think of anything else. G’night fellow Divas and good luck on Election Day!

There ain’t no such animal as a Bradley effect, people. The idea that racists are telling pollsters they did one thing after doing another is laughable. It may be socially unacceptable to publicly acknowledge one’s racism in voting decisions (not that it stops some people, believe you me) but it’s not like there aren’t a plethora of code words and dog whistles available to couch your racism if you are just not comfortable voting for the black guy. Take your pick from these examples:

“Muslim”

“Reverend Wright”

“Not a Real American”

“ACORN”

“Fannie and Freddie”   (Yes, federally chartered mortgage institutions are now code for black people.  Check out some right wing blogs if you don’t believe me.)

For racists who wax nostalgic for Reagan there’s the less contemporaneous but still effective:

“Welfare”

So stick a sock in it, MSM, with this Bradley effect malarkey. Then again, there’s this:

Last week, Julie Hensley made one of her thousands of phone calls on behalf of Barack Obama. A woman answered. As Hensley ran through her short script, the husband impatiently broke in.

“Ma’am, we’re voting for the n***er.” And hung up.

These anecdotes of the “Reverse Bradley effect” might also be the stuff of urban legend, but I’d like to think they’re not.

I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.

If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

This is similar to the script voters are hearing in states like Nevada where McCain is struggling. Apparently, we Zonies weren’t worthy of such hair raising alerts until recent polls showed a dead heat. Oh yeah, our Senator was all about leaving us out to dry, without the information we need to make the correct choice between our stalwart steadfast war hero and Barack HusseinpalsaroundwithterroristsOMGHEZAMUSLIM!1! Obama.

Geez, you’d think he’d be a little more worried about the location of four of his houses before now, dontcha?

The Anchorage Daily News chose to do a sober evaluation of both Presidential candidates.  Their editorial board took a deep breath and told the truth, despite the fact that it’s Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who is vying for the Vice Presidency.  They did the right thing.

They could have wussed out like our hometown paper did, but they didn’t.   If you don’t want to read the Republic’s toadying cop-out, I’ll summarize it for you: 

McCain:  He’s maverick-y.  Don’t worry about his hairtrigger temper, we know him.  Paragraph devoted to maverick-y stuff he did back in the ’80s and ’90s.  No mention of the Keating 5.  Or Palin. 

Obama:  Talks all pretty and stuff but will transfer wealth from deserving rich people to worthless working class loafers.  Doesn’t like free trade enough.  Voted present in the Illinois State Senate*.  Doesn’t believe enough in drill baby drill and nuclear as the solution to energy needs. 

Despite my prediction to friends that the Republic was either going to endorse McCain or no one, I still nursed the faint hope that they’d rise to the occasion.  They did for Dan Saban, Tim Nelson, and others.   Sadly, they couldn’t muster the courage for the Presidential endorsement.

* Are they kidding with this nonsense?!?  Present votes are a commonly employed procedural strategy in the IL State Legislature. What, they had to reach all the way back to the primaries to find some non-issue that was used to fool low information voters to make their case? How lame.