Arizona, Immigration, Racial Animus and MagaCrazies

[NowISeetheLight]

I’m over in Phoenix for a couple days visiting my parents at the memorial park and some old friends. I lived here twenty years. After ending up in the Deep South for work I knew I wouldn’t retire there. I’m so grateful to be living in Palm Springs now. Anyway, I checked into the hotel yesterday and turned on the TV. It was wall to wall political ads. I mean nothing but them. I saw no ads for products or stores for the first hour. It was insane.

What got me though was just how horrible and hateful these ads are. Arizona has gone full MAGA with Republican election deniers, QAnon crazy, far right candidates. I mean they are TOTALLY CRAZY! The ads are just insane. I mean they’re shocking. What’s more scary though us these MagaTs are AHEAD in many of the polls. The big reason is the border. They’re playing up the “open border” card and “illegal rapists and drug dealers” are on every commercial.

One commercial claims Democrats are hurting children because schools and communities are dangerous due to illegals and crime. “Tell Joe Biden to stop hurting children!” The ad says. Never mind most of these Christo-fascists also want total abortion bans where even rape and incest aren’t an exception. A ten year old in school with a ten year old from Mexico is child abuse but forcing her to have a rapists baby is OK! MagaT thinking I guess… their ‘new math’?

Having lived here and having worked in healthcare I’m still very conservative on the border issue. We can’t save the world. At the same time I believe the Dreamers should be allowed to stay. Secure the border then develop a path to legal immigration. The Republicans led by the likes of Trump and Tucker Carlson are totally playing up the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. To be honest it’s a winning argument in these gerrymandered political districts. Democrats are not going to win against it because the white majority is becoming a minority. The “take what is yours” mantra is working.

Democrats need to get ahead of this. As for Arizona… I think it’s a list cause.

Some articles and video about the AZ races and the ads:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/racist-campaign-ads-arizona/

https://www.thewrap.com/john-oliver-arizona-gop-campaign-ads-nunchucks/

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/27/blake-masters-thiel-arizona-senate-profile-00034781

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/14/republicans-bank-on-tough-immigration-line-as-us-midterms-near

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/08/arizona-has-become-a-paradise-for-election-deniers.html

[mike_c]

1. I've just moved to the Phoenix valley

I can certainly corroborate the political craziness. Thankfully I don't have a TV, so I'm rarely exposed to that wall to wall, nonstop political advertising. Some bleeds over into radio, however, and I get some of that occasionally. Like the OP, I find it shocking for it's sheer virulence. Those are some angry folks, and they want you to know it. They make all sorts of crazy claims about democrats and liberals.

Blake Masters says he will "militarize the border" if he's elected. The crazies are absolutely livid about what they believe is a veritable flood of criminal "illegals" who simultaneously take all the jobs and soak up all that the social safety net has to offer. Locally there is even greater hatred of the homeless, who my new neighbors refer to as "street people" who they think actually earn tens of thousands of dollars panhandling from us hardworking folks, all while fueling a crime wave of treaspassing, theft, and drugs. The solution? Ban them from our streets! Out of sight, out of mind!

One thing I'm finding way too little of here in the west valley is simple human charity.

[NowISeetheLight]

2. I moved

I moved from Phx to SC in 2016 for work. AZ was always Republican mostly but we did have some Dems like Janet Napolitano too. It was very moderate on both sides. I sure don’t remember a climate like this in my twenty years here. It’s like a virus infected everyone (Magaitis). Six years away and I don’t recognize the place.

[NowISeetheLight]

3. Craziest Commercial

This is my favorite one so far, funny, but totally misleading. Crazy. Politifact calls it mostly false.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/oct/20/saving-arizona-pac/mark-kelly-voted-trump-and-biden-laws-let-prison-i/