Tuesday, April 29th, 2008...7:32 am
Calling Dexter
The otherwise level headed Greg Patterson has a post up on Espresso Pundit defending Karen Johnson. Patterson at least admits that the Republic labeling her an “ultraconservative” may be justified (ya think?), but then makes the ridiculous assertion that her views are echoed at Republican and Democratic district club meetings.
What sort of Democratic district club meetings has Patterson attended? I’m the vice chair of my district club, and I have yet to hear any rants about the North American Union or water floridation.
Patterson goes on to say that the Republican Caucus has Johnson, while the Democrats have Kyrstin Sinema, and that makes everything okay. I’ll go ahead an concede that Sinema is more liberal than most (but, her politics are not driven by the paranoia and, yes, ignorance that Johnson’s are), but she doesn’t “balance” Johnson. By saying this, Patterson implies that Johnson is just another member of the legislature, just a “nay” vote here and there. But, Johnson is not alone and is not some eccentric back bencher. She chairs a committee and is an important player in public policy. When she makes a whacked out statement, it has real consequences. There are other members who have views just as far to the right as Johnson who are, for reasons I have never been able to fathom, granted power by their colleagues and backing from the state’s political establishment.
Which gets to my main problem with folks like Johnson. My trouble is not so much with them but the way our state’s civic leadership enable them. The very fact that Patterson can view Johnson as merely a very conservative but otherwise mainstream leader shows how far to the right the conversation has been allowed to skew in our state.
2 Comments
April 29th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Your last line is perfect. As someone who has homes in two other states and who spends a lot of time out of Arizona, I can tell you that the extreme right-wing that seems “establishment” in Arizona is the “fringe” elsewhere, even in a very conservative Republican party.
But demographics will get rid of the Karen Johnsons and Russell Pearces. By then it may be too late for Arizona, however, due to the deficiencies of our educational system, our tax base, and an economy and cultural climate which is no longer competitive. The workers and businesses that are the key the future don’t find Arizona an attractive place to live, and part of that is an establishment which considers Karen Johnson mainstream.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Karen Johnson is so far to the right she falls off the edge of the flat Earth she inhabits, but at least she’s a nice lady who occasionally votes reasonably.
On the other hand, it troubles me that she’s stepping aside to give Russell Pearce a shot at a Senate seat without a Republican primary. As the Arizona Republic told us this morning:
“Russell Pearce is turning to a national secure-the-border group for help in raising the $5 contributions he needs to qualify as a publicly funded candidate on the November ballot. Nothing too surprising there, though Glenn Spencer, the Sierra Vista man who runs the American Patrol group, has earned a name for himself as staunchly anti-Mexican. He has been known to warn that the Mexican government is trying to “re-colonize” the U.S. through immigration.” (See today’s “Political Insider” in the print edition).
Pearce keeps denying a racial agenda, but he keeps hanging around with people like this….Draw your own conclusions, folks.
Here’s the good news: The Democrats have a credible candidate in that district, and the demographics in West Mesa are a-changin’
It gives me some faint hope….