When I arrived in Arizona last March, my bones were still practically numb from the snowiest winter in the modern history of my native Northeast. There was radiant sunshine that made the Valley of the Sun feel like a warm soaking bath, bordered on my far horizon by New-Age red rocks and big sky -- natural beauty that inspired awe for me as it surely once did for so many new arrivals over so many decades. I didn't travel to Phoenix to witness beauty, unfortunately, but to get an up close look at anger. I didn't have to look far. In fact, it found me.
I stumbled into raw political rage on a bright and blue Saturday afternoon, in a most unlikely place -- an upscale shopping corner in the tony suburb of Scottsdale, where about 200 or so members of a local Tea Party had gathered to honk horns and wave signs against President Obama's health care plan, just hours before the House of Representatives voted to approve it. Some of the protesters were gathered in front of the sleek turret for a glitzy American Apparel store, while others were across the street outside P.F. Chang's Bistro. But what stayed with me about the scene in Scottsdale was not the incongruous, "Brooks Brothers riot" nature of it all, but the level of personal vitriol, not just toward Obama but toward Scottsdale's soon-to-be-booted Democratic congressman, Harry Mitchell. At least one of the protest signs depicted Mitchell as tarred and feathered.
I got out and met one of the Tea Party protest organizers, a woman named Judy Hoelscher. What happened next, I recounted in my recent book, The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama:
Hoelscher said she was busy raising her three children when she decided shortly after Obama took office to join the Tea Party and also to start a blog called Angry Right-Wing Housewife, which features a rendering of a stern-looking homemaker brandishing her rolling pin. "It was the way...the stimulus bill, I felt, was nothing more than a slush fund and they were spending my children's future, and it's not fair." Like the others who've taken to the streets. Hoelscher is steamed this day about health care but isn't happy with illegal immigration, either. "Our state is going broke because of the illegal immigrants," she claims. Behind her, the honking and the shouting at Harry Mitchell and Barack Obama is reaching a deafening crescendo.
A few days after all the sound and fury, Representative Mitchell reported that people were calling his office and even his home and making death threats. One recorded message from a woman who called his office said: "I cannot tell you how much I wish a panty bomber would just come in and fucking blow your place up."
Welcome to paradise. Indeed, it doesn't take much time in the Arizona desert, or a lot of shoe-leather reporting, to see how the nation's 48th state had become the undisputed No. 1 in vitriol and bile. Just in the remarkably short time I was in the greater Phoenix area last March, the newspaper was full of stories about a bill in the Arizona legislature -- that turned out to be SB 1070 -- that would be so harsh toward undocumented immigrants that its sponsors openly admitted to making the streets so hostile to Mexicans that they would leave. On Saturday, I saw campaign volunteers swoon to get Sheriff Joe Arpaio to autograph a pair of the pink underwear that he makes his immigrant prisoners wear in the brutal desert heat to humiliate them. On Sunday morning, I rode past fathers and sons cheerfully walking to a spring-training game in Tempe so I could meet a Baptist minister named Steven Anderson who told me that Obama "deserves to die" because the president supports abortion rights, and over lunch a Tea Party leader calmly told me that Mexicans want to reconquest Arizona up to 16th Street in Phoenix and "kill all the white people." While I was on my way home to Philadelphia, there was the death threats against Mitchell, and when a militia leader called for Tea Party activists to break the windows of House members who voted for health care, some responded. In Tucson, at 2 a.m. someone shattered the window of a congressional office, possibly by firing a pellet gun, belonging to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
It it any wonder that they call Arizona the Grand Canyon State? When news bulletins first flashed on Saturday that a congresswoman had been shot at a public event, it didn't take too much imagination to correctly surmise that it was Arizona, and that the victim was Gabrielle Giffords. Nor were you shocked, as some clearly were, when Pima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik declared his home state to have become "a mecca for prejudice and bigotry." The grim, blood-soaked crossover from death threats and broken windows to actual murder and mayhem seemed inevitable. But why here, in such a naturally blessed, sun-soaked corner of God's earth?
Why Arizona?
In 2011, the state is coming to represent a violent revolution of rising, and failed expectations. For much of the last generation, Arizona was held out as a promised land -- for retirees looking to write the closing chapters of life under heavenly skies, for immigrants who would meet the bottomless demand for hard work, for families looking to raise their kids into this thriving and up-and-coming economy, buoyed by boundless real estate and low taxes. It seemed too good to be true, and it was. By the time I got there in March 2010, it was clear that Arizona was the place that the American Dream went to die.
Entire subdivisions were unfinished and half-empty, victims of the housing bubble. The immigrants from Mexico who once flooded the Home Depot parking lots to get picked up for day labor were not only unable to find work, but they went from backbone of the Arizona economy to scapegoats, blamed (despite studies to the contrary) for taking jobs and draining services. Those retirees spent mornings on the golf course but afternoons inside the bubble of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and vitriolic local radio hosts like once and future GOP candidate J.D. Hayworth, and fear and anger sizzled like an egg cracked down on a desert highway. Government was useless -- closing rest stops on the interstates and farming out the prison system to inept contractors rather than truly balancing the budget.
The real factors behind this Arizona Nightmare -- venal banks, too much borrowing, too much outsourcing of jobs that, unlike home construction, would have been permanent and stable -- were too abstract, especially for the toxic soup of talk radio. It is tragic how a state that once prided itself on Barry Goldwater-style, can-do, self-reliant libertarianism devolved into blaming The Other the minute that things went south here. Virulent anti-immigrant nativism -- occasionally sprinkled with things like neo-Nazism -- grew into the desert, as did fear of Muslims, to the point where an architecturally unusual new Christian church in Phoenix had to declare in a giant banner that it was not Islamic. Political heroes were now those like Arpaio who didn't just pursue reactionary policies but actually heaped humiliation and degradation on The Other, in sweltering outdoor prison camps. Ditto with members of Congress suddenly out of step with the new zeitgeist -- moderate Democrats like Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords were not just to be disagreed with but to be physically threatened with vandalism or worse. Meanwhile, guns became a statewide obsession, as lawmakers competed to see just how lax an environment they could create, where it was legal to bring concealed firearms just about anywhere.
This was the world that surrounded and buffeted a disturbed young man in Tucson named Jared Lee Loughner. It is difficult to understand the gibberish of Loughner's internet postings, and hard to understand where he fits into this disturbing picture. But whatever the uniqueness of Loughner's mental illness, there is too much that is familiar about his isolation in an Arizona subdivision -- his inability at age 22 to find a meaningful job or education, and a libertarian state's inability to do anything for someone the community had understood was in need of mental treatment and help. And when Loughner finally lashed out, his target was a politician. How could that surprise anyone -- when such anger against the world of politics is now baked into the dry, hot air over Arizona?
In just the three days since semi-automatic gunfire shattered their world and ours, there has already been so much debate about whether Loughner and the shooting are products of our toxic environment or just the handiwork of "a lone nut," and whether that means the Pima sheriff was out of line with his pointed and powerful assault on prejudice and bigotry. But is it really necessary to tie Loughner into the broader body politic to prove what we as Americans should already know instinctively? That when eliminationists are targeting members of Congress with rocks and stray bullets and tar and feathers and a minister is praying for the death of the American president and when a state decides as an entity to profile and harass human beings because they have brown skin or because their religion is different, that things have already gone way, way off the tracks. We should have seen this long before 10 a.m. Mountain time, on the fateful morning of Jan. 8, 2011.
It's time for Arizona to turn off the radio and its cable TV sets, come out of its air-conditioned homes, and begin to see each other as human beings again -- to see leaders of an opposing political viewpoints as debate-club adversaries and not enemies on an apocalyptic battlefield. It is time for Arizona to re-dream the American Dream and maybe reinvent it in the process, to see that immigrants and retirees and everyone else in the polyglot that is the American Southwest just want bigger slices of a tamale pie that all can share, and not to fight each other over the crumbs. And when they come out of their homes to do this, Arizonans should also see what it's like to leave the handguns at home for a change.
All of us would give anything to go back in time, to undo Saturday's carnage, and to bring those six magnificent souls back to life. We can't do that, but maybe Arizona can dust itself off, gaze into the splendor of its big sky and see what an outsider sees, and remember what it was that brought them all to this scenic corner of America in the first place.
The promise of paradise.
Will Bunch traveled to Arizona and reported on the rise of the Tea Party there for his book The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama. It was recently named one of the best non-fiction books of 2010 by Slate.com, which has called it "angry, opinionated, fair, and very, very funny."
Follow Will Bunch on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Will_Bunch
Judith Acosta: Be Happy or Else: The American Refusal to Deal With Suffering
Gareth Harris: We Are Not Enemies
this is the logical conclusion to the irrational...
BTW, Arapaio has been running the outdoor jail camps long before the Tea Party even existed. I have no problem housing inmates in a setting that our soldiers are also housed in. And who really cares about making criminals wear pink underwear.
If someone had forseen that Jared Loughner was becoming dangerous it's likely that nothing could have been done--even though Arizona has "liberal" involuntary treatment laws. Could he be forcibly institutionalized? Follow-up? Medications? Would his gun(s) have been confiscated? The Wild West doesn't blend well with communitarian values. In short, Arizona is the worst environment to grapple with the serious issues of mental illness.
Fuller Torrey has opined that Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic. Having close contact with similar individuals I agree. But what to do? We respect people's rights to be different. We don't effectively keep guns out of their hands. Moreover, most Americans have no understanding of the relentless toll of such diseases, how it draws whole families into its web of isolation and paranoia. In the end we must commit to adequate funding of mental health resources--on a parity with other health care. In addition, we must learn to become our brothers' keeper in a kind, caring way that doesn't humiliate or punish eccentricity but imposes healthy behavior on distrubed individuals.
I think people in AZ haven't set their sights high enough. No one in America should have to fear speaking the truth. Many here have never thought about what the concept of success means to them.
And politicians who seize upon opportunities to capitalize on others' failings certainly haven't helped.
I disagree with your assessment of the schizophrenic, though. Having a relative afflicted with this disorder, I sometimes think being schizophrenic is to be out of control and immune to reason.
her own son is a paranoid schizophrenic, and has been institutionalized for over twenty years.
I have no idea what makes this woman tick. it seems she is in a constant state of denial. her other son, John, died of complications of AIDS a few years ago, and she couldn't deal with that. she says he "died of cancer".
she had no chance of winning the election until SB1070 came into the forefront. she hitched her wagon to it, and rode to victory. the DNC gave little help to Democratic challenger Terry Goddard.
I think one of the biggest problems in any election is that the Democrats always overestimate the intelligence of the average voter, and the republicans never do.
I think what is read as Brewer's arrogance (not answering questions about people dying because they can't get transplants) is actually pure, unadulterated cluelessness. she just doesn't know what to do, so she does nothing.
My brother in law moved to AZ in the 1980s and married there, raised 3 kids there. Another sad story. The eldest got into meth, dropped out of school, married a convict, got divorced, etc....now she's in "rehab", but her future is grim. The second also dropped out of school, does nothing, and seems to hate the world, owns lots of guns, doesn't work, is very right wing. The last seems to be following in his footsteps, is just about to fail out of high school.
Seems like a nasty place to me, a terrible place to raise kids.
Sadly, my daughter just moved out there, to Tucson. She's finishing her Physical Therapy internship (Boston U. student) and her boyfriend is a medical student at University of Arizona - right where Gabby Giffords is. They're going to see Obama today. She's only been there 2 weeks and I can't wait for them both to get out of there.
as we all know, Arizona is the ONLY place in the country that has a problem with meth, dropouts, and divorce. no one else buys guns but us.
everyone is a right winger.
these folks are the ones that elected Janet Napolitano to two terms as Governor. these are the same right wingers that elected Raul Grijalva (my Congressman), one of the most liberal in Congress. these are the same folks that elected Gabby Giffords.
how much time have you spent (in years) in Arizona? I've been here for 20 years, and live on five acres out in the middle of nowhere, on a dirt road in Pinal County. I'm a 56 year old gay man, and everyone knows it; they usually call me over to help fix their cars or pickups.
we all help any immigrants that pass thru, giving them food and water. if one of us is headed up to Phoenix, we'll take the immigrants with us, so they don't have to walk any further. most have walked 100 miles or more.
thanks for enlightening me!
The two families I mentioned are aberrations in both extended families. We are an education oriented family and all our kids work and do well. Both the AZ families feel like an aberration to us - the drugs, the guns, the lack of education. It's striking to me.
Truth is I hope my daughter doesn't settle in AZ, and they don't currently plan to. I've only been to AZ twice, years ago, both times to Phoenix. I confess I hated it there, especially the climate and ugliness of the city. I hear Tucson is much different. I'm headed out there in Feb. Perhaps I'm in for an educational experience myself.
It's time for Arizona to take responsibility for her mistakes, especially our elected officials tantrums. It's also time to remind everyone how lucky we are to live in one of the most beautiful places on this planet. There is a lot of good in this state and it is unfortunate we don't see it on television or in the blogs. Our beauty includes many caring people who are filled with hope. The same hope that empowered Congresswoman Giffords. This hope is as bright as our summer sun and guaranteed to rise and overcome the heavy darkness we currently feel. It's time to stop blaming and start offering solutions. I’m disappointed the author of this article doesn’t seem to realize he is just like the typical new uninvolved Arizonan. Instead of berating Arizona, I encourage Huffington Post to share articles about how older and wiser states might lead us by example. Through working together we can all heal from this tragedy.
Reverend. We are not your flock.
"We are a relatively new state with a lot of adolescent angst and an old west independent attitude."
In other words just well meaning naughty good ol' boys?
"It's time to stop blaming and start offering solutions. I’m disappointed the author of this article doesn’t seem to realize he is just like the typical new uninvolved Arizonan."
Why do you ask for guidance, while you admonish, and at the same time label the author..
That's hypocrisy.
If I misunderstand you, please disambiguate your thoughts for me. I have read some good things about you and your progressive ministry. This post has me a little befuddled.
1. Arizona has made huge mistakes and (as a native of this state) I agree we need to take responsibility for them.
2. Arizona's best asset is her people, some of the most loving and caring people you could ever meet.
3. The hope in these wonderful people to create a better world can be transformative.
4. The author "didn't travel to Phoenix to witness beauty...but to get an up close look at anger."
5. During the author's visit, he may have only seen what he was looking for.
6. If there is any good to be found in this senseless shooting, it is that people are uniting.
7. I hope and pray that we can move forward in our grief by vesting our energy in solution making.
8. Based on Congresswoman Giffords recent statements, this appears to be her desire and it is a way we can honor her.
It happened. Should we all close our eyes and sing cumbaya.
Yes we can agree that it should not happen again. To do that we have to look "it" in the eye.
It's becoming more apparent, the only solution would be to return more power back to the states ...kinda what right wing extremists want. This way California can be California and Arizona can be Arizona. They can live in their Paradise and progressives can live in theirs. Arizona can have "pay your doctor by chicken" healthcare, while California has single payor. It's so amazing how medical insurance reform has triggered all this. The medical-industrial complex sure has power to divide a country and start a war!
No, not all of Arizona is ignorant - but a good portion of it is - and Arizona deserves every bit of condemnation it gets. The future of Arizona remains bleak with ultra conservative legislators and clueless, newly elected Gov. Jan Brewer firmly in control cutting even more state services, refusing to enact any restrictions on guns and reducing its educational institutions to rubble. Arizona is anything but paradise.
How angry he must be, to hold money, greed, and possessions in higher regard than our Creator
To create symbols that represent these thing and hold them in higher regard as well
To take our Creators name in vain like it's just another word. Lacking in manners and disregarding the welfare of others only to benefit the few not the many.
To be such slaves to the allmighty dollar that there is no day of rest. Anybody old enough to remember "blue laws"?
To respect your parents and hold them in the highest regard?
To not kill?
To not cheat on your spouse, male or female?
To not steal?
To not falsely accuse someone?
To not lust after possessions of another, material or immaterial?
These things we seem to have forgotten. Some have made their justifications by skewing the meaning of those words for their own personal gain. Guess who's watching?
Last Saturday's events changed my mind about the politics here as I now carry one of the guns at all times so I am very familar with the political hatred the writer speaks of in this story. Right or wrong, given the political climate here, I feel so much better knowing that I have a 50/50 chance at fending off someone whose views don't agree with mine should it rise to that level. I guess that sheriff was right and Arizona is at the fore-front of reincarnating the old wild wild west ideologies and those folks up in Scottsdale in this story remind me of just how right I am for being armed now.