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blue bits. red rocks.
Monday 30 November 2009

The next election cycle will not be kind to Democrats. This is not only because of the historic swing against the party in national power, but because of the spineless and feckless governance of today’s Democrats. President Obama has been compromised by the powers of the status quo. Congress can’t deliver the two things most Americans want: a public option and a ban on insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Unemployment is in crisis, and yet America can’t do public works any more, much less something effective and future-based such as high-speed rail. One result will be the “enthusiasm gap,” where disillusioned Dems and especially young voters from 2008 stay home, while the tea baggers and other “conservatives” are animated with a fanatical desire to regain power. This trend will likely be magnified in Arizona, where turnout is low, particularly among moderate and liberal voters, particularly among the Mexican-American citizens who have been caught up in the racist dragnet of the Kookocracy. The mega-church fundamentalists, Mormons, gun enthusiasts, tea partiers and assorted other “conservative” constituencies turn out reliably. So, too, do the older white voters that are the last major bastion of the GOP and found in abundance in Arizona. The hard right has an extensive infrastructure, epitomized by the well-funded “Goldwater” Institute. The center and left have nothing to compare. We still don’t know if the election of Democratic members of Congress such as Harry Mitchell was an anti-Bush fluke or a sign of the long-awaited moderating of Arizona politics caused by in-migration. In sad fact, migration has driven Arizona politics harder and harder to the right for half a century. Even Barry Goldwater couldn’t win a GOP primary now. Rogue Columnist

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