Compared to experts such as
Erick Erickson and
Jamie Dupree, I have not been tracking US political trends for very long. In fact, it was only an occasional hobby and interest during my years of military service. However, I tracked political trends and associated social and economic effects in other countries for almost two decades while serving in the intelligence community. Those factors deeply effect military operations of every type from humanitarian relief missions to full out combat operations. So, I am not new to such analysis.
I began studying Arizona when I was first stationed there in 2005. I decided that was where I preferred as my retirement location. As such, the state and local level geo-political trends directly affected my future. In the past year, one possibility became obvious, Arizona may be "turning blue".
Several events and factors may be leading to the possible shift, a shift also being noticed in some areas of Texas such as Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas where extreme leftists such as "Mayor" Julian Castro and "Representative" Sheila Jackson-Lee managed to get elected into office.
The first such factor is the increasing number of seniors retiring. The baby boomer generation is over 80% at retirement age (sixty-five). While many of them, including those former "hippies" from the seventies who changed their views as they aged, hold to moral and ethical values consistent with constitutional conservatism; this was the demographic responsible for The Weather Underground, Kent State, the race riots of 1968, and the aforementioned hippie movement. These are the teachers responsible for indoctrinating the second half of Generation X and all of the Millennial Generation (which includes most of the "occupy movement"). If one reads Ayn Rand's essay "The Comprachicos", the impact is more than obvious.
There are two major organizations that claim to lobby and work for retired seniors, the largest of which is the AARP. The AARP is joined at the reconstructed hip with the party of racial divide, Jim Crow, anti-military, and socialized programs, The Democrats. This organization still blames Nixon for Vietnam though it was there beloved JFK who put us there, and Johnson, who kept us there while restricting our operations for "diplomatic reasons". This is the group that supports the false narrative meme that constitutional conservatives will take away their "free" medical benefits and cut their social security checks. That is probably because conservatives originally opposed the unconstitutional social security program when FDR rammed it down the nation's throat. So, the ideologies and scare tactics are deep rooted in this demographic.
Another factor in some "red states", such as Arizona and Texas, "turning blue" is migration. The migration to these states comes from the state's own more conservative tax policies. Texas has a low capital gains tax and no income taxes. Arizona lowered its state income tax to a flat two percent. These factors have led businesses, and their workers, to migrate to Arizona and Texas. While the conservative fiscal policies and tax laws brought them to the states, their tax and spend, "let's give them fish instead of teaching them how to fish" socialism-based ideologies came with them. Of course, they are too myopic to realize their votes for the leftists are just shots into their own feet.
Migration also took place for reasons other than pure fiscal and economic reasons. Natural disasters, such as the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, made domestic refugees out of areas affected by those cataclysms. People needing assistance and safe haven, as well as those too lazy to fend for themselves, flocked to Texas and Arizona, bringing the socialist ideologies from their previous homes with them. Again, it was the natural generosity of conservative charity that provided them with those safe havens, not the government taking from those who had it and forcing them to share what they rightfully earned.
For example, Arizona's state level universities, such as University of Arizona-South, offered in state tuition, waived fees, and special scholarships to Katrina victims. They brought their Frankfort School indoctrinated minds with them and pushed the already Marcuse influenced colleges further to the left. While at school, they registered to vote in AZ, and will likely vote "blue".
The last, and probably most frightening, evident factor is tied with illegal immigration. In Arizona, several factors and events culminated with the assassination of prominent Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz into SB1070. Though the bill garnered some bipartisan support in the Arizona legislature, left-wing activists demagogued it (falsely, since those believing it so fail to research the true meaning) as "fascist".
Border states, such as Arizona, contain significant numbers of immigrants, both legal and illegal. Many of the legal ones have family members stuck south of the border, or who are in the US illegally. Among those are so-called "anchor babies", many of which are of voting age. They see the bill as personal attacks against their family members, both those that are criminals and those who are law-abiding but kept out of the US by the intense web of red-tape immigration law has become. To them, "family values" and constitutional conservativism are overshadowed by fear of loss of government handouts and seeing their criminal family members "fall victim" to the crimes they committed (by being caught). It matters little to them that the very socialism they came to the US to escape is what they are voting to instill into this republic.
The left uses this to its advantage, encouraging illegals to use stolen identification to register to vote, and vote for the left. They use the language barrier to lie to even those in these states legally about election law, and convince them to do other things, such as hand the leftists their PEVL ballots, in order to sway the election. Current Arizona voter laws require proof of citizenship at the time of registration. However, federal law as well as federal court decisions state that no such proof is required if the registrant uses the federal voter registration form instead of the state form. The left used this decision to their advantage and sent out activists to register ineligible people using the federal form.
The results of these factors and events have become increasingly apparent over the past few years.
After the 2010 census, Arizona did what every census mandates (and is the entire purpose for the census). Arizona redrew its congressional districts. (This is, of course, another factor for the change as the lines are redrawn in efforts to increase the left-wing population of each congressional district.)
Before the new district designations went into effect, AZ-CD-8
held a special election to fill the vacancy left by Gabby Giffords. Though the best candidate for Arizona would have been Jesse Kelly, socialist Ron Barber won. Frighteningly, Barber won partially because
Martha McSally, a Republican Candidate who lost the primary to Jesse Kelly, allegedly campaigned for Barber in an effort to keep Jesse from competing against her in the general election for CD-2. She or her supporters also, allegedly, convinced conservatives to "sit out" the special election. AZ-CD-8 is re-designated as CD-2 for the 2012 general election. Of note, Martha McSally is far left of Jesse Kelly in her ideology, even though she is registered as a Republican. Between push-back for SB1070, voter fraud, and McSally's divisive campaigning, the largely "red" district yet again voted "blue".
Arizona's representative from Congressional District that covers Yuma is a man named Raul M.Grijalva. If you conduct an internet search on the name your hair will raise (unless you are a die-hard communist). Raul is a long-time member of the radical racial hate group
MEChA, and a supporter of the left-wing extremist, racist group called La Raza. He opposes SB1070, a law the vast majority of Arizona citizens strongly support. He also opposes Arizona's support of the Second Amendment with the state law that removed the necessity for a permit in order to exercise the Constitutionally guaranteed right to carry (bear) arms (to include doing so concealed). Of note, the no-permit-required concealed carry law is also opposed by Ron Barber though his mentor and predecessor, Gabby Giffords, openly supported it (against party platform).
In Arizona's CD-9 you have congresswoman Krysta Sinema. Sinema is a devout leftist that supported the PPACA blindly, without reading it, despite the fact most in Arizona oppose the law. She flagrantly opposes SB1070 and Arizona's decision to stop infringing upon the Second Amendment.
These opponents of the US Constitution and the conservative values of our Constitution's authors, advocates, and ratifiers somehow secured election into our nation's legislature. They have done so despite representing largely conservative constituencies. There remain only three explanations for this:
1. Arizona is swinging "blue"
2. Voter Fraud and election corruption
3. A combination of the above
Original article at
Mental Aikido
