Arizona is a blasted hellscape

[Brantly B.]

Being an obvious phony is a feature, not a bug. I don't know why people are still making this mistake all the time. The last person the GOP wants is the kind of principled nitwit who thinks that the same rules should apply to everybody; the fuckwit snitch who thinks Barrett should have had to answer to the same scrutiny as Garland. Calling GOP candidates out on their hypocrisy is only helping their campaigns; it's third-party confirmation that they are reliable sources of Exclusive Club Benefits.

[Thad]

Being an obvious phony is a feature, not a bug. I don't know why people are still making this mistake all the time. The last person the GOP wants is the kind of principled nitwit who thinks that the same rules should apply to everybody; the fuckwit snitch who thinks Barrett should have had to answer to the same scrutiny as Garland. Calling GOP candidates out on their hypocrisy is only helping their campaigns; it's third-party confirmation that they are reliable sources of Exclusive Club Benefits.

I'm not talking about double-standards. "It's okay when we do it" is the fundamental organizing principle of conservatism.

I'm talking about someone cosplaying as a dyed-in-the-wool movement conservative even though everybody knows they didn't have a problem with Drag Queen Story Time until they decided to run for office.

[Brantly B.]

Sure, but that's a good thing. Whatever reason they've got for picking up the Kool-Aid glass, it's probably going to be a rationally self-interested one and not something stupid like trying to save black fetuses.

[Thad]

Maybe. Like I said, it worked out pretty well for Trump. (Eventually. 55% of Republican primary voters did vote for somebody else in 2016, and the party really only coalesced around him once he won the primary. But once they did, they were all-in, and now the party's pretty much a cult of personality dedicated entirely to him.)

I'm not sure if Lake can pull that off. In part because Trump couldn't even pull it off in '20. Like any election, it's going to come down primarily to who turns out and secondarily to which way the swing voters swing. (That's without getting into post-election fuckery.)

[Brantly B.]

It's weird to say that Trump's problem was that he wasn't enough of an asshole but that's kind of what it was. Most of the support he lost was on stuff he capitulated on (presumably to keep himself from becoming a complete pariah to the general public), and notably from critically misreading the base's opinion about vaccines.

That's the problem with adopting a general strategy of feeding the leopards*, of course. You'd better make sure you keep feeding them every single day, or else it'll be your face which is the closest come suppertime.


* Or, you know, Whoopi Goldberg.

[Thad]

It's weird to say that Trump's problem was that he wasn't enough of an asshole but that's kind of what it was. Most of the support he lost was on stuff he capitulated on (presumably to keep himself from becoming a complete pariah to the general public), and notably from critically misreading the base's opinion about vaccines.

Trump got more votes in '20 than he did in '16, and the Republican Party remains a cult of personality dedicated to him. His failure wasn't down to displeasing his base, it was down to displeasing everybody else.

And I'm not sure what you mean about vaccines. He's gotten booed at his rallies for recommending people get vaccinated, but that wasn't until after he was out of office. COVID-19 vaccines weren't approved in the US until December 2020, and weren't available to people under 60 until March 2021.

[Thad]

QAnon’s Ron Watkins finishes last in Arizona primary race

I somehow did not know until this moment that he was from Arizona. But my reaction to seeing a photo of him standing in downtown Prescott is "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense."

I saw a crowd gathered for a Buchanan rally at that very spot in 1992. Or I guess probably late '91? Buchanan dropped out pretty early into the '92 primary season.

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

Meanwhile, Joe Arpaio decided to run for mayor of Fountain Hills, and he lost the primary yesterday.

I'd take more pleasure in seeing him lose over and over if I weren't so sure it's a fundraising grift and the reason he keeps doing it is that he's getting what he wants.

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

Well, I don't approve of voter intimidation tactics, but at least they're so stupid that they're targeting a county that's overwhelmingly Republican.

[Thad]

Arizona GOP Secretary Of State Candidate Insists ‘Deep State’ Google Is Blocking His Website; Turns Out He Requested It Not Be Indexed

This man is up four points in the polls.

[Mongrel]

[nosimpleway]

Wow, what a shocking development. I'm shocked. That news is a real, uh... surprise.

[Thad]

I still laugh every time I see ASU's "shocker" logo.

[nosimpleway]

[KingRoyal]

AZ Republican candidate who said he wanted "children protected [from] the progressive left" caught masturbating outside a preschool

It's too late to remove his name from the ballot, though I understand he has suspended his campaign

[Bal]

It's election day.. again

[Thad]

Trying to distract myself from my anxiety about the election with anxiety about estate management

[Bal]

Things got tight overnight, but I'm encouraged by how few Pima County votes have been counted.