Do you want to know what America would look like under Tea Party/GOP rule? Look no further than Arizona.
Not content to wage war against health care for all it's citizens, or to menace the undocumented, lawyers for the state are now attempting to eliminate the state's domestic partner benefits.
So the basic recipe looks like this: bash the immigrants, the gays and the poor - anyone who isn't a white conservative heterosexual, presumably - and do anything, anything, to meet budget shortfalls, other than raise taxes on the wealthy, of course.
Gay in Arizona? You'll pay the same taxes as your heterosexual neighbors but you won't be entitled to equal benefits. How about that for special rights?
Although a judge ruled last year that the state must continue paying domestic partner benefits while courts decide the legality of Governor Brewer's effort to end the policy (enacted while Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was governor) according to the state's attorneys, the benefits need to be stopped during the proceedings to help the state save money.
But you know what? The state could save a great deal more money and time if it stopped filing politically motivated lawsuits that have turned it into a national pariah.
What a reactionary and unwelcoming place Arizona is now under Governor Jan Brewer's reign. Instead of marching forward it's simply tilted to the right.
Is this what we want for America?
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.dipperloop | Apr 14, 2011, 07:54 PM EDT
Oh plese stop it, The tea party are americans fed up with the goverment spending our money...Would you please interview some tea party people and stop your lying.....
maloney | Feb 19, 2011, 10:02 PM EST
The dept of social services will tell you that you must be an American citizen to collect welfare (the dole). Yet you will see more illegals in line than blacks & whites put together. Another law not being enforced. Why would illegals ever return home when laws are broken to get their votes. Another law that's being broken.
JimMcGarity | Feb 19, 2011, 09:15 PM EST
We have to enforce our laws. We can't pick and chose witch ones we enforce. Hit the employers with a large fine and they won't hire them. Have no choice but to return home.
oct2447 | Feb 14, 2011, 09:43 PM EST
I live in Colorado and visit Arizona frequently as that is where my grandchildren are. The immigration issue isn't simple nor black and white. Parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas once belonged to Mexico and Mexican roots run deep in those parts.......there are US citizens there whose roots go back to Mexico generations past. Hispanics are now a minority due to the influx of white folks......if the "illegals" went home, who would clean the pools, take care of the lawns, clean the houses, take care of the kids, and many other jobs that "other" folks won't do. This is not a simple issue......not one of everybody in or everybody out........and unfortunately I don't have the solution....
maloney | Feb 14, 2011, 08:21 PM EST
Some of the posts are siting negative aspects going on in Az. The one thing they failed to mention was the illegals were the reasons for these problems. If the problem was not caused by illegals it was the obama govt. at fault. And yes GW Bush was also responsible for the same problems.
maloney | Feb 14, 2011, 08:16 PM EST
Jan Brewer for President. Long live the Republic!!! Come and take em.
slainte39 | Feb 14, 2011, 11:48 AM EST
Conservatives/Tea Party people need liberals to push them along as far as they have come or else they/we would all still be living in the Middle Ages. They are like dragging a huge stone into the 21st century--but drag we must.Some people just hate change, even if it helps them.
siobhan716 | Feb 13, 2011, 11:56 PM EST
jmchrystal-that quote is from the Declaration of Independence NOT the Constitution, something you've probably never read.
jmchrystal | Feb 13, 2011, 08:29 PM EST
"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", the part of the Constitution that the far right seems to ignore!
olovely | Feb 13, 2011, 08:03 PM EST
First off, yes heterosexuals can qualify as domestic partners same as gays. The category was only invented to give gay people some of the same rights as straight couples (but not all, of course). Straight people enjoy all the special rights and greater legal privileges and entitlements of marriage. The fact that you don't know that, RoinOCork, and the fact that you call allowing poor people access to health care "socialist" means that (1) you're ignorant and (2) easy to manipulate. Congratulations you're just another clueless Fox News viewer that believes whatever millionaires like Rupert Murdoch says is good for you. Off you go and vote against your own future.
REMITROMJR | Feb 13, 2011, 07:26 PM EST
Arizona sounds like an exemplar for ALL the states to follow, especially here in MASSACHUSETTS.
seanomelbourne | Feb 13, 2011, 07:24 PM EST
What moderates in the fractured GOP? RobinoCork methinks you have pulled to many corks your premise for the formation of the teahadists are many.Birhters,racist(they just hate that black president)anti choice right wing nut Christians and a hatred of all things Muslim etc,etc.
RobinOCork | Feb 13, 2011, 06:19 PM EST
Question: Are there similar rights for long-time heterosexual cohabitators? If there are, I say gays and straights should get equal treatment. If there are no such similar benefits for long-time BF GF couples, then I can't see why gays should get a benefit that straights do not. Equal taxes should provide equal benefits. Nobody's business whom you prefer when the lights are out. - And--before we damn the right and the Tea Party and the GOP, etc.--please remember that if the Dems had been even partially open to listening to some of the Repubs' moderating ideas on the super-socialist healthcare boondoggle, then the Tea Party would never have formed. When the left smugly ignored the right knowing that the left had the presidency and Congress in its pocket, naturally the right got PO'd. All the left had to do was not be such martinets about their socialist agenda, and there would be no such thing as America's so-called "Tea Party."
seanomelbourne | Feb 13, 2011, 04:28 PM EST
Jan Brewer and her cohorts are the modern day equivalent to the inquisition.
thomasjhennigan | Feb 13, 2011, 03:05 PM EST
I think that Tea Party policies will bring about the ruination of the U.S>
maloney | Feb 13, 2011, 02:49 PM EST
theoldprof...why wait? Go now. Take dannyboy with ya. Your not the only person that used to live in AZ. but you are the one that's full of it.
Nicomax | Feb 13, 2011, 02:10 PM EST
The real issue in Arizona is not those who are there illegally, but those who are there legally, but don't look or act like what some feel 'real Arizonans' should look and act like.
sherjoneswood | Feb 13, 2011, 01:36 PM EST
Cahir, I thought you wrote a thoughtful piece. I don't understand the venom of some of the other comments. If they are Christian, why don't they remember one of the Christ's lessons to love one another?
DannyBoyG | Feb 13, 2011, 01:35 PM EST
To all the "right leaning conservatives". Look it is your state Arizona and your right to do what you want. But please know how ignorant and close minded you are! And how out of step you are with the 21st century and the rest of America. Please by all means stay where you are. Please do not come to wonderfully diverse places like New York City and San Francisco and Chicago where we live in reality with all peoples. Please by all means stay in your closed minded state of Arizona...because we do not want you!!!
peterson | Feb 13, 2011, 01:20 PM EST
I am all for the very brave Jan Brewer. I read that the majority of Arizona citizens are backing her. -and to the oldprof, how come you liberal educators are so anti Christian?
TheOldPerfessor | Feb 13, 2011, 12:25 PM EST
As an ex Arizonan, I know a thing or two about this. Arizona is just the most the most obvioius symptom of America's descent into the dark ages of mob rule by Christian extremists. They want to rewrite history, rewrite science and rewrite the constitution. Scream as they will, this country was founded by men who were inspired by the Age of Reason - thus the fact that there is not a single mention of God in the US constitution. When America finishes its descent and becomes a Murdochracy, we're outta here and off to Ireland.
jacke47 | Feb 13, 2011, 11:05 AM EST
What an ignorant and absurd column to scribble. The Tea Party is a 'movement' not a governing body-much like the 'movement' you currently see in Egypt. You obviously know little, if anything, about the difference between state and federal governments and which has authority and where. Stick to your last, shoemaker. Spare us the drivel.
dearlyinaz | Feb 13, 2011, 11:00 AM EST
I live in Arizona and Cahir is right on target. Arizona ranks last among states in measurements such as high school graduation rates and children's health care. Arizona does rank high in crime and unemployment. Meanwhile our legislators pass new laws allowing guns to be carried into bars and public buildings. The state now refuses to fund transplants for people on Medicaid resulting in at least one death sentence thus far. Ethnic studies? OMG, they are teaching Mexican-American high school students to overthrow their government! Yeah, sure. Meanwhile, a brown skinned student can be arrested and put in jail if he doesn't have papers on his person to prove he is an American. And then there's the legislator who says the Feds should not be able to tell us in Arizona that we can't pollute the air. Never mind that our pollution moves on to other states. The list goes on and on and companies and convention organizers are avoiding Arizona. The weather is wonderful here right now (nearly 80 degrees today), but I'm thinking it's time to get the heck out of here if know-nothings continue to run this state.
cathy/marty | Feb 13, 2011, 10:51 AM EST
Your really starting to embaress the IRISH people
clarsach | Feb 13, 2011, 10:39 AM EST
Cahir, you need to learn about not only the south and the west but also tha United States Constitution. Read it, learn it. The federal government has no business tell the state what to do nor do the courts beyond what the constitution says.
joan1954 | Feb 13, 2011, 10:12 AM EST
Cahir, you really don't understand what you are talking about but then from what I have seen and read most journalists from Ny and elsewhere in the east don't understand the south and southwest. By nature southerners are conservative and are leaning to taking matters into their own hands since the federal government seems to be unwilling to secure our borders. Arizona is not unwelcoming, it is the liberals who deem her so. My late father used to say that, figutively speaking, the south would rise again when the federal government ceased to honor the constitution and the people of this great nation. We are seeing the rebirth of states rights and don't think that 2012 won't be a watershed.
maloney | Feb 13, 2011, 09:46 AM EST
Damn straight it is!!! Ya couldn't help yourself but to lie once again Cahir. The last lawsuit against the obama govt. will not cost the taxpayer a penny. Special rights?? Who in the hell made you special??? National pariah you say, the truth , Arizona is the shining example for all the states to follow in returning America back to the Americans.