Complaint Review: State of Arizona Politics

The State of Arizona, Maricopa County, and many--probably
most--of the municipal entities within that territory are
in tremendous financial trouble.

Within the last decade-and-a-half, this state has suffered
vast numbers of financial scams, at the hands of criminal businessmen and public employees, even a major recession caused locally by savings & loan fraud and manipulations. We put lots of people in jail, but they largely seem to be the wrong ones, or at least, much of it is inappropriate.

Budget deficits of ridiculous levels, cities where
corruption is so common even tourists notice the various
scams...

The e-mail reproduced here is merely part of a long, ongoing discussion between concerned citizens, but it uniquely applies to Arizona.

And perhaps--just PERHAPS--it explains some of what this
state and the nation seem to be learning to tolerate.

For your consideration:
...................................
I didn't have time to mention it in my last e-mail, but your comments on a general "anti-intellectualism" taking deep root in these United States caught my eye and my interest.

I suspect it is much more than that, and I have what may be a crackpot theory, but I explored it somewhat on the very first page of THE CLASSIC M1 GARAND... Among other changes I have noticed in just the last dozen or so years, the U.S. seems to have, very quietly, slipped into a prosecutorial justice system, in which EVERYONE is guilty until proven innocent. Likewise, public debates and forums which used to include logic, information, and ideas have slipped into what I call "Buzzword Contests".

It has been many years since I heard any public controversy in which the dueling took place much above the gutter level, and yet few seem to include--and this is especially true here in Mesa--what ought to be the very most salient "gossipy" or personal facts.

For example, Matt Salmon, one of our gubernatorial candidates, from the Republican Party, of course, is a Mormon and a lobbyist for Qwest, our esteemed telephone company. But neither this nor his checkered financial and political past comes up much in public discussion. The suggestion that his Democratic opponent might be a l*****n--which interests me not at all--DOES however
leak into public discussions.

I suspect this is all due to leftover paranoia and investigative energy floating around from the Cold War. The gumshoes of the Witch Hunt era had to turn their noses to their fellow citizens, merely to occupy their minds and reinforce the silly pretense that they served some useful function. And of course, TO EARN A
LIVING. We are, I suspect, effectively eating ourselves. I am, in a twisted sort of way, fortunate to have had my unpleasant experiences in Maricopa County Jail, wherein one finds that there are many, many people locked up for very serious periods of time for downright fraudulent charges, others similarly ensconced for what simply amount to minor stupid moves without victims.

American law enforcement and prosecution apparatus is apparently directed at getting "THEM"...and if there is no "THEM", it becomes imperative to create one.

To get a small taste of how this impacts people, checkout the Ripoff Report, and conduct an internal search on Mesa, Arizona.

I have a couple of reports there myself, and there are many which, if they were fiction, would be incredible and hilarious.

But they are not apocryphal...they are very real. And it is not all government-related, either. There is also a Mesa, Arizona Corruption Report site, heavily linked and with common sources.

By the way, the Briton King who got his butt kicked by the Danes/Vikings was Ethelred the Unready. That one resonates with me because I am distantly related to families on both sides, and even in grade school, we studied his unsuccessful campaigns with some mirth and considerable foreboding.

Which sort of ties two distant ideas together. Whilst we were, as a nation, trying to denigrate Clinton (who probably deserves it, but isn't there a time to STOP?), besmirch Chinese export/business practices and policies, and locking up citizens for YEARS who dared to own a marijuana seed, the real goblins of a corrupt economy and religious politics strolled up, unobserved, and took huge chomps out of our very soul.

Enron, Global Crossing, Osama bin Laden, WorldCom/MCI. take your pick, they all did more to chew away at our real security levels than the aforementioned, and did it with no announcement they were in the arena of thieves. Our politicians and pundits were too busy beating up irrelevant straw men and carrying the hogwash banners of whatever symbols were "hot" or "cool" right at that moment.

This is the "Rush Limbaugh" approach: hit a lot of targets and make a great deal of noise. Trouble is, any real boogey men are simply not involved at the front end of the rifle/shotgun. They are strolling up from behind.

I have a name for this period of American/World History, which rather flows from Chinese experience, oddly enough. I call it : "THE GREAT LEAP BACKWARD"...

And I do not for a moment pretend that it is merely anti-intellectual, it is MUCH more than that. It is anti-freedom and anti-truth.

The subject truly is Nacht und Nabel...night and fog. Real ideas and real issues are best disguised by mist and darkness, not by denial.

This is not the ancient dichotomy of "how many angels can
dance upon the head of a pin".... It matters! It costs money and it kills people. It makes a great many very ordinary, honest people afraid ALL THE TIME.

These are not coincidences.

The reality is that conspiracy theorists are inevitably
gawking at the Federal Government and the United Nations
as the source of oppression and thievery, when in reality,
it is far closer to home. The old theory about smaller
government units and private industries being "closer to
the people" and therefore more relevant and responsive
has here been proven erroneous. Or at the very least,
unworthy of consideration. We LIVE with out carbunculous
government(s)...and because of our lethargy, we are become
part of the problem.

Jay
Mesa, Arizona

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Mesa Arizona