Arizona: Will conspiracies have the last word?
Downplaying Jan. 6, supporting election lies will not end well
TUCSON, Az. – This desert city is a blue dot in a red state, a Democratic stronghold that sparks hope in the party leadership. But Arizona is also Ground Zero for Trump-inspired election denialism, the unfounded belief that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and illegitimate.
Four Republicans running for powerful statewide offices – governor, secretary of state, attorney general and U.S. Senate – have said repeatedly that Democrats stole the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump. Republicans control the Arizona state Senate and House by only one or two votes and the vast majority of GOP legislators either claim the 2020 election was stolen or question the legitimacy of the results. All without a shred of evidence.
When I planned my visit months ago I was oblivious to its proximity to Election Day. But coming to this beautiful place seemed a great opportunity to talk to conservatives who were willing to be interviewed, even as I walked for miles, admired the mountains and was awed by towering saguaro cacti. In an entirely unscientific sample, I interviewed five conservatives, all over 60, whom I contacted with the help of my friends Cynthia Dickstein, Frank Grundstrom, my cousin, Colleen Geraghty, and the Pima County Republican Party. My interview subjects requested anonymity so they could be frank, so I have changed their names.
Jake, a robust 88, worked in construction all his life and, remarkably, is still working as a general contractor. He is married to Jane, 81, who was born in Hungary and emigrated with her family to Canada when she was 6. They are both so angry about, “Democrats’ plans to destroy the country,” that they intended to move to Hungary before the war in Ukraine upended their plans.
They praised Trump, although Jake said that Trump acted like “a loud-mouthed son of a bitch,” and “if he had the sense to shut up more often, he would still be president.” Both believe President Joe Biden is enfeebled. “He’s a cadaver being controlled by others,” Jake declared. Both are utterly convinced that the election in 2020 was stolen. “The vote was rigged!” Jane said.
When I pressed them on why they thought that 60 court cases found no evidence of vote tampering, Jake said it wasn’t important and, “What’s done is done.” He said the American media is completely biased. When I said I had worked for several newspapers including the New York Times, Jake said he wouldn’t allow that newspaper in his house. The events of Jan. 6, 2021 were wrong, they agreed, but it wasn’t an insurrection either. “It has been blown out of proportion,” Jake said, and besides, it wasn’t Trump’s fault. (Most others I interviewed echoed that view).
Irma, at 85, first registered as a Republican during the Eisenhower administration and has volunteered at every level of the Pima County Republican Party. She opened the interview by saying she, “wasn’t one of those election deniers,” but comments throughout our conversation made me wonder.
Irma said she had no problem with GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake’s repeated assertion that Democrats stole the 2020 election because “her objections might keep other elections honest.” Besides, she said, it would keep “mules” from stuffing hundreds of fake votes in drop boxes. “I saw the movie 2000 Mules and it convinced me,” she said. The movie purports to show that potentially hundreds of thousands of fake ballots during the 2020 election gave the victory to Democrats. The film has been widely debunked by experts in elections, surveillance, and cell phone tracking upon which the movie relies for proof.
Several people I interviewed pointed to 2000 Mules as evidence that Democrats stole the 2020 election. When asked why no court found evidence of election fraud, another conservative, Susan, 65, said it was proof that the courts were corrupt, not that the election was clean.
She, too, believed that Jan. 6 was overblown, that Trump did all he could to prevent the violence, and that the incident wasn’t nearly as bad as the Black Lives Matters protests of the previous year; while it was a shame that Capitol protesters injured 140 police, who knew, she said, how many of the protesters were really liberals disguising themselves as Trump supporters.
The one conservative I interviewed who struck a very different tone was Gerry, 73, an Eagle Scout and retired officer who spent 30-plus years in the military. A proud Midwesterner who moved to Tucson in retirement, Gerry described himself as an “advocate of states’ rights, a lifelong learner, and at my core, a lifelong Marine.” The events of Jan. 6 horrified him. He never doubted the integrity of the 2020 election. Yet he sees President Biden as sowing division and said immigration and inflation are the two biggest problems facing the country, a view echoed by every other person I interviewed.
Gerry’s answer to the country’s problems is that he has a responsibility to “get his hands dirty.” “I’m a rules guy,” he said. “It was my place to defend this country my whole adult life. But now I am serving in a civilian division. If I want to bitch about something, I have to get involved.”
So Gerry decided to become a poll worker. He was impressed by the training he had to undergo for his new job. “There is a procedure to handle any issue that comes up,” he said. “I am excited about Election Day, about my opportunity to observe it all.” Together we laughed that he was one poll worker who nobody would mess with, given his military experience and ease with extremely large weapons.
I appreciated the give-and-take with everyone I interviewed. Yet the firm belief in conspiracies so many shared left me shaken, particularly the destructive, baseless conviction that Democrats stole the election. It is a cancer on democracy.
By all means, let’s disagree on issues – that’s the American way. Yet somehow, both sides have to find their way back to the same version of reality. Gerry’s belief that he (and by implication, all of us) has a responsibility to make things better comes closer to an answer than any I have yet heard. It gives me hope.
This Saguaro cactus, with its arms going every which way, has the last word. Which way will our country go?
Dear Maura, thanks for the report. There are shreds of hope in your interviews. Maybe enough members of the Republican base will reject the "loud-mouth s.o.b." Trump in a Republican primary? It would be a mark of sanity and independence from cult-like, tribal thinking if they did. And is it possible the new GOP election volunteers will see that elections are run fairly? Or, sigh, only if they win? The fact that Arizona, the home of Barry Goldwater and once a solid Republican state, is now a swing state is in itself evidence of a potentially historic realignment. The ground is shifting under these people's feet and they don't quite know how to react. I will be watching on what I guess will be Wednesday or later before we know the outcome of the state's extremely close races.
Truth and facts really depend on from where one is getting their news. Where are all these people getting their news and how do they rationalize their ”theories” with the actual filmed footage and legal documents?
I completely agree that we all will play a role in making ‘things’ better (or worse). It all starts with an open mind and heart.