Chicanonautica: Arizona Election Fallout

by Ernest Hogan

Last time I signed off by telling of how after Obama won the election -- on a day when there were a lot of rainbows over Phoenix -- it got eerily quiet in Arizona. I had expected folks to go berserk, but instead those who would have preferred that Romney won held it in. Though in colder climates you could have seen steam coming out of their ears.

The Phoenix New Times reported that, at the Arizona Republican election-viewing party, Governor Jan Brewer went from being cheered for saying she wanted “Buh-rack Obama out of the White House” to saying “I love all of the smiles on your faces . . . Love it.” 

In Arizona, there were no spontaneous racist demonstrations like at Ole Miss, or anything like Pat Buchanan’s declaration that “White American died last night,” but the mood among the Republican party muckety-mucks was depressed, suicidal, and apocalyptic. Maybe they were “shellshocked” like Romney.

Joe Arpaio was reelected Sheriff of Maricopa County, but he felt the need to announce that he wants peace with Latinos; "I would hope to get together with the Latino community, if I could ever have them talk to me without screaming and threatening me." 

A curious event in downtown Phoenix first appeared to be the Ku Klux Klan celebrating Apraio’s victory. Univision gave it a misleading headline and Examiner.com reported it that way. But it turns out the demonstrators under the sheets were Latino activists -- just the sort that “Amercia’s toughest sheriff” is afraid of.

And in Charlotte, North Carolina, real Klansmen were drowned out by counterdemonstrators dressed as clowns.

A lot of copies of Ann Coulter’s book Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama were circulating at the library where I work. This was about the same time that she declared, “It’s over. There is no hope.”

Tom Miller informed me that in Baja Arizona they went 51% for Obama, and his neighborhood near the Univerisity of Arizona had bilingual anti-SB1070 signs.

There has been talk of Baja Arizona seceding from Arizona, just as Arizona seceding from the United States over SB1070 was threatened. Soon Arizona was caught up in the secession petition fever that eventually included all fifty states. If all the states want to secede, just what do they secede  from? 

Meanwhile the smell of marijuana hovered over the library parking lot. This is Phoenix, not Denver or Seattle. There is a lot of disorientation going on.

A few days later, a police car flashed its lights in the parking lot next door. That lot was taped off. Police tape also blocked one of the streets I usually take to get home.

Then there's the story of a woman running over her husband because he didn’t vote for Romney. “She believes her family would suffer under a second term of Pres. Barack Obama.” 

A gun store in Pinetop, Arizona put up signs saying, “If you voted for Barack Obama your business is NOT WELCOME at Southwest Shooting Authority. You have proven you are not responsible enough to own a Firearm.” So much for free enterprise.

The bizarre thing is, this story isn’t over. In Arizona, some votes remain to be counted. Who knows what will break loose when that finally happens. 

Lately, I’ve seen a pickup flying full-sized American and Arizonan flags patrolling the area. I’m not sure what it means.

Ernest Hogan is trying to convince people that his novel Smoking Mirror Blues is the book to prepare them to deal with the brave new post-election reality.