Chicanonautica: Arizona Beyond 1864

by Ernest Hogan 

It’s like good ol’ AZ can’t stand having the Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, and Iran get all the attention. Who would have thought that the Arizona Supreme Court was planning on setting off this bombshell? Right after Trump did his mealy mouth announcement about letting abortion be a states right deal if he gets his old job back. Ain’t that kind of jumping the gun? They either can’t wait until after the election, or they no longer feel God’s Chosen Candidate is going to be a shoe-in in November, or they’re now thinking that maybe their dreams of shredding the Constitution and establishing a fundamentalist nation are just more empty promises.

And suddenly, all these Arizona Republicans—even the loathed Kari Lake—are speaking out, declaring that maybe knocking Arizona back to 1864 is not a good idea. 

Could it be that a lot of the GOP don’t believe that DJT was chosen by God Almighty Himself?

I remember how about a decade or so back, a lot of Arizonans thought of the Republican Party as a cult—though they never used the word.  They were confused by things like satire. One woman came into the Borders where I worked, demanding her money back because a book she thought would be singing the praises of George W. Bush made fun of him.

“How am I supposed to tell if these books are serious?” she asked.

I turned the book over and showed the word “Humor” next to the price. It only confused her more.

Later, I overheard a guy explaining to a perplexed friend that Stephen Colbert wasn’t a real Republican—this was in the days of his original show. Guess a lot of folks took his fake conservative act seriously.

Now, I still don’t see much evidence that an election is going on in Arizona. Plenty in the media, but none in the streets. A year ago, people were waving their Trump flags, but now, nada.

I’ve yet to see one of those Trump Bibles, anywhere.

I have noticed that, even though the rest of the country laughs at Arizona, as a whole, it becomes more like it with every election. 

Could this be a preview of what will happen in November?

Or will it just get crazier? Like a sequel to Luis Buñuel’s The Milky Way. Only instead of school girls reciting blood thirsty doctrines while a characters fantasizes about a Pope being put in front of a firing squad with such intensity that people around him can hear the gunshots, will there be angels in digital urban camouflage uniforms pointing Glocks at us and instructing us how to vote?

And who knows what will be happening at the border, and college campuses . . .

Meanwhile, we’ve got drones and missiles flying back and forth while everybody debates on the social media what it all means. 21st century warfare has evolved into big budget performance art with body counts.

 

I could swear I just heard Buñuel’s ghost scream “Cut!”

Did he just say, “Self-immolation?”

Ernest Hogan’s account of the Trump administration is in Our Creative Realidades: A Nonfiction Anthology,and Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction is also available.