Arizona crazy
Arizona was the last state admitted to the Union from the lower 48 on Valentine’s Day 1912 – exactly two months before the Titanic would hit the iceberg.
The road to statehood was long. Very long. No territory took longer to be admitted to the Union of States. It took 49 years.
In fact, February 14 was the same date that the Arizona Territory was officially recognized by signature of President Jefferson Davis as having joined the Confederacy in 1862. The United States Congress and President Abraham Lincoln responded by creating the territory that had been first imagined in the 1850s over worries the geography was too large to manage from Santa Fe. The New Mexico Territory was open to making itself smaller, but at a price. All of the American Indians who had called the land home since the Europeans were living in caves would have to move to northern Arizona and live on the other side of an invisible line on a map.
Eventually, Arizona made it into the Union, but not until after President Taft vetoed the admission bill over his revulsion around the state constitution’s allowing for the recall of judges. The President and future Chief Justice of the United States signed the statehood bill after the Arizona territorial legislature stripped the provision. After statehood, it was reinserted.
Today, Arizona stands at the precipice of sending a fascist to the United States Senate and making a conspiracy loon its governor. It has become a red-hot center of not just political extremism, but a variety mixed with complete craziness.
Why does Kari Lake, the former news reader, believe every conceivable conspiracy that crosses her path? Why won’t she accept the results of a democratic election in 2020? Why does she believe everything she reads on the internet? Why does she consider Facebook to be an exploration portal to a never-ending series of conspiracies, mysteries and puzzles where she is the detective?
America is filled with crazy people. It always has been. Generally speaking, the majority has long been able to recognize the people seeking power who are manifestly unfit.