Following up on my previous post (from ten days ago??!), I’m recovering from a very busy two-week trip to Arizona, visiting family and friends located all over the state, and generally doing a nostalgia tour.
However, even with family and college connections, I’m not sure I could ever live there again.
For one thing, I like having four seasons, even with some snow in the winter, as opposed to the one and a half (hot and warm) in the major population areas of Phoenix and Tucson.
But another big stopper is the wide gulf between my social/political views and that of most areas in Arizona. Â I’m moderate to liberal on most subjects, while the majority of people running the state are conservative to moon-bat, far right reactionary.
Some of that extremism is on public view all over the place on billboards and road signs, most critical of any sort of government, especially federal.
Which is both ironic and not a little hypocritical since much of the state and especially Phoenix, the 6th largest city in the US, would not exist in it’s current form (a textbook illustration of suburban sprawl) without at least one particular major government program.
Starting in the early 70’s, US and Arizona taxpayers spent nearly $5 billion on the Central Arizona Project, a 330 mile canal that carries water from Colorado River, plus more billions over the years for a network of distribution aqueducts.
In addition, both federal and state governments are deeply involved with water rights and allocation, not to mention price subsidies, especially when it comes to farmers, who grow far more product than the desert would normally support.
Of course, all of this is just one example in one state of the hypocrisy at the foundation of these anti-government hypocrites. Is there any reason to discuss how Arizona is full of retired teabaggers receiving Social Security, Medicare, and other government benefits?
So, there you have one aspect of Arizona that doesn’t show up in the travel brochures.
A nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.