Arizona

So far from God, so close to the Republican National Committee

When some Simpsons characters took refuge in the local church after a hurricane, the church marquee read "God welcomes his victims." With that invitation, Reverend Lovejoy (an underrated Simpsons character second only to Apu on my favorites list) was alluding to that thorniest of theological questions: If the Almighty loves us, why does He subject us to so many disasters?

Modern conservatives don't need to wrestle with that kind of moral dilemma. Today's Right hates its victims, and its leaders do everything in their power to make their suffering even worse. Arizona's Republican legislators, most of them self-professed Christians, aren't singing from God's hymnal. Instead they're channeling Lyle Lovett's memorably bitter and resentful song, "God Will," as they survey the people who have been trapped in the economic wreckage of their ideology:

"God may love you but I don't/God will but I won't/and that's the difference between God and me."

Kicking 'em while they’re down

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It begins with a moment of silence.

"Poetry is about the grief," said Robert Frost. "Politics is about the grievance." This is a time of grief, not grievance. This morning I assembled a litany of criticisms about what might have led up to yesterday's events, but I couldn't bring myself to publish it. That's the work of politics, not poetry, and I'm not sure enough of my own motives to know if I'm responding appropriately. I agree with Keith Olbermann about the need for self-vigilance, as well as vigilance toward the words and deeds of others.

The violent rhetoric pervades one side of the political debate. But the harsh tone is widespread, and the culture itself is drug-sick from its addiction to violence: violence as entertainment, violence as communication, violence as a medium of human exchange. There is rhetorical and literal violence against women, minorities, those of different religions (or none at all), and anyone who causes us to reflexively recoil. The president called for "a moment of silence" today, and that seems right. more »

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The racist outrages are coming so thick and fast out of Arizona these days that was only a matter of time before some Nazi group took advantage of the situation to put itself on the media map. more »

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in California have stooped to a new, almost unbelievable low: intimidating schoolchildren. more »

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When I took a leave of absence from my job in Washington in 2000 to work in the Montana Senate race, I didn't have much clue what I was in for. more »

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