Arizona GOP lawmakers’ 4 steps toward authoritarianism

I’ve been spending a lot of time at the Capitol lately. As an educator, parent and voter, I was drawn by the threat of voucher expansion, but soon learned there are several problematic Republican-sponsored bills moving through the Legislature. When I thought about the bills comprehensively, I realized that the Arizona GOP is engaged in a steady march toward authoritarianism. Here’s the formula:

Undereducate the masses, elevate the privileged

Senate Bills 1431 and 1281, along with House Bills 2394 and 2465, seek to damage our public-school systems (and the vast majority of Arizona children who attend them) by expanding a voucher program that subsidizes pricey, unregulated charter and private schools while public schools struggle to pay teachers a livable wage or properly supply their classrooms. In other words, wealthy families with special interests could get a handout while the rest of our kids are supposed to learn in a classroom of 39 students, with inadequate materials, from demoralized teachers who make so

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little that they often hold second jobs.

Disenfranchise the undereducated masses

HB 2029 and HB 2404 place onerous limitations and mandates on the processes for voter-led, grass-roots ballot initiatives. Their premise is that the people don’t know enough to govern themselves or to responsibly drive the direction of our own communities. Legislators want to control what’s on our ballot believing they (and the lobbyists who fund them) know what’s better for us than we do.

House Concurrent Resolution 2004 tried to get rid of Clean Elections funding, the only way middle-class citizens can afford to run for public office. HCR 2002 and HCR 2007 attempt to repeal the Voter Protection Act, which gives voters the right to put topics we care about on our ballots when the legislature won’t.

Deter the disenfranchised masses from objecting

Currently dead, SB 1142 passed the Senate with full Republican support, putting Arizona in the international spotlight for anti-democratic legislation. It aimed to crack down on peaceful protest by expanding the definition of riots

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and racketeering to allow more severe consequences, such as arrest and seizure.

Intended result: Deter people from speaking out and limit their ability to exercise the First Amendment without repercussions. Republican senators who voted for it cited paid protesters, young people manipulated in rioting, violence and destruction ... examples that bore no resemblance to the numerous peaceful protests that have cropped up all over the state but which work to spread enough fear and uncertainty as to deter the disenfranchised masses from speaking out. Capitol insiders have warned no bill is truly dead until the session ends.

Eliminate detractors, proceed unopposed

SB 1142 would have given police departments more authority to crack down on protestors and made sentences more severe. Another Senate bill, which died in committee, was introduced by John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills and tried to make stealing a flag a felony.

Senate Bill 1099, with its four Republican sponsors, aims to put more police officers in schools — schools that can’t even afford computers or extra pencils.

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Goal? Eliminate disenfranchised voters who dare to speak out by saddling them with juvenile records, reputation-ending convictions, increased jail time and economic hardship resulting from job loss. With the opposition too dumb, too scared or too compromised to mobilize, those in power become unstoppable.

That is not the state I love. This mentality is not what helped produce a Supreme Court justice, decorated war heroes, immigrant success stories and award-winning universities.

This isn’t Russia or North Korea. This is America, where the will of a well-informed people is not merely tolerated but fundamental.

This is Arizona, where new ideas and welcoming communities drive economic opportunity.

Republican lawmakers, don’t take the next step. Don’t squash the very things that make it an honor to serve Arizona.

Dawn Penich-Thacker is a professor specializing in political rhetoric and an Arizona native thanks to parents who believed there really is such as thing as the American dream. Follow her on Twitter, @DoctorRhetorica.