Not A Swine Flu Post

To take a break from swine flu blogging, here's something I enjoyed reading this evening. For my thesis, I've been studying Joseph Davey's book about prison expansion, in which he blames "tough on crime" governors for the rise in incarceration rates from 1972-1992. His description of former Arizona Governor Evan Mecham made me laugh a little. Maybe you'll like it, too. If not, I'll write about Cornell again tomorrow.

Evan Mecham was the first U.S. governor to be impeached in fifty-nine years. He had angered a large number of the voters by canceling the state holiday to honor the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. [...]

Mecham argued that the pressure for him to resign came from "militant liberals and homosexuals," and one of Mecham's supporters compared the investigation of the governor to the trial and passion of Jesus Christ. [...] In the years following his impeachment, Mecham remained active in political fringe groups, headed a white supremacist organization called "Constitutionalists' Networking Center" and founded a political party called CURE, which stood for "Constitutionally Unified Republic for Everyone." [...]

Mecham supported and was supported by members of the John Birch society, and is on record as stating "that President Eisenhower supported socialist policies." Mecham further argued that "federal policies regarding education, homosexuals, welfare programs and separation of church and state were the same symptoms that led to the fall of the Roman empire."

Early on in his administration his derogatory remarks angered blacks, homosexuals, women, journalists, legislators and politicians. He cost the state millions in revenue from canceled conventions and companies that decided not to locate in Arizona. He also argued that the United States might have become "too much of a democracy." (pp. 69-70)