“’I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun, I might get an opportunity. I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,’ she said. ‘I want that deterrence message.’” (Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.)
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” (Lavrenty Beria, former head of the Soviet Secret Police under Joseph Stalin.)
Does Katie Hobbs strike you as a hero? Someone who’d be willing to buck the passions and sentiments sweeping through the Democratic Party nowadays? Someone who’d be ready to risk the wrath of her party—as former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema did, when she refused to comply with Democrat demands to change the Senate filibuster, or blocked major legislative proposals of the Biden administration?
If Katie Hobbs is not a hero, then conservatives and Republicans should anticipate some rough going the next four years, should Hobbs and all of her team win reelection.
There is an “ideological civil war consuming the Democrats,” according to the Politico website. Traditional Democrats (like Hobbs) are under intense pressure from a new, activist crop of progressives like Abdul El-Sayed, Alexandria Occasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani. The activists don’t want compromise with conservatives. They don’t want to build bridges. They want to tear through our institutions and traditions, and smash anyone who opposes them.
No, most liberals and progressives are NOT communists. But many progressives do pay attention to, and take inspiration from, Marxist thinkers. One of the “greatest” Marxist thinkers was Vladimir Lenin. Here is a paraphrased saying that’s attributed to him: “Advance with the bayonet. If your probes with the bayonet encounter steel, stop. But, if you encounter mush, press on.”
Think of Senator Slotkin’s quote at the top of this article, in that light. There’s a good chance that she was probing the public relations waters, to see if the public would react with enthusiasm or indifference (mush), or disgust (steel), to the thought of newly-elected Democrats targeting Republicans—not just top GOP officials, but even lower-ranking ones, like local party members or campaign staffers fresh out of college.
If Slotkin was “probing with the bayonet,” that’s a strong indicator that many in today’s Democrat Party WANT to punish Republicans, for simply being Republicans.
How does that impact us here in Arizona? A state governor, working in concert with the Attorney General, can launch lots of investigations and file lots of legal charges. Even if those investigations and court cases eventually end up going nowhere—simply forcing the defendants to spend lots of time and money defending themselves would cause those defendants a great deal of grief. As another saying goes, the process itself is often the punishment.
A governor and Attorney General, working together as a team, can use the many tools of state government to inflict a lot of de facto punishment. The Democrat candidate for Attorney General is the incumbent, Kris Mayes. Mayes, according to the Arizona Luminaria website, has “joined numerous national lawsuits against the Trump administration.”
Neither Hobbs nor Mayes will have to face the voters again, if they win in November. (Arizona limits a governor and Attorney General to two consecutive terms). I.e., they are insulated from voter backlash. (Especially if the Democrats take one or both houses of the state legislature in November). Add all that up, and a Hobbs-Mayes team looks like a potent weapon to unleash on Republican and/or conservative groups or individuals over the next four years.
You can be confident that the AOC-led faction, which is ascendant in the national Democratic Party, has noticed that. That faction also knows that their activists will want to see results. To put it frankly, the Democrats’ progressive shock troops will want to see some conservatives suffer. They will expect those Democrats who can take action against Republicans and conservatives to do so. Accordingly, they will expect Team Hobbs-Mayes to step up and “do their duty,” and use their powers to pressure conservatives and Republicans, if both win reelection.
Now, ask yourselves—do you think there’s enough of Kyrsten Sinema in Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes, for them to buck their own party? To stand up to the Berias and Slotkins who are taking over the Democrats nationwide?
If Hobbs and Mayes haven’t read much Marx, undoubtedly they’ve watched the HBO miniseries “The Sopranos.” At the end of the series, New York mob boss Phil Leotardo mulls how to retaliate after the Soprano crew kills one of Leotardo’s crew members. Phil’s family leaders insist that he take out of the Soprano crew. “Just pick someone over there,” one angrily tells him. It didn’t matter if the “someone” Phil Leotardo eventually picked on the Soprano side had actually done anything wrong. All that mattered was that someone over there, anyone, had “to go,” to send a message. (A “deterrence message,” as Senator Slotkin might put it). Leotardo’s family expected him to send a message—and Phil Leotardo knew it.
Expect that progressive Democrats will demand that Hobbs and Mayes, if they both get reelected, “pick someone” among the Republicans and conservatives in Arizona. It need not be anything personal—it will simply be business. (Or, in this case, politics). It will simply be what the rest of their political “family” expects of them.
Either way, if the Democrats take widespread power in Arizona this November, conservatives and Republicans in Arizona who can’t afford to pay hefty legal fees should be concerned. Concerned enough to get out and vote!
About the author:
Don Smith is a former Army Reserve officer and defense contractor who lives in Tucson.
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