The State of Arizona
Gail Collings, NYT, FEB. 26, 2014
Arizona. Wow. How often do you find yourself saying, “Go, entrenched interests of the business community!” Yet here we are.
Responding to howls from the state’s economic interests, Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gay people on the grounds of religious conviction. Brewer is an erratic politician, but she’s not crazy. After all, she did once refer to the State Capitol as “that hell hole.”
It would have been hard to ignore the pressure. American Airlines and Apple said the bill was a terrible idea. So did the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. The list went on and on. “The entire business community is galvanized in a way that I’ve never seen against this legislation,” said Senator John McCain. Several of the state senators who had voted for the bill, including one of the co-sponsors, were so terrified that they begged Brewer to use her veto pen to save them from themselves.
What do you think this whole scene means? True, Arizona is a rather strange state. But you don’t generally see a Legislature go out of its way to tick off its own moneyed power structure. And you hardly ever see a business establishment howling this loud about something that doesn’t involve tax hikes.
(More here.)
Arizona. Wow. How often do you find yourself saying, “Go, entrenched interests of the business community!” Yet here we are.
Responding to howls from the state’s economic interests, Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gay people on the grounds of religious conviction. Brewer is an erratic politician, but she’s not crazy. After all, she did once refer to the State Capitol as “that hell hole.”
It would have been hard to ignore the pressure. American Airlines and Apple said the bill was a terrible idea. So did the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. The list went on and on. “The entire business community is galvanized in a way that I’ve never seen against this legislation,” said Senator John McCain. Several of the state senators who had voted for the bill, including one of the co-sponsors, were so terrified that they begged Brewer to use her veto pen to save them from themselves.
What do you think this whole scene means? True, Arizona is a rather strange state. But you don’t generally see a Legislature go out of its way to tick off its own moneyed power structure. And you hardly ever see a business establishment howling this loud about something that doesn’t involve tax hikes.
(More here.)
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