Things got so bad for Arizona that even Fox News came out against the bill, twice. And when you’re too conservative for Fox…

A friend of mine had an interesting theory as to why there was such an outcry against this bill. It’s not enough to say that SB1062 was really anti-gay (even though it was). Lots of homophobic legislation gets passed in the states, some of it even in Arizona. And it’s not enough to say that this bill was particularly homophobic. I’m not sure anything strikes the GOP base as “particularly homophobic,” regardless of how nasty it is. My friend thinks, however, that Brewer didn’t want to be seen as Putin. He thinksk that Russian homophobia has been so showcased over the lead-up to the Olympics, that even American conservatives don’t want to be seen as being as bad as “them.”

I have a different theory. I think, in part, times are-a-changing, and it’s getting harder and harder for politicians to be anti-gay because the country, overall, isn’t (well, not as much as they were). And to the degree we still are a homophobic country, it’s not with the vehemence there was once on our issues. Sure, the religious right still hates gays’ guts, but a growing number of Republican lawmakers probably couldn’t care less.

snip

So no, Arizona isn’t Russia. But Arizona tried to put itself on the path to becoming Russia. And the issue, thankfully, blew up in its face.