http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0422/Arizona-illegal-immigration-birther-bills-show-rightward-shiftEven by the measure of Arizona's long history of conservatism, the past week has been extraordinary.
In the past six days, the legislature has passed the nation's strictest anti-illegal immigration bill, a law permitting concealed weapons, and the House has approved a bill requiring a presidential candidate to show his or her birth certificate to appear on the state ballot. This is the home of five-term Sen. Barry Goldwater, known as "Mr Conservative" – the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. But
a confluence of factors, ranging from the rising pitch of the illegal immigration debate to the departure of a Democratic governor and her replacement by a Republican has tilted Arizona even further to the right. “The truth is that Arizona has been a state with far-right politics going back many years, but in
last weeks and months is an even more remarkable lurch to right,” says Mark Potok, Director of the intelligence project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. “You’ve got a lot of whites moving into the state who are not from there, and who seem to feel this is a white man’s state, and who don’t like it when they find more diversity than they expected.”
Immigrant activist Kat Rodriguez moved to Arizona in 2000 and says even she, a Texan, is stunned by Arizona’s shift to the right. “For the last five to seven years, this state seems to have been attracting the xenophobic and evenly openly racist groups of people,” says the Tucson-based coordinator for Derechos Humanos.
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