General Discussion

byronius

(7,385 posts) Fri Dec 23, 2016, 04:29 PM Dec 2016

The tale of Evan Mecham -- a close Trump analogy.

Evan Mecham

A Mormon used-car dealer with a bad toupee won the governorship of Arizona in 1986 because of a split Democratic ticket. His first act in office was to rescind the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Arizona; his second act was to refer to black children as 'pickaninnies' on statewide television. The ensuing boycott of the state cost Arizona its economic future.

He embezzled state funds to bolster the lagging fortunes of his used car dealership after 'technically' ceding control of the business to his sons, and used the state police and other law enforcement agencies as his personal enforcement crew to attack political enemies.

One of his most significant acts was the draconian increase in drug possession penalties -- frat boys started going to state prison for a mandatory three years of hard labor after being caught with traces of marijuana residue on a pipe. Vehicles and houses were seized by the state. Possession of cocaine over a certain quantity meant a life sentence. This led almost all tech companies (Intel, IBM) with manufacturing facilities in Arizona to leave the state, heaping even more harsh devastation on an already-damaged state economy.

He was the only governor of Arizona to be impeached. He was also issued several felony indictments; he and his brother Willard faced 22 years in prison for their actions, although they were later acquitted by a jury.

Some quotes from Wikipedia:

Besides the uproar caused by the MLK Day cancellation, Mecham committed other political faux pas. Claims of prejudice were made against Mecham after he defended the use of the word "pickaninny" to describe black children, claimed that high divorce rates were caused by working women, claimed America is a Christian nation to a Jewish audience, and said a group of visiting Japanese businessmen got "round eyes" after being told of the number of golf courses in Arizona. In response to claims that he was a racist, Mecham said, "I've got black friends. I employ black people. I don't employ them because they are black; I employ them because they are the best people who applied for the cotton-picking job."

Mecham made an issue of his relationship with the press. Claiming that many of his problems were caused by media enemies he had made during previous runs for political office, the governor stated, "The Phoenix newspaper monopoly has had my political destruction as its goal for many years." The governor also claimed, "Every daily newspaper in the state endorsed a different candidate besides me. It's taking them a little time to get used to the idea that I was the people's choice." In response to his perceived mistreatment by the press, Mecham attempted to ban a journalist from his press conferences. John Kolbe, a political columnist for the Phoenix Gazette and brother of Congressman Jim Kolbe, was declared a "non-person" after a February 25, 1987, column critical of Mecham's performance at the National Governors Association.

Another incident occurred during a televised event in which a reporter questioned the governor's integrity, prompting Mecham to reply, "Don't you ever ask me for a true statement again." An aide later asserted that the press "largely misunderstood" Mecham's retort. "Of course, the governor should not have said that, especially with the TV cameras rolling," he wrote.

Throughout his administration, Mecham expressed concern about possible eavesdropping on his private communications. A senior member of Mecham's staff broke his leg after falling through a false ceiling he had been crawling over, looking for covert listening devices. A private investigator was hired to sweep the governor's offices looking for bugs. The Governor was quoted as saying, "Whenever I'm in my house or my office, I always have a radio on. It keeps the lasers out." After this was reported, a political cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Steve Benson appeared in the Arizona Republic depicting the governor leaving his house outfitted for laser tag. When asked about this by reporters, Attorney General Bob Corbin replied in amusement, "We don't have any ray gun pointed at him."

I remember all of this like it was yesterday. And here we are again, on a national scale.