On State of the Union this morning, Dana Bash asked Mitt Romney about Marjorie Traitor Greene and Paul Gosar speaking at the White Supremicist rally in Orlando this weekend-- not CPAC, the anti-Semitic, pro-Putin one down the street that openly worships Hitler, what was referred to as "the Putin-wing of the GOP." He responded that he agreed "absolutely" with the Liz Cheney statement calling them out and imploring Republicans to "renounce this garbage." He said "Liz Cheney was right with that statement and she's been right for a long time... There's no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It's simply wrong... it's evil as well. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, I don't know them but I'm reminded of that old line from the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid movie where one character says, 'Morons, I have morons on my team.' And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing few IQ points."
Both Gosar and Traitor Greene represent super-gerrymandered districts designed to elect Republicans. Gosar's district (R+22) gave Trump 68.0% in 2020 and Traitor Greene's district (R+28) gave Trump 73.4%. Neither district has a single Democratic county. The "bluest" county in AZ-04 is Gosar's section of Pinal (R+28) and the "bluest" in GA-14 is Traitor Greene's part of Paulding (R+36). Traitor Greene has 3 counties that are over R+70! Can you imagine what it must be like living in this places... the kind of people who live there!
Murray County (R+71)- 84.1% Trump, 37% fully vaccinated
Haralson County (R+76)- 86.5% Trump, 33% fully vaccinated
Pickens County (R+77)- 82.2% Trump, 33% fully vaccinated
Think about what it would be like to invite the neighbors over for dinner. These are the people who think it's a good idea to send Marjorie Traitor Greene to Washington to represent them. She is them--except she's rich and they're not. But she is a reflection of what they are. Same with Gosar. Mohave County (R+51) gave Trump a 74.9% to 23.7% win over Biden, Trump'ss biggest victory in the state. Only 41% of the folks in Mohave County are fully vaccinated, the least vaccinated county in the state. This is how characters like Paul Gosar get elected to office and then reelected.
Sprawling Mohave County-- the fifth largest county in the country-- is northwest Arizona and is mostly rural with 3 small cities, Lake Havasu City (pop- 52,527), Bullhead City (pop- 39,540) and Kingman (pop- 28,068)--from the Depeche Mode hit. I was going to say from the Rolling Stones hit but Jagger totally fucked up the lyrics-- 3 times in one line and left out Kingman:
Flagstaff, Arizona; don't it get a motor; Big Sur, Moscow, San Bernardino
original Bobby Troup lyrics (1946):
Flagstaff, Arizona; don't forget Winona; Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino
Artists who have recorded "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" include the Nat King Cole original, Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters, Perry Como, Chuck Berry, The Stones in 1964, Manhattan Transfer, Glenn Frey, Billy Bragg-- with British cities-- Asleep At the Wheel, Depeche, Michael Martin Murphey and John Mayer.
I went through Kingman once. I have no memory of it whatsoever but I ran away from home right when the Stones version came out. The object was to stow away on a ship in L.A. and eventually get to Tonga-- where I had already sent seeds and tools and cans of food for myself care of poste restante. I hitch-hiked across the country from Brooklyn to San Pedro. In Ohio I was picked up by a sailor named Howard, driving a new Cadillac owned by a guy named Howard who was paying him to being it to California. He was kind of creepy but he was going all the way to L.A. and wasn't asking me for gas money. And I had just had an unpleasant incident with a guy who picked me up on his motorcycle. Anyway, my most embedded memory of Route 66 was this sailor taking me to a Chinese restaurant in Amarillo. He said he'd been to the best Chinese restaurants in Peking, Shanghai and Hong Kong and that this one in Amarillo was better than any of them. Let me just say that there were baskets of rye bread on every table. This is another Depeche Mode version of "Route 66" that I like a lot: