Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The face of American fascism? Decoding sheriff Joe Arpaio’s anti-bestiality video
Source: The Guardian
The face of American fascism? Decoding sheriff Joe Arpaio’s anti-bestiality video
His address is like a parody of Donald Trump, revealing the absurd
and fictional nature of the demons they pursue and the emergencies
they promise to resolve
Jonathan Jones
Friday 20 May 2016 18.48 BST
Is this the face of American fascism? Whiter than white – his hands skeletally pale – and showing all his 83 years, Joe Arpaio, the minority-persecuting sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, warns the public against yet another enemy in its midst. First it was Barack Obama, who Arpaio insists is not a true-born American. Then it was anyone who looks to his officers like they may potentially be an illegal immigrant. In February he was rebuked by a US district court for ignoring orders to cease his policy of arresting people simply on suspicion of illegal immigration.
Here he denounces America’s latest nightmare – not migrants, not even Muslims, but zoophiles. Arpaio is leading a campaign against bestiality, dedicating resources to rounding up people who abuse animals. In this video he presents it with the grimmest severity as a national crisis that he alone has the courage to face. He seems gripped by Jesuitical fury. This is a campaign for the national soul. Arpaio wrings his white hands repeatedly, kneads and unkneads his fingers, as he denounces dog abusers with all the dramatic intensity of senator Joe McCarthy going after communists.
Arpaio is seeking re-election, and his self-publicising mission is as brazen as that of his spiritual comrade Donald Trump. Not only did Arpaio endorse Trump in the Arizona primary but there is even speculation that he might become Trump’s running mate in a “nightmare ticket”. Arpaio himself has reflected on their similarity: “He’s somewhat like me. Or I’m like him. I don’t know which way it goes.”
In this strange address, it is plain that their affinity is that of two unashamed hucksters. Even as Arpaio adopts the tones of a dedicated public servant warning of a national emergency, a sombre moralist with no thought for anything but the country’s good, behind him are prominently placed copies of his autobiography. The book in which he proudly styles himself “America’s toughest sheriff” and boasts about the “concentration camps” – as he has called them – he has created to expand prison space. This totally unapologetic mixture of authoritarianism and commercialism – if you like this tough policy, buy my book, and vote for me too – is indeed a mirror of Trump’s gleefully transgressive flouting of decencies.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
His address is like a parody of Donald Trump, revealing the absurd
and fictional nature of the demons they pursue and the emergencies
they promise to resolve
Jonathan Jones
Friday 20 May 2016 18.48 BST
Is this the face of American fascism? Whiter than white – his hands skeletally pale – and showing all his 83 years, Joe Arpaio, the minority-persecuting sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, warns the public against yet another enemy in its midst. First it was Barack Obama, who Arpaio insists is not a true-born American. Then it was anyone who looks to his officers like they may potentially be an illegal immigrant. In February he was rebuked by a US district court for ignoring orders to cease his policy of arresting people simply on suspicion of illegal immigration.
Here he denounces America’s latest nightmare – not migrants, not even Muslims, but zoophiles. Arpaio is leading a campaign against bestiality, dedicating resources to rounding up people who abuse animals. In this video he presents it with the grimmest severity as a national crisis that he alone has the courage to face. He seems gripped by Jesuitical fury. This is a campaign for the national soul. Arpaio wrings his white hands repeatedly, kneads and unkneads his fingers, as he denounces dog abusers with all the dramatic intensity of senator Joe McCarthy going after communists.
Arpaio is seeking re-election, and his self-publicising mission is as brazen as that of his spiritual comrade Donald Trump. Not only did Arpaio endorse Trump in the Arizona primary but there is even speculation that he might become Trump’s running mate in a “nightmare ticket”. Arpaio himself has reflected on their similarity: “He’s somewhat like me. Or I’m like him. I don’t know which way it goes.”
In this strange address, it is plain that their affinity is that of two unashamed hucksters. Even as Arpaio adopts the tones of a dedicated public servant warning of a national emergency, a sombre moralist with no thought for anything but the country’s good, behind him are prominently placed copies of his autobiography. The book in which he proudly styles himself “America’s toughest sheriff” and boasts about the “concentration camps” – as he has called them – he has created to expand prison space. This totally unapologetic mixture of authoritarianism and commercialism – if you like this tough policy, buy my book, and vote for me too – is indeed a mirror of Trump’s gleefully transgressive flouting of decencies.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/20/sheriff-joe-arpaio-anti-bestiality-video-arizona
Related: Sheriff Joe Arpaio fights bestiality with Craigslist stings: ‘This is my crusade’ (The Guardian)
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
