OPINION
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JULY 18, 2021
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Who cares about polls? The Valley has our hearts BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist
W
ith all due respect to the �ine journalists who toil for U.S. News and World Report, their magazine’s annual list of “Best Places to Live” once again ranks as one of the most hilarious acts of journalism committed to print this year. Want to yuk it up? Listen to this Top Five of America’s Best Hometowns: Ranked �ifth, there’s Austin, Texas, “laidback to the point that if you’re dressing up, it must be a life event.” Fourth, Fayetteville, Arkansas, where – and I quote – “people wave and smile at each other in the street, and community events are well-attended.” Third, we have Huntsville, Alabama, which boasts “the most educated population in the state.” The state of Alabama. Need I say more? Number Two goes to Raleigh & Durham, North Carolina, whose selling points include
“gathering over craft beers in one of the region’s many microbreweries” and “strangers ... quick to provide a friendly conversation when standing in line at the supermarket.” I prefer Budweiser and silently bagging my groceries to get the hell out of Basha’s as fast as possible. The big winner for 2021: Boulder, Colorado, named America’s Best Place To Live for the second consecutive year. I’ve been to Boulder. Nice place – if you like John Denver songs, chocolate chip edibles and hemp underwear. As U.S. News puts it, Boulder “has opportunities from forest bathing and free meditation sessions to an abundance of marijuana dispensaries, spas and alternative health care studios. The full spectrum of yoga disciplines is represented here, as well as … ‘Animal Flow’ ground-based movement classes.” Sounds like a pulled hamstring waiting to happen. Plus, the description alone gives you the munchies. And zero desire to �ire
up the moving van. The Phoenix metro area ranked 40th this year, up 13 spots from 2020 and sandwiched between Houston and Knoxville. We scored high for having “a thriving job market, a relatively low cost of living and plenty of ways to enjoy the nice weather.” No mention of chatty strangers in the grocery store, a thriving weed scene or ample chances to do goat yoga. It could be worse. Tucson ranked 81st. Dead last? San Juan, Puerto Rico. My problem with this list is my problem with all such lists: They attempt to scienti�ically rank something that is less science and more emotion. U.S. News – whose brand depends entirely on ranking things like cities and colleges – has created a formula by polling 3,600 internet users, then weighting each area’s job market, housing affordability, quality of life, desirability and how many people move in and out annually. After that, there’s a whole lot of mumbo
jumbo about standard deviation and something called a Z-Score. This seems as good a scienti�ic method as any to rank places, but it still misses what really motivates humans to live where we live: The job that beckons us or the chance to live near those we love. I’m sure my story is typical and illustrative. I moved to the Valley 26 years ago for work, then stayed because I laid down roots. There are people I love here, a business I built, and a million little things that lift my spirit. Like the crunch of my hiking shoes on Piestewa Peak. The sound of Al McCoy’s voice calling a Phoenix Suns basketball game. The breakfast quesadilla at Bit-zee Mama’s in Glendale. And the countless purples and oranges that drip down the sky during each night’s sunset. So what if Boulder scores a 7.6 because it has “Tube to Work Day” and “dirtbag climbers (who) live in a van?” The Valley may only score a 6.8, but the place has our hearts. ■
�irst septuagenarian to serve as president. His press secretary, James C. Hagerty, recalled an anecdote that typi�ied Ike’s approach. When considering a challenging question he might face concerning a controversial topic at a press conference, Eisenhower told his staffer: “Don’t worry, Jim; if that question comes up, I’ll just confuse them.” While Eisenhower exploited imprecision as part of his personal image, other leaders from the other side of the aisle have employed it to achieve policy goals. Lyndon Johnson dramatically expanded the federal role in health care by advocating and signing into law both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Three decades after those programs were established, historian-turned-House Speaker Newt Gingrich theorized that by sowing deliberate seeds of confusion over Medicare and Medicaid, distinctions between the two would be forgotten and therefore any stigma
about government-run healthcare would be minimized in the public consciousness, thus aiding the left in advocating a complete federal takeover of healthcare. Fast-forward to the here and now. Joe Biden leads a Democratic Party increasingly con�licted about truly democratic elections. Despite the parroting of the “voter suppression” canard by a reliably partisan Washington Press Corps, this is one instance where the American People are relying on their collective commonsense. Understanding that Photo ID is required to cash a check, board a plane, or even enter a federal courthouse, the public does not see why the same stipulation should not apply to voting. Polling shows that eighty percent of the public embraces the idea of Photo ID as a way to safeguard voter integrity. So, Ol’ Joe is taking a page out of the “LBJ Playbook.”
When asked about the Supreme Court’s decision that af�irmed the constitutionality of the new Arizona voter integrity laws, Mr. Biden blew past the particulars of the case to outline his major concern, which he readily admitted was not part of the court’s Arizona decision. “I think it is critical that we make a distinction between voter suppression and suspension.” Voter suspension? Sounds similar to voter suppression. What’s the difference? Joe is making the shift because he wants to get ahead of the mounting evidence of vote fraud – here in Arizona and elsewhere. He’s doing so for his own political survival. To hang on to power, leftists will claim that if any votes are thrown out – “suspended,” in their new vernacular, it will be a denial of the “will of the people.” Conveniently forgotten in this new semantical twist: any evidence that proves the “suspended” votes are fraudulent. ■
Democrats con�licted on democratic elections BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
T
he America of the 1950’s seems quaint by today’s standards. Because our memories of that era match the monochrome images that danced across early television screens from coast to coast, we see Dwight David Eisenhower as a genial grandfather and golf enthusiast instead of the decisive leader and hardened warrior. In his 1982 book “The Hidden-Hand Presidency,” political scientist and historian Fred I. Greenstein revised the thinking about Ike and his two terms in the Oval Of�ice. Rather that foster the perception that he was a bold “man of action,” as so many of his successors would encourage of themselves once ego met ambition at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Eisenhower employed a style that encouraged an incurious or even an indulgent reaction, considering that he was the
