Election denial has become one of the pillars of the modern Republican Party. But Arizona’s desert soil has soaked up claims of rain-like hallucinations, at least in part because of the state’s unique history. For most of the past century and a half, Arizona has been a geography of personal reinvention, ambitious planning, and burning hype beyond the limits of nature. The name itself comes from the 1736 silver rush that broke out in a valley near the ranch called ‘Arizona’ and burst into flames just weeks after it started. Lake’s false crusade has already gone on long.

What is in the waters of Arizona that inspires such apparent frivolity?

Well, first of all, what kind of water? A fictional approach to hydrology characterizes modern development in Arizona. With just 12 inches of annual rainfall on average, the state grows tens of thousands of acres of high-moisture cotton, supporting 2.6 million homes and more than 370 golf courses. Its allocation from the Colorado River was based on very optimistic forecasts of currents a century ago. By the 1960s, the state had to build her 330 miles (330 miles) of canals to push the water up the hills and away from its biggest rival, California. Prolonged drought and declining water levels at Lake Powell, her second largest reservoir in the country, have cast doubt on future real estate businesses and population growth.

Being reckless with limited water is really written into Arizona’s DNA. In 1912, federal funds built what was then the world’s largest dam on the Salt River, and the farmer nobles of the new state legislature made it a point to have its image on the official state seal.

However, their enthusiasm for the new Eden of the desert was exaggerated, although they believed that a mammoth spring was hidden beneath its surface. ,” said a 1949 Bureau of Reclamation report issued after most of Arizona’s surface water had dried up. “People clung to the notion of vast underground rivers endlessly emptying into the sea and continued to develop more and more land.”

The land didn’t even need to be significantly improved to be a hot commodity in the state’s wishful thinking storm. In the 1960s, shady real estate brokers treated Arizona like arid Florida with its cacti, selling worthless copse homes to buyers by mail via discreet, flashy magazine ads. The deceived were horrified when they appeared in person to see the deserted, utility-free, barren land.

Nineteenth-century proponents touted dozens of Arizona mining communities as the next Chicago or Pittsburgh. John Crumb, founding editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, the state’s oldest continuously published newspaper, describes the gang-infested town as follows: Importance. “

Arizonas see what they choose. Before being imprisoned in federal prison in 1992, Charles, the king of savings and loans, Keating used the money he raised from the savings of thousands of small depositors to build a golden luxury resort called Phoenicia. built here. During the 1964 presidential election, Senator Barry Goldwater proposed defoliating the trees covering his trail in Ho Chi Minh City with nuclear weapons. It helped cost him the general election, but Arizonans loved it.

Being unrooted doesn’t help you protect yourself from outlandish fantasies. Almost 60% of Arizona’s current residents were not born here. The real estate economy works like a Ponzi scheme in that sense, requiring a constant stream of buyers from elsewhere to justify the endless expansion of stucco roofs onto the desert horizon. It is the fastest growing state in the West, with a 1.3% increase in population since 2021.

Part of the Arizona dream is that you can move here without any family connections or history and be a perfect fit and even be elected to high office. Move here for a second chance and a fresh start in the country.

There is no question that they exist, as well as the knowledge, pragmatism, natural beauty, and neighborly character that gives Arizona its enduring appeal. But the quack is still hiding in the sunlight. Harvard’s Edmund J. Safra Ethics Center surveyed reporters in his 2014 and named Arizona the most corrupt state in the country.

Electing a Democratic governor, casting the electoral votes for Joe Biden, and shifting political gravity away from clowns like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, some may see a shift in Arizona’s psyche. . But the legislature is in the hands of those who cried “election fraud,” and donors continue to write checks. Those who want a clean fade from red to blue are also chasing rainbows.