You didn’t read it in a headline, because the Arizona GOP quietly ended their dumbfuck program to raise private funds from bigoted goobers nationwide in order to build a border fence. The plan emerged in 2011 from the alleged mind of Sen. Steve Smith, when Arizona was in the middle of a number of contested campaigns, including a governor’s race, shaped in part by SB 1070.
With a lot of fanfare in the summer of 2011, including a press conference featuring luminaries like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Sen. Russell Pearce, the GOP kicked off their “Build the Fence” initiative, which provided the means for haters across the country to donate through a website. The whole deal required legislative approval, which the Arizona GOP was happy to provide, and Gov. Jan Brewer, sucking up to the anti-immigrant fervor sweeping the Arizona Republican Party, was even more than happy to sign.
Sen. Smith said he’d raise $50 million to build a 15-foot-high fence in places along Arizona’s 375-mile border with Mexico that currently have no federal fences — about 15 miles of gaps. I wrote in 2011 when the program launched that my teenage nephew could design a better website, and I wagered that the effort was doomed to fail, given that wingers want their goodies, but they also want someone else to pay for them. On top of that, at the time immigration was declining, President Obama had sent more agents to the region than any other executive, and his administration was deporting the undocumented at an alarming rate. What’s not to like if you’re a Mexican hater?
The website did pull in about $80,000 in the first couple days, which seemed impressive, but then consider that most of this money came from immigration bashers just waiting to open their wallets. Then … next to nada. Here’s what I said after the website had been up about a month:
In fact, since those first 18 days, when the total was $158,430, donations have cratered to a total of about $17,000 over the next 26 days -- or about $650 a day. At this pace Senator Smith will have his $50 million in hand around the year 2200.
The pace slackened even more over the years, and Sen. Smith got creative trying to keep his boondoggle relevant. First he downsized the fence building, from a planned 15 miles to essentially a symbolic gate. Then he said he’d use inmate labor to save money; he even hit up Home Depot and similar hardware stores for chainlink fence and other donated supplies.
All to no avail. After more than four years the initiative collected a total of $265,000 from nativists, about 1/200th of the $50 million goal, and today the Arizona GOP announced that they are scrapping Sen. Smith’s ugly, boneheaded scheme.
Arizona lawmakers who hoped to build miles of fencing along the border with Mexico using private money are pulling the plug on the project after nearly five years.
Now the Arizona legislature must decide what to do with the $265,000 that gullible bigots sent to the state. Here’s a thought: Throw a big mariachi festival at the State Capitol, or use the money to supply water stations in the desert, so families don’t die trying to cross it.