EJ MONTINI

Montini: Arpaio and Trump are the SAME guy (and the rules don't apply)

EJ Montini
opinion columnist


One of my first voicemail messages Monday was from a reader I’d heard from before and who was enraged and exasperated about the same subject he’d been enraged and exasperated about before: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“My God,” the man said. “How can this guy not resign? He’s found in contempt by a federal judge. He’s cost us millions in lawsuits. He’s going to cost us millions more. He’s violated the rights of so many people. How does he keep getting elected? How is he not forced out of office? He’s like Trump, only worse.”

Not exactly.

I’ve been saying this since last July.

Joe Arpaio is not like Donald Trump.

Joe Arpaio IS Donald trump.

Arpaio was Trump before Trump became Trump.

When the rules changed 

When Arpaio entered politics in Arizona, first winning election in 1992, the rules seemed to change. He said outrageous things, made outrageous claims, staged outrageous stunts, just about none of which had anything to do with law enforcement. And he still was reelected. He was an Obama "birther." He made wild accusations about other politicians. He is found in contempt of court. He costs taxpayers tens of million in payouts.

And for more than 20 years he’s gotten away with it.

Arpaio on a local scale is Trump on the national scale.

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Trump speaks from Arpaio’s playbook, making ridiculous claims about Latinos and promising to build a wall. And on and on.

The fact checkers at Politifact have found that 76 percent the statements Trump makes are mostly false or "pants on fire' lies.

He’s had trouble with women. Trouble with finances. Trouble with lawsuits.

It hasn't mattered to voters.

Sad truth: Truth doesn't matter

Neal Gabler of Moyers & Company wrote in an essay about this, saying in part: “Another explanation is that long before Trump, social scientists observed that truth matters less to people than reinforcement, and that most of us have the ability to reformulate misstatements into truth so long as they conform to our own biases.”

One part of that statement says it all – “truth matters less to people than reinforcement.”

Both Arpaio and Trump reinforce the fears, resentments, prejudices and anger of the people who vote for them.

That can be more powerful than truth.

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Nothing that Trump does or says, and nothing that media types say or print about him, seems to change the minds of his supporters.

This willful disregard for facts enrages and exasperates some members of the media.

But not me. Not anymore.

Not when you work here, where Trump -- in the form of Arpaio -- has been elected six times.