Irvine Mayor Don Wagner ♡ Joe "the racist scofflaw" Arpaio

Yeah, they go way back. Palsy-walsy.

Trump Pardons Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Who Illegally Targeted Latinos, Huffington Post, 8-26-17

     ...Arpaio, who served as sheriff from 1993 through 2016, had long been accused of discriminatory practices against Latinos. A 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division concluded there was reasonable cause to believe that Arpaio and his office engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful policing and racial profiling. Arpaio’s officers called Latinos “wetbacks,” “Mexican bitches,” “fucking Mexicans” and “stupid Mexicans,” the Justice Department found, and Latino drivers were four to nine times as likely to be stopped by his officers as non-Latino drivers were. A lawsuit filed by the Justice Department was settled in 2015....

Mexican hater Joe Arpaio endorses Don Wagner for the 70th Assembly District, Orange Juice Blog, 5-28-10

     “I’m proud to support Don Wagner, a strong advocate for law and order and a common-sense conservative leader,” said Arpaio in giving his support to Wagner.
     Arpaio has developed a national reputation for his tough stance on law and order and illegal immigration, earning some notoriety by reinstituting chain gangs and forcing inmates to wear pink underwear. He has been a vocal proponent for the enforcement of state and federal laws on immigration and had been considering a run for Arizona governor.
     “Sheriff Joe is known around the country for his toughness and we need that kind of toughness in Sacramento if we are going to change things,” said Wagner.

Excerpt from Trustee SPANKY on your right to “pack a gun,” Dissent the Blog, May 30, 2006

…Wagner’s answers to a campaign questionnaire are sometimes interesting. “What,” he is asked, will he “do to stop illegal immigration and its economic effects in California”?
     “We should deport illegal aliens when and where found,” says Don….
     Don’s a great believer in guns. In fact, in Don World, the good guys oughta have more of ‘em: "I would try to greatly expand the right of law abiding citizens to carry weapons.”
     Greatly expand? I do believe Don wants us to wear holsters, boots, and Stetsons!
     Like many conservatives, Wagner is especially concerned about the specter of homosexuality. He is definitely against sex education and the promotion of the “pro-homosexual agenda” in public schools.
     At one point, Wagner is asked, Do you support same sex marriage? He offers a snappy answer, sure to annoy:
     "Then it isn't ‘marriage,’ now is it?"
     I like Don, but he just doesn't get how annoyed at his audience—and thus annoying—he often seems.
     In the questionnaire, Don again emphasizes the value of local control. And so he supports the “right of communities to require curricula with greater studies of”—are you ready?—here goes:

The U.S. Constitution, the role of religion in American life, traditional values, honest U.S. history, the founding fathers in greater dimension tha[n] mere "slave owners," appreciation for the cultural and political traditions of our country, patriotism, gun safety[.] [He says “yes” to the preceding.]

     Don’s a great one for discipline. "Corporal punishment in the lower grades works,” he asserts.

No bananas!

     Ouch!
     Spanky—er, Don—sees himself as a Warrior. Is there a culture war in the U.S. today? “Yes,” says Corporal (and corporeal!) Don. If so, then “What side are you on?”
     His answer is a tour de force:

     "I am on the side that thinks ‘under God’ belongs in the pledge of allegiance and that it's all right to wish people ‘Merry Christmas,’ but that free speech does not include burning the flag or dancing in the nude.
. . .
…"I believe public schools should be permitted to give out aspirin, but not condoms, and that bananas belong in the cafeteria, not in ‘health class.’
…”I am on the side of the culture war that believes Teddy Kennedy should do time for Chappaquidick and that Bill Clinton should do time for Juanita Broderick, perjury, illegal campaign fund raising from China...
     "My side of the culture war thought that the first term of the Clinton Administration was … a disaster. There was nothing to like about his positions on gays in the military, nationalization of the health care industry, opposition to welfare reform that took a Republican Congress to finally achieve, …the incineration of children in Waco, …stonewalling on Vince Foster, missing Rose Law Firm billing records, … sale of the Lincoln Bedroom, ad nauseam.
…"Those on my side of the culture war believe that with rights come responsibilities, and that you have a right to build on your own property even if a snail darter or some such endangered vermin happens to live on it, a right to pack a gun, and the right to live free of an oppressive nanny state. You also have a responsibility to care for yourself and your family, and to exhaust every effort to do so before asking the government for a handout. Personal responsibility and self reliance [sic] are more highly regarded on my side of the culture war than are feelings and groupthink.
     "My side of the culture war laughs at the hypocracy [sic!] of the left when it says we care about children only until they are born, when in fact it is our side that also opposes euthanasia, the left's creeping culture of death, the killing of Terry Schiavo….”

Happy together