AZ Freedom Caucus lawmakers use fringe conspiracies to justify opposing transportation bill

The far-right members of the Freedom Caucus have publicly fought with the Republicans who backed the transportation tax vote legislation, saying the plan wastes tax money by funding public transit — particularly Maricopa County’s light rail system.

But some have gone beyond traditional conservative opposition to taxes and government spending and say the transportation plan is actually part of a covert plot to implement totalitarian control over Arizona.

Climate conspiracy fearmongering

In the immediate wake of the legislature passing the bill to extend Proposition 400, several Freedom Caucus critics of the measure linked it to conspiracy theories that claim urban development and transit projects are really nefarious attempts by the government to trap people in ghettos so they can be controlled more easily.

That, they claim, is done by creating so-called “15-minute cities,” in which urban areas are developed so that all necessities are available within a 15-minute walk. The primary benefit would be reducing the average person’s reliance on automobiles, leading to an overall decrease in carbon emissions, which are a lead cause of climate change.

To bad-faith critics and conspiracy theorists, it’s actually meant to block citizens from moving out of small areas.

“What this is, is an attempt by … the climate alarmists to go out there and actually have a way of making travel more difficult,” Rep. Cory McGarr, R-Tucson, said in a July 31 interview on KNST in Tucson. “So, they say the 15-minute city, well, you don’t get there overnight, but what you do is you condense down the road — it’s called a road diet… You’re making a four lane road down to two, and then you’re adding, like, a bike lane, because everybody I know bikes to work, except for nobody I know bikes to work.”

The furor around 15-minute cities is the latest version of fearmongering around national and global sustainability initiatives, and it echoes outrage on the right from a decade or so ago, when a similar outcry was raised over Agenda 21, a 1992 non-binding United Nations resolution to promote sustainable development worldwide. In 2015, then-Republican state Sen. Judy Burges introduced a bill that would have made it illegal for the state of Arizona to “adopt or implement the creed, doctrine, or principles or any tenet” of Agenda 21.

McGarr has previously mocked the idea of human-caused climate change, even though changes in the climate have intensified heat globally, leading last month to be the hottest month in recorded history. He also branded the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 as an attack on freedom that the government could use again. Reduced reliance on cars, he said, would only play into this tyrannical plan.

“Transportation is freedom. They want to take it,” McGarr continued. “They want you to at least choose. They want to make it so difficult, they want you to choose to give away your freedom. Join this public system that, then, they control. Now, imagine during COVID if you didn’t have a vehicle and you had no way of getting around because they shut down the public transit, transportation. This is, this is government control, and it’s tyranny.”

In a separate July 31 interview on KNST, Rep. Rachel Jones, who represents the same Tucson-based district as McGarr, said that the measure incorporated “Green New Deal” verbiage, referencing a broad plan by national Democrats to combat climate change by reducing emissions. Similarly to 15-minute cities, following its initial proposal, the Green New Deal has become a boogeyman of the political right, with some calling it a socialist takeover.

“And then they have air quality measures in there. So, all of this lingo just screams Green New Deal. And we all know that the Green New Deal stuff also includes 15-minute cities,” Jones said. “Now, all of this is about controlling the people and why we have Republicans, you know, compromising in the 11th hour on this and making it more, just easier to implement the Green New Deal. I’m dumbfounded by it.”

Compromise is surrender

With Republicans holding a one-seat majority in both legislative chambers, the Freedom Caucus has been a driving force behind many of the party’s controversial policy initiatives — including attempts to ban certain books from schools, outlaw drag shows and criminalize homelessness.

Jones said that some have accused the Freedom Caucus of turning voters against Republicans: Critics have said the legislators’ incendiary, divisive tactics could cost the party future elections and eventually the house majority.

But Jones argued that any losses are the fault of the moderate Republicans who are open to compromising with Democrats, with the passage of the Prop. 400 extension being a prime example.

“Let’s go together as a Republican legislature and let’s figure out how to make the best for the people, and not compromise with the Democrats necessarily,” Jones told KNST listeners. “That is why we have a one-seat majority for a reason, because over the last few decades or last couple of decades… we compromise and we compromise and we compromise, and there were too many legislators willing to do that.

“And, so, it whittled down to a one-seat majority, which now, you know, the Freedom Caucus, we’re getting blamed for that. We’re getting blamed for, ‘Oh, you’re going to make us lose the legislature in 2024.’ I’m sorry, but we have lost, almost lost, our state. Because of the weak and corrupt Republicans that are willing to compromise it away to the Left.”

Neither Jones nor McGarr responded to an email requesting comment. This article will be updated with any response received.

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