US Elections: As America Celebrates Biden’s Victory, Armed Trump Fans March In Arizona

AAs the sun sets behind the arid rocks of Arizona, Brian Ramsey puts down his semiautomatic rifle and drops to his knees. “Lord,” he prays, “give us answers.” The day brought terrible news, Ramsey complains, news that was barely comprehensible. “Can it really be your will,” he asks, “that Donald Trump loses the election?”

Ramsey is one of roughly 100 Trump fans who walked past the Maricopa District Elections Office this Saturday night. It’s on the outskirts of downtown Phoenix, a gray building set against a backdrop of desert and cacti. Ramsey donned what he called his “emergency kit”: the rifle, plus a pistol, an abrasion-resistant vest, and three clips. Like the others here, Ramsey doesn’t want to accept what happened. He does not acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory, but rather suspects a hoax. Ramsey is in front of the polling station for the fourth night in a row. Inside, the votes are still being counted, although everything has long been decided.

“Not everything went well in the elections”

Biden won in Pennsylvania and Nevada, he no longer needs Arizona. But that doesn’t matter to Ramsey or his colleagues. “It’s about putting a symbol,” he says after the sentence. “We want to make it clear to the country that all was not well in the elections.”

Since November 3, the Maricopa district has been something of the center of the “Stop the Steal” protests: the uprising of Trump supporters against the alleged theft of votes. Biden’s citizens celebrate Biden’s victory across America, but here in Arizona, in the land of cowboys, anger is building.

“It sucks,” says Ramsey. “How can the dead vote?” Also, many people would have voted multiple times, of course for the Democrats. “Republican ballots, on the other hand,” Ramsey believes, “have mysteriously disappeared.” These are phrases that are also heard from the incumbent president. Trump does not accept the result and demands. Maricopa is very different from the rest of America on this day.

After Biden’s election victory, people dance in the street

Washington, New York, Philadelphia – Television stations across the country broadcast images of people singing and dancing. In Phoenix the scene is grim, the citizens seem tense, you can see camouflages and rifles everywhere. Clearly some of Trump’s toughest and most loyal supporters live here.

“Well,” says Larry Grafanakis, “everything seems worse than it is.” He does not believe that the United States is now facing civil war, as some fear. Grafanakis has no weapons with him that night, just a large flag. But it is martial. It shows Trump as Rambo: muscular, with a headband and a bazooka. “I don’t want violence,” says Grafanakis, “but we have to protest.” He also complains: “We cannot allow the left to get away with it.”

What happened in Phoenix, in reality, may have little to do with fraud and a lot to do with demographics. Ten years ago, the area was Republican to the core, a stronghold of the hard line. Only those who went to church and loved guns had a chance in elections. Arizona, that was the Wild West. A piece of rough old America. But those days, it seems, are over. Biden also leads in Arizona, although the lead is narrow. And it owes it mainly to Maricopa, the largest district in the state.

It is the first time in 70 years that a Democrat has won here. Maricopa is changing more radically than almost any other region in America. Phoenix, already a gigantic urban center, is constantly growing. Single-family homes with double garages and wide driveways are being built everywhere. The desert gives way to the suburbs, the land of the cowboys turns bourgeois. 1.7 million people now live here. That is 250,000 more than ten years ago. This makes Phoenix the fastest growing city in America. 200,000 of the newcomers came from neighboring California, most of them fleeing high taxes and real estate prices. That has consequences for politics. Because the inhabitants of the coast bring something with them to the desert: their left worldview. So the Wild West is becoming more and more democratic.