One Saturday afternoon in June, a few thousand Donald Trump supporters wearing T-shirts with slogans such as “Italian Lives Matter” and “I’m the infidel Allah warned about” streamed into the Arizona State Fair Grounds in Phoenix, to hear the newly minted Republican nominee speak at a venue known locally as the “Mad House.”
Walking among the rallygoers, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was greeted by a succession of cheers from the crowd, a reception befitting a man whose immigration raids and birther task force had foreshadowed Trump’s rise.
On stage, former Gov. Jan Brewer, an immigration hardliner who clashed with … View original story: How the party of John McCain became the party of Donald Trump – Utne Altwire