🎙️ KVOI's MAGA Morning: When Conservative Radio Becomes Military Cheerleading, SALC's Ted Maxwell Loves the Whiteman Involvement in Bombing Iran
Based on the Morning Voice and Winn Tucson for 6/24/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, on KVOI-AM. Analysis and opinions are my own.
"We don't have a water shortage. Do we have one here in Arizona? Yeah, we've got water issues. But it's all about water transportation." - Ted Maxwell, dismissing Arizona's water crisis
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
📻 Conservative radio hosts in Tucson spent a morning celebrating President Trump bombing Iran 🇮🇷💣 while complaining about school funding 📚💸 and attacking teachers 👩🏫🔍. They promoted a voucher program that takes money away from public schools 🏫➡️💼 and gives it to private schools, mostly helping rich families 💰🏠.
The hosts also spread fear 😱 about immigrants 🚶♂️🌎, transgender students 🏳️⚧️, and teachers 👩🏫, using the same tactics that have historically been used to harm Indigenous 🧑🌾 and Mexican-American communities 🇲🇽 in Arizona.
While they cheered for military violence overseas, they attacked the very schools 🏫 and social programs that help local families 👨👩👧👦, showing how conservative media creates division 🔺 to benefit wealthy interests 💼💵.
🗝️ Takeaways
🎯 Conservative hosts normalized military violence while attacking public education funding
💰 ESA voucher program expanded from 10,000 to 97,000 participants under Tom Horne's watch
🏫 "Parental rights" movement masks white supremacist control over diverse school communities
💧 Water policy discussions ignored Indigenous rights and traditional ecological knowledge
🎭 Fear-based messaging targets Iran, immigrants, teachers, and transgender youth
📊 Arizona budget dysfunction reflects conservative contradiction of wanting services without funding
🌎 Settler colonial logic underlies celebration of violence abroad and resource extraction at home
The MAGA Mouthpiece Machine: How KVOI's Conservative Propaganda Targets Our Communities
A deep dive into the dangerous rhetoric flowing through Tucson's airwaves and what it means for our future
On June 24, 2025, I tuned into KVOI-1030 AM's programming with the same enthusiasm one might reserve for a root canal. As an Indigenous Chicano journalist committed to documenting the resistance during this troubling Trump era, monitoring conservative media has become an unfortunate necessity.
What I heard across "The Morning Voice" and "Winn Tucson" was a masterclass in manufactured outrage, settler colonial apologetics, and the systematic weaponization of fear against our communities.
Because nothing says "land of the free" quite like bombing other countries while defunding our schools, right?
The Theater of War: When Militarism Meets Morning Radio
Host General Ted Maxwell kicked off the day by practically salivating over President Trump's bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities. With the casual tone of someone discussing weekend barbecue plans, Maxwell celebrated the "amazing weapon system" of B-2 bombers and their "incredible purpose to our country."
Ah yes, the "incredible purpose" of dropping bombs on other nations. How inspiring.
Maxwell's military background clearly shaped his worldview, but his framing reveals the dangerous normalization of American imperialism that pervades conservative media. He positioned Iran as an existential threat while conveniently ignoring decades of U.S. interference in the Middle East, including the CIA's role in overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953.
For Indigenous and Chicano communities, this rhetoric should sound painfully familiar. The same "preemptive strike" logic justified the genocide of our ancestors and the theft of our lands.
When the SALC President Maxwell cheerfully discussed "precision weapons" and "tactical deception," he was celebrating the same military-industrial complex that has displaced millions across the Americas.
The Human Cost of Conservative Cheerleading
While Maxwell and his guests treated military action like a video game, real families in Iran faced the terror of bombing raids. The host's excitement about "the amount of hours they can fly" and "the fact that they took off and landed at Whiteman" completely dehumanized the people on the receiving end of American firepower.
How perfectly fitting that these instruments of death launch from a place literally called "Whiteman"—because nothing says American empire quite like the geographical branding of white supremacist violence.
This dehumanization isn't accidental—it's essential to maintaining public support for endless war. When conservative media frames military violence as patriotic entertainment, it becomes easier to ignore the refugee crises, civilian casualties, and long-term destabilization that follow American interventions.
Congressman Ciscomani: The Loyal Foot Soldier
Arizona's 6th District Representative Juan Ciscomani called in to provide political cover for Trump's military adventurism. His defense of the bombing revealed the authoritarian drift within the Republican Party, as he argued that "conversations didn't lead anywhere" and justified bypassing Congressional approval for acts of war.
Because who needs that pesky Constitution when you've got "strength," am I right?
Ciscomani's talking points about Iran calling America the "big Satan" conveniently ignored the context of decades of American sanctions, assassinations, and military threats. For a representative of a district with significant Latino and Indigenous populations, his willingness to support military aggression abroad while these same communities face deportation threats at home reveals the hollow nature of his representation.
The congressman's celebration of "peace through strength" echoed the same rhetoric used to justify every American military intervention since World War II.
This phrase has become conservative code for "we'll bomb you into submission," a strategy that has failed spectacularly from Vietnam to Afghanistan but continues to enrich defense contractors while draining resources from education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
State Budget Theater: Fiscal "Responsibility" for Thee, But Not for Me
State Senator Vince Leach's discussion of Arizona's budget crisis perfectly captured conservative hypocrisy in action. He opposed a 7.9% budget increase while simultaneously complaining about understaffed corrections facilities and underpaid law enforcement officers.
It's almost like you can't have fully funded services without, you know, actually funding them. Revolutionary concept, I know.
Leach's excitement about potential federal cuts to SNAP benefits and Medicaid expansion revealed the cruelty underlying Republican fiscal policy. He framed these cuts as "shifts, where they've shifted the cost to the states," using bureaucratic language to obscure their real impact: families going hungry and sick people losing healthcare.
The Water Wars: Settler Colonial Resource Extraction
Maxwell's excitement about Ted Cooke's appointment to lead the Bureau of Reclamation revealed another layer of conservative environmental policy—the treatment of natural resources as commodities to be exploited rather than sacred elements requiring protection.
The host's discussion of Colorado River management completely ignored Indigenous water rights and traditional ecological knowledge. For Tohono O'odham, Pascua Yaqui, and other tribal nations whose territories have been carved up by artificial borders, water isn't just a "negotiation" issue—it's a matter of cultural and physical survival.
The Voucher Grift: Tom Horne's Educational Shell Game
Arizona Superintendent of Public Schools Tom Horne's appearance on "Winn Tucson" provided a textbook example of how conservatives dismantle public institutions while claiming to improve them. His defense of the ESA (voucher) program revealed the classic strategy: create a crisis, then profit from the "solution."
Horne boasted about expanding the program from "10,000 to 97,000" participants while using the same staffing levels—a recipe for dysfunction that conveniently justifies further privatization. His anecdotes about rejecting requests for "$5,000 for a Rolex watch" and "$24,000 for a golf simulator" were carefully crafted strawman arguments designed to distract from the program's real purpose: subsidizing private school tuition for wealthy families.
Because nothing says "school choice" like using taxpayer money to help rich kids avoid diverse classrooms.
The Real ESA Impact
While Horne spun tales of fiscal responsibility, the voucher program has systematically drained resources from public schools that serve predominantly Latino, Indigenous, and working-class communities. According to data from the Arizona Department of Education, districts with higher percentages of students of color have experienced the most significant funding cuts, as voucher enrollment has increased significantly.
The superintendent's admission that he's "fighting very hard in court to keep biological boys out of girls' sports" using education department funds revealed how these officials weaponize taxpayer resources to wage culture wars against transgender youth, some of society's most vulnerable young people.
The "Targeted Parents" Myth: Rewriting Recent History
Kelly Walker's segment about "targeted parents" represented perhaps the most insidious propaganda of the day. Her reframing of parents who disrupted school board meetings and threatened educators as victims deserving "restitution" inverted reality in classic MAGA fashion.
Ah yes, the real victims were the angry parents screaming at teachers, not the educators trying to protect their students during a pandemic. Makes perfect sense.
Walker's victimization narrative obscured the actual story of the "school board crisis"—predominantly white, privileged parents using intimidation tactics to silence educators and impose their ideological agenda on diverse school communities. These same parents fought against mask mandates that protected vulnerable community members and opposed inclusive curricula that acknowledged America's true history of racism and oppression.
The Weaponization of Parental Anxiety
The "parental rights" movement that Walker champions isn't really about protecting children—it's about maintaining white supremacist control over education. When she complained about schools having "gender conversations with her daughter without her knowledge," she was advocating for policies that would force LGBTQ+ students back into the closet and deny them support during vulnerable periods.
For Indigenous and Chicano families, this "parental rights" rhetoric has a particularly sinister history. It echoes the same arguments used to justify boarding schools that stripped our children of their languages, cultures, and connections to their communities. The demand for absolute parental control over education has always been a tool of cultural domination.
The Settler Colonial Subtext
Running through both shows was an unmistakable current of settler colonial logic—the worldview that justified the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the colonization of Mexican territory. This ideology manifests in several key ways:
Violence Abroad is Patriotic: Celebrating military strikes while demonizing refugees fleeing the resulting chaos
Resource Extraction is Natural: Treating water, land, and minerals as commodities rather than sacred elements
Cultural Dominance is Freedom: Framing white Christian control over education as "parental rights"
Historical Amnesia is Necessary: Ignoring the true costs of American empire while mythologizing its benefits
It's fascinating how the same people who claim to love America seem determined to repeat its worst mistakes.
The Fear Machine in Action
Both shows masterfully deployed fear as a political weapon, creating a constant drumbeat of manufactured crises:
Iran threatens our existence
Immigrants are invading our borders
Teachers are indoctrinating our children
Transgender youth are destroying women's sports
This fear-mongering serves multiple purposes: it justifies increasingly authoritarian responses, divides working people against each other, and distracts from the real sources of economic anxiety—corporate greed, climate change, and systemic inequality.
What This Means for Our Communities
For Indigenous, Chicano, and other marginalized communities in Arizona, the rhetoric flowing through KVOI isn't just offensive—it's dangerous. These narratives provide ideological cover for policies that directly harm our families:
Border Militarization: Destroys traditional migration patterns and separates families
School Privatization: Drains resources from schools serving our children
Environmental Destruction: Treats our sacred lands as sacrifice zones for profit
Cultural Suppression: Attempts to erase our histories and languages from education
The hosts' casual discussion of military violence abroad while attacking public education at home reveals the fundamental contradiction of conservative governance—they want all the benefits of empire without any responsibility for its human costs.
A Call to Resistance
Despite the toxicity flowing through conservative airwaves, there are reasons for hope. Across Arizona and the nation, people are organizing for justice, building beloved community, and refusing to let fear divide us. Young Indigenous activists are leading fights for water rights and climate action.
Chicano educators continue to teach the true history despite threats and intimidation. Immigrant families keep contributing to our communities despite demonization and deportation threats.
The voices on KVOI from Bustos Media represent a dying worldview—one built on domination, extraction, and exclusion. The future belongs to those committed to liberation, sustainability, and inclusion. Our job is to keep building that future, one community at a time.
Because when they go low, we go to the polls, to the protests, and to the communities that need us most.
How to Get Involved
Contact your representatives: Demand they oppose voucher expansion and support public education funding
Attend school board meetings: Counter the extremist voices with community support for educators
Support Indigenous water rights: Join tribal nations in protecting our most precious resource
Vote in local elections: School boards, city councils, and county supervisors shape daily life
Subscribe to Three Sonorans: Support independent journalism that centers our communities' voices and experiences
The resistance continues, and your voice matters. By staying informed, engaged, and connected to our communities, we can counter the propaganda machine and build the just, sustainable future our children deserve.
Support Three Sonorans Substack to keep this vital news and analysis coming. Our communities need independent voices now more than ever.
What Do You Think?
The conservative media machine works overtime to shape public opinion and policy. After reading this analysis, we want to hear from you:
How do conservative radio narratives about "parental rights" and "school choice" affect educational opportunities in your community?
What strategies have you seen work best for countering fear-based political messaging in local organizing efforts?
Share your thoughts, experiences, and insights in the comments below. Together, we can build the narrative that centers justice, truth, and the liberation of all our communities.
En la lucha, always.
Quotes
"Iran is a disruptor. They're one of the most known terrorist states." - Ted Maxwell, justifying military strikes
"We increased the number of participants from 10,000 to 97,000" - Tom Horne, boasting about ESA voucher expansion
"I'm fighting very hard in court to keep biological boys out of girls' sports" - Tom Horne, using education funds for culture war litigation
"The violence was that they weren't given a fair shake to begin with because they were characterized as so called domestic terrorists" - Kelly Walker, reframing disruptive parents as victims
"Every dollar that is donated to AHA Southern Arizona goes directly to Southern Arizona" - Pam Neal, discussing heart association fundraising
"We don't have a water shortage. Do we have one here in Arizona? Yeah, we've got water issues. But it's all about water transportation." - Ted Maxwell, dismissing Arizona's water crisis
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
I am amazed at how the microcosm (Arizona) reflects the macrocosm (USA). I am also profoundly saddened by the way the Right bought up so many radio stations that it can now bombard people with propaganda and outright lies.
This has happened in other states as well. I recently learned that a large number of the "country music" stations in West Virginia were purchased and converted to "talk radio" (i.e., Right-wing filth).
With that in mind, I believe the GOP's campaign to destroy (or certainly cripple) public education is part of a deliberate campaign. If people are kept ignorant and don't have the tools with which to think critically, they'll follow the party that makes the most noise. We already see SO many people voting against their class interests, and things will only get worse from here.