Strong, decisive action was needed many years ago to preserve this great state and it’s once proud state government. At one time, Michigan was the envy of every other state.

Are there any leaders, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who have the courage in this state to raising taxes on ALL persons and entities, installing a strong, graduated income tax (if only temporary to asuage the tax obsessed voter) redoing the “rainy day” fund from the measly one billion that it once was to 10-20 billion that it should be to meet times like these.

Sure, as an economist, I am quite well-read on the subject of having a strong, small business system. But tourism and agriculture do not a middle class make.

Is Michigan a state that the Republicans wish to see to become the next Mississippi. it surely seems they also would love and want to destroy the rich union legacy of this state. It was this legacy which created a true, egalitarian middle class after WWII. It also resulted in creating many of the health insurance benefits (both publicly and privately owned and/or funded)

However, this knowledge is something my normally very smart and astute 20 something son seems clueless about.
Smart boy that he is, he is a recent graduate of a a fairly prestigious engineering school and employed in the energy sector, making as much as his “old man” does now. He works for a large, large, utility corporation outside this state, and works in manner that is fairly easy, laid back yet dutiful and efficient.

However, he, despite the raised in an excellent Michigan public education system, has become a “Republican.”
I and my wife tried to instill in him a sense of duty to serve society and those who will live in this country and on this planet several generations from now, (core values of being a “retro Democrat” I say).

However, our “fearless” leaders of yore never, unlike say Texas, set up a culture or educational system that mandated that our children developed a strong and deep running knowledge of Michigan history (and I’m not talking about the “yada, yada” indoctrination our kids received by ignorant educators regarding the “logging era” (e.g. read typical 3rd world forest to agricultural land conversion process) that occurred in the 19th century.

I doubt few, if any, graduate from our public schools with a firm knowledge of the blood spilled by men of all colors to unionize the automobile industry and the use of thugs (normally employed by Detroit’s organized crime elements) by GM, Ford and others to intimidate, maim, assault and kill the true peaceful warriors of Michigan’s, and then the entire United States of America, massive, and incredibly fruitful unionizing movement.

And let’s not forget, does anyone remember that Detroit was once commonly referred to as the arsenal of DEMOCRACY.

While I digress, it was recently formed United Auto Workers union and the willing and incredibly rapid conversion of Michigan’s and Detroit’s automobile industry to making B-17 bombers, Sherman tanks, etc, to overcome the true “Axis of Evil,” is what made so many of these poor, poor Republicans, very, very well off.

Granholm and her advisors have done a poor job at doing what President Clinton did best (and who did stop the right wing from destroying the “working middle class” in his time). President Clinton adeptly made it clear to American voters that “shutting” down” government, as the Republican controlled Congress desired, would only destroy the economic and overall quality of life and well-being the made these United States of American the envy of all the world…then.

Ah, but our dear Governor failed to seize many political opportunities to put the “new” Republican party, in its proper light. She has failed, in her second and final term no less, to save Michigan from itself. She has failed, I am afraid, to show the majority of Michigan voters, that the Republican Party, not of Eisenhower, Nixon (yes, Virginia, Nixon, even being mentally ill, was by historical standards, not bad, Watergate aside) or Ford, but that of the most recent former President.

She has failed to show that the current leaders of the Michigan and National Republican party are obsessed with social engineering of their ownmaking. Obsessed with not raising taxes or government spending when this nation and this dear, beloved state of mine are falling apart, like a house that has fallen into the hands of a rental slumlord. She has failed to show that the Republican party are ersatz conservatives.

For all of her political training and pedigrees, she has shown herself to be a leader in the style of England’s former Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. She has seemed only too happy (or feeble) to watch Michigan and it’s once vibrant and unionized middle class be slowly devoured by the current “Axis of Evil” that lies not so much in one particular party, but, in the hearts and fears of Michigan voters.

This used to be one great state and a great state government. However, 12 years of “rule” by a very shrewd, politically and personally ruthless Gubenortorial despot set up this state for the massive failure it now has become in the eyes of the rest of these United States.

It is with the greatest sense of despair and woe in my heart that have watched our current Governor fail in almost every way to match wit for wit the man who preceded her.

On top of that, she may have single handedly set back the perceptions of women as strong, capable, shrewd yet immensely compassionate leaders by fifty years or more.

May God help this blessed state of mine. Darker times, I fear, lay ahead.

Finally, I’ll add this, does anyone remember the Jewish parable of a man named Joseph? A man who, as the story aptly highlights, directed the resources of one of the greatest ancient civilizations to conserve resources, build up a strong metaphorical financial resource base during the “seven years of good times.” Thus ensuring, the nation’s survival when the inevitable cyclical famine and economic downturn would come.

No, I guess not. We’re all too worried about our “taxes” being increased, even if it means many of Michigan’s lifelong residents find themselves subject to the modern day, state government run equivalent of the fabled “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” of New Testament Biblical lore.