Give freely today for liberty tomorrow
Print Mail Comment Share Facebook Twitter More

Detroit Votes for Change

On Tuesday, voters in Virginia and New Jersey sent a message to Washington out of fear of what America might become. In Michigan's largest city, Detroiters elected a mayor to deliver them from what their city has become.

Detroit is a progressive's dream - a living monument to decades years of Big Government statism. The city sports a living wage, the region's highest taxes, a commuter tax, government-run public services, government-run parks, government-run schools and a crippling 85 percent illegitimacy rate. These Great Society-inspired policy "successes" have led to a 30 percent unemployment rate, a 50 percent adult illiteracy rate and a city budget on the verge of bankruptcy.

Voters are not impressed, and on Tuesday they elected as mayor one Dave Bing - a fiscally conservative, pro-business, self-made millionaire from the suburbs who is the antithesis of the entitlement mentality.

And the very city establishment that pushed all of the Big Government reforms that have brought this city to its knees . . . cheered. In Detroit this week, the "change you can believe in" is, ironically, the message that Big Government has utterly failed.

#####

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Mackinac Center policy staff.