Dwight D. Eisenhower, a lifelong supporter of the Boy Scouts, doubtless knew the Scout motto “Be Prepared.” Historians credit Ike with a somewhat counterintuitive reflection on military strategy: “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
I thought of the general’s lesson recently when a film producer asked my estimable colleague Mike Reitz how to plan for the future.
Planning charts a course, but preparation positions us to seize a moment. While planning is part of preparation, it cannot account for every contingency. In battle — military or public policy — the plan positions us for offense while the whole of preparation positions us to change the offensive tactics or go on defense when necessary.
At the Mackinac Center, we prepare to advance sound policy when conditions allow, ready for action in an unpredictable world.
Every plan has its limits. Some of the best (worst) examples are found in government central planning, which consistently fails. From Soviet five-year flops to Michigan’s industrial policy schemes that waste billions, grand plans often backfire, hide ulterior motives, burden taxpayers with high costs, and emanate harmful unintended consequences. Shelves sag under the weight of government plans that are ignored outright. Remember when we got lockdowns, mandates, and suppression of civil liberties instead of the emergency plans that had been written before the pandemic?
The Mackinac Center didn’t have a plan for countering Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s illegal and unconstitutional emergency orders, but we were prepared with a robust legal strategy and our donors’ generosity. We ultimately prevailed at the Michigan Supreme Court.
Our 2025 Policy Recommendations report shows where we want our plan to take us this year. Public policy is unpredictable — our system’s checks and balances demand compromises that reshape even the best ideas. Planning lets us go on offense for reforms that fuel opportunity.
Yet preparation is often the key to defense. We wanted to defend against Whitmer’s top priority for the 2024 lame duck legislative session (while her party still controlled both houses), a huge expansion of corporate welfare. We prepared our defense with a perfectly timed study by my colleague James Hohman. He detailed twenty years of failed projects that produced only nine percent of the jobs promised. Lawmakers refused to go on record supporting more of the same, the industrial policy push fizzled, and almost the entire Democrat agenda ran aground before the session ended, stranding 400 bills we’re better off without. Now that the Democratic trifecta in Lansing has ended, we are better prepared to seize the opportunities divided government creates.
Your support strengthens our readiness. And we must remain ready because neither victories nor defeats are permanent. Your generosity and ideas prepare us to advance free markets and limited government, whether we’re crafting policy or defending principle. As battleground conditions shift, you can count on us to promote liberty and opportunity in Michigan and beyond.