By Phil Power - September 28, 2007
Two anecdotes capture the astonishing combination of incompetence, isolation, irresponsibility and rank partisanship that have characterized our political system in Lansing over the past several weeks.
A conversation with a Republican State Representative as he emerged from a late night Sunday night session of the House went like this: What are you going to do about the budget crisis? Increase taxes? "Absolutely not!" Republican principals are totally against increasing taxes!" So can you get it done entirely with cuts? "No, God forbid. That would tear things to shreds." OK, so what do you propose to do? "I’m in the minority. It’s not my problem."
A Democratic State Senator, talking about the gridlock: "If most people in Michigan knew what's going on up here, there'd be hell to pay. Fortunately, they don't."
The editorial pages in Michigan’s newspapers are uniformly and savagely contemptuous of our political leaders. Talk with long-time Lansing hands and business leaders, and they say in living memory they’ve never seen things this bad. Poll results published in Bill Ballenger’s Inside Michigan Politics agree: Governor Granholm has a 54 percent negative job rating, while the legislature comes in at a rock bottom 16 percent positive.
But, oddly, at a time when the bedrock interests of 10 million Michigan citizens have been held hostage to the partisanship of both political parties and their respective office holders, there has been relatively little public citizen outcry. Sure, people are sore when they're talking about while having a beer in the bar or over the dinner table. But with the situation as serious as it has been and with people as cross as they seem to be, you’d expect daily marches on the Capitol. Little of it.
How come? I figure it’s because most folks think there's little they can do to improve the situation. That it’s all in the hands of the politicians and, hence, unreachable by ordinary people. That things are so bad there’s essentially nothing to be done.
So perhaps the worst aspect of all this mess is that the average citizen has lost the informed hope that something -- anything -- can be done and that his or her views simply don't count. And that in turn suggests there is something that has gone terribly wrong with the workings of our democracy.
That’s intolerable. And it’s time to do something about it.
Beginning next month, ordinary citizens in communities all over Michigan will sit down for an hour and half in small groups in community conversations. First questions: What's your vision for Michigan? What kind of Michigan would bring back your kids from Chicago or deter your grandchildren from moving to the West Coast? Second question, naturally enough: How best do we get to a more prosperous Michigan future?
Sponsored by the Michigan’s Defining Moment public engagement campaign, these community conversations offer a way for folks to get involved and make their voices heard in Lansing. Trained scribes will take notes at each of the 80 conversations; they'll be tallied together in a summary report that will be released publicly.
That, in turn, will be the basis for further discussion and refinement in a second set of community conversations next spring. The idea is to bring Michigan's citizens together to develop a representative vision of the kind of Michigan we all want and a tightly focused agenda for transforming our state to get through our current crisis and lay the foundation for future prosperity.
It's clear that Michigan’s political, budget and public policy systems are broken, held hostage to the partisan interests of both political parties. The only way to repair them is through the direct input of Michigan citizens. It’s too important a task to be left to the politicians who got us into this mess in the first place.
Readers of this column have two ways to get involved in this important process. You can go to www.thecenterformichigan.net to reserve a seat at the community conversation near you. Or you can go to the same web site, click on "community conversations" and add your voice to the conversation on line.
Either way, you’ll be able to spend a little time on the future of our state. And your state has never needed you more.
7 Comments
Michigan citizens must involve themselves in the political process in order to return to the good old days of Michigan. People used to be involved at every level of government and knew it was their duty to do so. The 21st century has dawned and it is very apparent that people our only involved in their own life and do not want to do any more than complain and comment on the situation. We need to roll up our sleeves and get back to being involved and not leaving it up to someone else to represent us in the debate.
Michigan does not have budget agreement and Monday is the dead line so Michigan must shutdown. Well guess what? The federal government does not have even one of the fifteen budget bills needed to run the U.S. agreed upon either! Lansing is a reflection of Washington D.C. Politics is broken! "We the people" need to do our duty and get involved. How many have signed up to meet and debate and take action? 1 in 100,000? That works out to around 1% or so. We get what we deserve if we do not take our duty to heart and be good citizens. David Crockett did not ignore his duty when called upon by his fellow citizens and a legend was born. Stand up be counted. Get involved!
Thank You!
How do we go about changing our Legislature to a halftime (with half the salaries) legislature like so many other states have? They aren't going to do it themselves! They vote themselves raises all the time! And want to solve the budget crisis in part on the backs of educators!
They never look to themselves as a way to save money so we have to do it for them! I know if the legislature was changed to a halftime one it probably would have to be voted on - how do we ordinary citizens get something like that on a ballot?!! I truly believe that the majority of the people in this state would vote in favor of it if it was put before them!
They waste more time "serving" us than getting anything productive done and then make a big show of how they worked through the weekend and all night to come to agreement and compromise! It is ridiculous! Make it into a part-time legislature and they will be forced to get something done knowing they have limited time - if other states do it, there is no reason we can't do it in Michigan! Thanks for any help you can give me in how to get this done!
I agree our government is broken and more people need to be become involved to fix it.Raising taxes is not good way to get companies and people to move to Michigan.I want to get involved to make Michigan a great state again.
Kakistocracy: According to the American Heritage dictionary it means "government by the least qualified;The most unprincipled"
It sounds like Michigan government to me.
Dear Mr. Power,
A couple weeks ago I read a column of yours, and you made some very practical points about Michigan's failed government and economy. Because of this I went to your web site and was truly disappointed to see not much more that the same hollow aspirations we routinely get from our politicians in Lansing. I was expecting a website overflowing with bold ideas for how to make Michigan stand up and shake off its dying image. Instead, there are vague pleas to support education and good government. Yawn! If you are going to energize the public you have to have more than tepid generalizations for people to read.
Your site should be launching more specific non-partisan ideas for change like you had in your column.
You are definitely on to something with the idea that a third force must arise and demand change. I, too have concluded that either party, Republican or Democrat, if given the opportunity, will destroy what's left of Michigan. With power split as it is now, we simply die a slower death.
With any luck, the auto industry will rebound to save us from ourselves, but that is far from assured. In the meantime, we have a Governor who is out of touch with most of the people she serves, and is incapable of convincing the business and investment community that she can even keep the state solvent. Raising taxes to reach solvency is a losing strategy, just as making cuts without real restructuring is also pointless.
On the other side, we have the Republicans who have done a miserable job of laying out any vision for what reforms should really look like. They simply appear to be miserly, anti-poor, and seem to offer nothing but demands for cuts. They define no new architecture for how our government should be constructed and operate; nothing for people to feel positive about.
We should be talking about truly radical changes that will put Michigan on the cutting edge. One example; Michigan should redefine public education as the government setting standards and goals and not operating schools. Schools at all levels should all be privately run and earn public funds only because they are producing graduates who are relevant to our economy. Parents should pick the schools they want for their children. YUP, vouchers for sure and end public schools as we know them, including our universities.
Do this and see how our economy transforms. The marketplace will cull out the irrelevant, ineffective and inefficient schools and colleges. Business will lavish support on schools that deliver quality, and business will have the resources to do it, because they won't be supporting vast networks of failing schools as they are now. The good schools that now exist will simply become private and thrive as they do now. Reasonable protections can be built into voucher payments to make sure no tax supported vouchers are used at schools that engage in racial discrimination or refuse to offer education to special needs children. Parents will no longer be able to be passive and negligent in the educational process, as they may be told to find another school for their delinquent children. Government should have ample resources to deal with the parents who don't get the message about their responsibilities. The so called "alternative" schools will also emerge in the process to help truly incorrigible kids. MEA would have to wake up and insist that their members see that the schools they were in were successful and cost effective, or they might see students going elsewhere, leaving them unemployed. A totally new paradigm for MEA, as newly forming schools might not vote to organize the work force at all. We need to let people get back in control of this process and re-involve the market place, but do it in a very big and revolutionary way.
In this example you can see that neither the governor nor the legislature is ever going to do anything this radical, but if the public gave that direction via the ballot box through referendum or constitutional action, it could get done.
I hope my comments were not too critical, and I certainly wish you well.
IS IT REALLY EDUCATION ?
Here's what we have: dead end jobs, no real career paths, lackluster support for alternatives and a system that only perpetuates itself. It feeds on its young. Pretty sickening.
What we need ! A system that is a real conduit between knowledge and a career.
Adjunct Professors need to be paid MORE than the tenured professors. We have the knowledge and a key difference, ambition.
As to funding of education, private or public, where are the funds for advanced degrees, legal, Phd or otherwise.
I have two Master's degrees, 25 years of experience, over 50, female and unemployed. Just where do I fit it this grand scheme of things. I attended all public schools and paid for my education myself, without grants or loans.
Mr. Power,
What the citizens need to do is to fire the governemt wholesale in this state. We do not need government to raise our children, or provide healthcare, or to attract jobs and business. In a couple of my earlier posts, it is the voting public and not the politicians that are ultimately to blame.
Every business that I've ever worked for tends to hire those that share their values. A few training and teambuilding sessions I've had the honor to be in prove this. The citizens of Michigan want it all without compromise. In a business situation where many stakeholders are involved, there must be give and take, unless this is a dictatorship.
Now it seems, we have elected many little dictators that have no concept of negotiation. This is a reflection of the voters and until we wake up collectively, we will get the incompetent government we deserve.
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