So here’s what I think about the situation in Flint. I don’t know whether the mayor should be recalled or not. I don’t live there, I don’t know enough about what’s happening, and I don’t know if removing him would be a better thing for the city and its struggling people.
Most of the time, I oppose recalls. We have an automatic recall mechanism for every elected job in this country.
It is called the next election. The voters of Flint had a chance to recall Don Williamson fifteen months ago, when he ran for re-election. A bare 51 percent of them voted to keep him.
Or rather, they said they’d rather have Williamson than the guy he defeated. Two years from now, Flint voters get an automatic new chance again. The fact is, in our system there really is only one issue in most elections: Which of the candidates is most acceptable, or in any event, less unacceptable than the others. Our system is not set up to ask you: Do you want to kick Smith out of office? The American way is to ask, Do you want Smith, or do you want Jones?
Polls in 2004 showed most people wanted somebody other than President Bush. But the choice was whether they wanted Bush or John Kerry, and a narrow majority preferred the incumbent.
In most cases recalls are not only not justified, they present a real threat to the democratic process. Our politicians already find it hard to make politically unpopular decisions.
If they think they are likely to be hauled up for a recall vote any time they displease a few thousand know-nothings, you can forget seeing any profiles in courage ever again.
Yet there are always exceptions to any rule, and Flint may be one of these. Here’s what bothers me most about the Don Williamson situation. During his last re-election campaign, he claimed the city had a $8.9 million dollar surplus.
That wasn’t true. There was actually a $4 million dollar deficit, and the city had to lay off sixty employees. There are also ethical questions raised by Williamson’s handing out of cash and campaign literature at his wife’s Buick dealership.
Whether he is recalled or not, however, here’s what bothers me. We have a national financial emergency on top of a long-standing, ever-worsening, Michigan economic crisis.
Add to that the fact that Flint and Detroit have been in the equivalent of a depression for years. Yet these cities keep falling prey to grasping, selfish leaders who have no sense of civic duty. Detroit has to do better than Kwame Kilpatrick.
And I have to believe that Flint can do better than Don Williamson. There is a long and noble tradition in this country in which some of our best people in the private sector make financial sacrifices to seek high office in times of crisis.
Detroit and Flint could use a couple of those, very soon
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