There were about forty people in the room, and conversation was free-flowing back and forth between the tables. Suddenly, a word popped into my head that I haven’t much used in a long time.
Generation gap. Some of the legislators just couldn’t, or wouldn’t, hear what the successful young people were saying.
One especially eloquent young man from Ann Arbor asked if the lawmakers had any idea how much damage they were doing by zeroing out the tiny arts budget. An especially dense state senator in a bow tie didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about.
The senator responded by parroting a moss-covered GOP talking point about reducing spending, then, after a time, stuffed some papers in a briefcase and left.
Other lawmakers, to my dismay, also drifted off, for the sort of meetings with lobbyists and constituents that fill up their days and nights. These are frantic times, and even the new lawmakers were becoming delightfully cynical about the people they represent.
Right now they are scrambling to balance a budget that is over a billion dollars out of whack. All day, they’d been getting calls from interest groups demanding “Don’t cut me.” In many cases, these were the same folks who also demand “don’t vote to raise taxes.”
But while some rushed off to appease their masters, a number of the brighter young lawmakers stayed to the end, and, I think, learned something. The young entrepreneurs weren’t interested in the usual dreary Lansing debates. That’s not the world they live in. What they care about was this state, which they see as a wonderful place to live. They want to make it better, and make it a place where their children and grandchildren can afford to live someday.
They transcended politics - but haven‘t quite given up on it. Most of them don’t want to pay more taxes, but they also knew that civilization has a price. Virtually all of them thought the present political leadership of this state had essentially failed them.
They wanted, to my surprise, a strong governor capable of exercising leadership. They thought Jennifer Granholm had failed totally on that score. But they weren’t inspired by her opponents, or by any of the wannabee candidates for governor.
They thought our alleged leaders were all clinging too strongly to the remnants of the dying auto culture. They should instead, they believed, be trying to identify what was coming next.
But regardless, most of them seemed determined to hang in here and drag Michigan into the future. “Every year I think about leaving, and sometimes I do, but I always come back,“ one young woman said. “This is a tremendous place to live.”
That, more than anything any of the politicians had to say, gave me a strong glimmer of hope.
Blaming the governor is simply another way of passing the buck.
If these "young lawmakers" are already started down that path, won't be long until they, too, are sucked into the game of serving the lobbyists instead of their constituents. The built-in excuses of "term limits" and "governor's fault" are already there, and in their frustration, they will grab for them as quick as they can. Wait and see.
You did hit the main problem though, one that NOBODY will address: Everyone wants to live in a society that has excellent schools, smooth roads, affordable health care, a clean environment and responsive public safety, and NO ONE wants to pay for it. Solve that problem, and we will be just fine.
Until then, you are simply feeding the pipe dream that there is some savior who will fix all our problems. The person used to be Jennifer Granholm, remember? Now it's Barack Obama. You will turn on him too.
The answer lies in the mindset of the people. Until they understand that you can't continuously cut revenue and still maintain a decent quality of life, this will keep going on. A stake needs to be driven though the heart of Reaganism once and for all.
Posted by: kristin323 | May 08, 2009 at 09:22 AM