Even if Ford, General Motors and Chrysler make it, they’ll never again be the mass employers they once were. The days of high wages for largely unskilled labor are gone.
We badly need new business and industry, and need someone to tell us how to grow new jobs or bring them here.
There is nothing secret about our problems. Our unemployment rate has usually been the nation’s worst for years, and while Nevada nosed us out last month, we’ve got nothing to brag about.
Not surprisingly, state government is also in financial trouble, as are the schools.
These problems would be bad in any event.
But they are being made worse by nasty and bitter partisan divisions in Lansing and the legislature.
There’s a widespread failure on the part of all our political leaders to cooperate for the greater good of our state. Now, any one of them will deny that they are part of the problem.
But you’ll also find that their definition of cooperation is for everyone else to see things their way. Now, none of this will come as news to anyone who has been living in Michigan for any length of time. There’s something else on which the majority of Michiganders also agree: We really need new leadership in this state.
And we’re about to get it.
Thanks to term limits, we’ll be electing a new governor this fall. We‘ll be replacing all the other top state officeholders too, and most of the legislature. But we mostly look to our governors to provide leadership. We’ve had a number of past governors who really made a difference: George Romney, architect of our current constitution. The iconic Soapy Williams, with his green bow ties. Bill Milliken, who fought to help our largest city and save our environment. And John Engler, who put his personal stamp on government as no one before.
We need bold creative leadership now, possibly more than ever. So, you might have expected a lot of excitement over this year’s governor’s race, with big personalities and bigger issues.
You might think that - but you’d be wrong. Six weeks before the primary, the race has generated amazingly little interest or enthusiasm, especially among Democrats.
Polls have shown that as many as seventy-six percent of Michigan Democrats don’t know whether they want Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero or Speaker of the House Andy Dillon.
Most would like some other choice. Republicans have a bigger field of five candidates, but the top four are closely bunched, and a huge number of GOP voters are also unenthusiastic and undecided.
Incidentally, none of the candidates is attracting big campaign donations. Possibly that’s because none has offered any exciting proposals to attract new jobs or fix our broken economy.
Possibly we’ve all become cynical about the ability of politicians to fix our problems. Well, you never know.
Whoever does get elected could surprise us. But our current lack of charismatic leadership might not be all bad if it forces us to remember, and act on, this: In the final analysis, reinventing and saving this state is really up to each and every one of us.
Comments