MrRodgers
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Joined: 7/30/2005
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LOW lights from a conservative republican. Kinda long but worth it. Read the article too, there's a little more.
Matt Latimer: a speech writer for President George W. Bush, is a partner at Javelin, a communications firm and literary agency. HERE
EVER since I became a conservative as a teenager growing up in the city of Flint, Mich., I’ve heard again and again from Republican leaders about their commitment to minorities and the poor. If only Republicans would get a chance to prove it.
That chance has arrived in a big way. Unfortunately, my party is not taking it.
For those not following this news — that is, largely my fellow conservatives — my hometown has been poisoned
On Tuesday, (1/19) Rick Snyder, the state’s Republican governor, acknowledged that his government had “failed” the city’s nearly 100,000 residents. That is an understatement.
His appointed task force reported late last month that the state’s environmental agency had responded to those who tried to bring attention to this unfolding tragedy with a “persistent tone of scorn and derision.”
No surprise there. Nobody has ever wanted to hear about what was happening in Flint. As Water Problems Grew, (officials Belittled Complaints From Flint JAN. 20, 2016)
This is not just any town but one of Michigan’s largest. The location of one of the first sit-down strikes in the United States. The once proud home of General Motors. And it was where I was born and went to school.
In the decades since, nothing has seemed to go right. Because nothing has gone right. General Motors, the city’s leading employer, left. Schools closed and crumbled. Most major grocery stores departed. Houses collapsed, as if the earth was slowly swallowing up the town.
We had the nation’s highest arson rate and could afford only one full-time arson inspector. The city has long been listed among the nation’s most violent. There were divisive recall elections and new mayors — almost all of them Democrats — were ushered in with new promises.
But the Republicans were never there, until 2011, that is, when the first of four state-appointed emergency managers was brought in by the Snyder administration to address the city’s financial woes. The water switch was intended to save $5 million over two years. But even after residents complained about the water, and even after the City Council voted to switch back to Detroit for its water, the Snyder-appointed manager said no.
Flint was not mentioned in the last Republican debate.
This is the Republicans’ chance to show their worth — the chance our leaders have said they always wanted. Why haven’t they been here over the decades, running serious candidates, supporting federal aid for the city, championing pilot projects that might show what a conservative approach to urban areas might do? Why aren't they in Flint today, shipping in water bottles and holding fund-raisers for kids now condemned to lowered expectations because their brains were poisoned by lead ?
It cannot be, as the left would tell us, because Flint has a large African-American population. Or that the city has always been a Democratic stronghold. That’s exactly a place Republicans should target.
I think it’s because they are used to staying away. The party is accustomed to talking about policies and ideas to help urban America and then implementing them in safe, Republican-friendly areas like Idaho or Arizona. It’s not easy to go to a place where nobody knows you or likes you. It’s not easy to make change.
HERE
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You can be a murderous tyrant and the world will remember you fondly but fuck one horse and you will be a horse fucker for all eternity. Catherine the Great
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.
J K Galbraith
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The truth comes out about Flint. - 
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