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Originally published in
the Grand Rapids Business Journal, March 29, 2004.
Here's a snippet from a recent Associated Press
article I found titled, "Bush faces dreary jobs data in
Michigan":
"In Michigan, 6.6 percent of workers are unemployed,
with the strain sharpest in communities that have suffered
plant closings and manufacturing cutbacks as jobs moved overseas.
There is widespread anger, spreading into conservative areas,
that Bush is not doing enough to keep those jobs at home or
help the poor."
Now you can't blame President Bush for the current state of
Michigan's economy. Well... you *can* (and I suppose in a way
I did in this week's comic), but it wouldn't actually be accurate.
Much as we'd like to pin it on one person, the economy is just
too big and diverse for a single human to have a measurable,
short-term impact (Alan Greenspan, notwithstanding).
Not that being fair really has anything to do with anything.
Certainly, most of it is perception, but that's what gets people
elected (or not). In Michigan, conservative Republicans from
conservation towns like Greenville and Holland are seeing living-wage
jobs leaving in chunks of hundreds and thousands and aren't
getting much satisfaction from a president who seems mostly
busy with not talking about other issues (WMDs, 911s, etc.).
The state Republican Party has taken to counter-attacking by
blaming all on a Democratic governor who has been in office
just over a year, residing over a congress controlled by Republicans
for a decade. Riiiight...
It's all a bit topsy-turvy, isn't it? Third and fourth generation
Dutch-Reformed folks considering voting Democrat. After all,
they're the party of fiscal restraint these days. (He may his
chance to prove me wrong, but I don't bloody well see how Kerry
could possibly spend more money than the Bush administration
has these past three year.) Democrats are also now the ones
to talk of limited engagements in foreign lands. Wasn't that
traditionally a Republican position? And with Al Franken and
Howard Stern yappin' it up, you can't even turn on talk-radio
anymore with the assurance of the rude, loud-mouthed host
leaning hard to the right.
But maybe it's all for the best. Maybe this election season,
we'll have to take the trouble of double-checking who we're
actually voting for.
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