Impotent Tuesday

<<--See Also: It’s better than underwear and ramen noodles, Mr. Moore.; A Blue State Going Red in the Face; MI Cuts in Line; and Did we miss the election lull?

Ready for some more politics talk? I thought that I’d move this post up ahead a few days due to Moncrief’s surprising, yet very much welcomed, visit.

Earlier this year, Michigan passed a law that moved up the state’s primary to January 15th. At the time of the bill’s passage, it would have made Michigan the first state in the nation to hold a primary. (As you probably have noticed, New Hampshire didn’t like that at all.) It was hoped that by moving the primary up, it would force the candidates to pay more attention to Michigan and to the concerns of her citizens. It backfired.

Keeping true to their threats both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee striped the state of her voting delegates to their respective conventions. These are the events where the DNC and RNC will vote on who will be their candidate for the “real” election in November. The DNC stripped Michigan of all her votes at their convention. The RNC cut them by half. Michigan’s voice has been silenced for the Democrats and softened for the Republicans.

All throughout this preliminary campaign cycle, there has been little attention paid to Michigan. In particular, the Democratic candidates have shunned the state, each vowing not to campaign there. Many of them have gone as far as to have their names taken off the ballots. Of the top three democratic contenders, only Hillary Clinton is on it. (The others being Dodd [who is no longer running], Gravel and Kucinich.) Perhaps they think they’ve got this blue state in the bag. But I can tell you things are reaching a boiling point in this state.

Michigan is the only state in the union to still be in recession. I’m going to pull some figures out of my ass but just go with me on this. It has lost tens of thousands of jobs mostly because of the ailing auto industry. Its unemployment rate stands twice that of the national. (And in my area, it’s twice that of the state average probably around 13-14%). One might think that this hard-hit state might get a little bit more attention.

There has been some news that the Republican candidates are stumping Michigan but it’s nowhere near the levels expected by those in our government when they passed that bill. I would go as far as to say that it’s actually been quite pitiful. Gov. Romney (who is connected to this state because he was born here and his dad was a former governor) has promised more attention if he is elected President. In one news report he criticized Sen. McCain for saying that the jobs that has left Michigan may never come back. Romney seems to be promising to put Michigan back as one of the leading economic states. It’s an attractive promise but I fear that it is more glittery talk rather than anything of substance.

I think that McCain is right on when he gives us a little reality check. Let’s face it, the auto industry is dying. First of all, it is loosing out to other states where companies can produce more cheaply. Second, it is loosing out to foreign companies such as Toyota who arguably make better cars with labor and production costs. After all, companies like Toyota don’t have to worry about the UAW and pesky things like pension plans. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are having a hard time competing. McCain’s promise is to build new industries that Michigan can take a lead which is something that I mentioned before. (Governor Granholm wants to foster a new biotech industry among other things.) And I think that has more promise in the long term rather than trying to plug the auto companies into a tax-funded life support system.

Things are not looking too good for this state and frankly, none of the candidates seem to care. So as far as I am concerned, they can all shove a shoe up their asses and take a walk. As I have said before, I do not participate in primaries. I will not declare party allegiance by picking a party ballot (and the fact that this is tax funded really boils my blood). But—if you are planning to vote on Tuesday, good for you, unless you are Democrat because…well, what’s the point? As for that fateful day in November, I probably will be sticking with my guns and using my protest vote in favor of the Libertarians.