Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Let’s Say Nice Things About Detroit Again

Wonder why Trump won Michigan? Perhaps this latest Firewall from Bill Whittle provides some insight:

As I’ve told you many times, Detroit’s last Republican mayor left office at the beginning of 1962, yet you would think from the Democrats’ rhetoric that the mean, old, white, Republican crackers were solely responsible for the city’s demise.
Each decade Detroit’s imminent “resurgence” has been prematurely announced by politicians and propagated mostly by youngsters fresh from the suburbs who move in to work, create art or just hang out in the grittiness that is city life.  In the 70’s, when there was very little that could be said about Detroit that was nice, the city’s biggest booster was Emily Gail (sister of Max Gail, “Wojo” on Barney Miller) who launched the “Say Nice Things About Detroit” campaign.
 say-nice-things
She had a opened a shop in Detroit’s financial district that sold ice cream, trinkets and t-shirts:

emily gale say nice things about detroit

Her campaign didn’t save the city, butt prevailed into the equally dismal 80’s. By then Emily and her Canadian husband, who had been fighting immigration authorities for 10 years due to having written a bad check for $450 years earlier, hit rock bottom. They went bankrupt, lost their business, their house and their naiveté. Emily packed up and moved to Hawaii and never looked back.

Subsequent booster programs have been equally unsuccessful. The building of new sports arenas (Lions, Tigers and, coming soon, Red Wings) in a concentrated area of the city center (with generous “public-private” financing, i.e. tax dollars) has helped revive a small area of the city’s 140 square miles while the neighborhoods remain neglected.

Some of the 90,000 abandoned and derelict homes of Detroit

Still, the slogans kept coming: "Detroit, America's Greatest Comeback City,"  “Detroit: At Least We're Not Cleveland!,” “Detroit: Where The Weak Are Killed And Eaten,” “Detroit vs. Everybody,” and my favorite: “Detroit: We'll Have A 7-Eleven Soon!

I guess since Detroit now boasts three 7-Elevens and one Whole Foods (on the far northern border of the city, with armed security) we could declare victory and leave. Except there’s the matter of the area’s 10.4% unemployment rate, the highest property taxes in the nation, the utterly failed school system and the continuing demise of Michigan’s manufacturing base which has decimated the middle class.
The natives (micro-aggression alert) are finally figuring out who is to blame for this 50+ year debacle. Sadly, the committedly ignorant tried to fix it yesterday by voting for the socialist instead of the designated hitter, Hllary. Because you know, nothing fixes rot like equalizing incomes.

Butt it seems that once again the Blue Dog Democrats found their voice; they chose the Republican ballot in Tuesday’s open primary and voted for Trump.

blue-dogs-3That’s a lot of angry blue doggies

They just want to be able to say nice things about Detroit, sometime in their lifetime.
Detroit’s official motto: "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus" - "We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes."
We’ve got the ashes:

detroit end of the line

And hope does spring eternal.

detroit everything's gonna be alright

Remember when GM was part of the shining city on the hill? Let’s make America Great Again – by any means necessary.

GM Renaissance CenterGM World Headquarters, Detroit

Linked By: American Digest, and Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network