Category: Politics
Posted by John R. LaPlante on Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 11:35 AMReform Government Now ... for Partisan Purposes
The group Reform Michigan Government Now claims to be a bipartisan effort to "bring real change."
I have to say that I like a few of their talking points, including the idea to "End free lifetime health care for lawmakers and bring their retirement benefits in line with other state workers." And if it puts a crimp in gerrymandering of district lines, that's good, too.
Other ideas aren't so great.
Rolling back the salaries of elected officials is popular. So is lopping the number of politicians. But neither does much to get to the problems that Michigan faces.
Absentee voting for everyone, for any reason? That's an invitation for voter fraud. If you think that voting is important, the least you can do is show up, isn't it?
So what's behind the proposal?
Do you think that perhaps it's largely a ploy by union leaders to to grab control? The very first page of a slide presentation found on the UAW web site says
"Government Reform Proposal: Changing the rules of politics in Michigan to help Democrats." (That document was unearthed by my friends at the Mackinac Center, who have of course clashed with unions in the past. Then again, they're not the ones trying to redo the constitution.)
The Michigan president of the AFL-CIO says
special interest and lobbyists wield too much influence in Lansing."
I'd agree.
But get rid of lobbyists? They're inevitable. They will swarm whenever government has favors to dispense.
There's only way sure way to reduce influence-peddling and a political class that lords itself over the population: reduce the power of government itself.
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ugh
Such a shame that something this that, at the core sounds very beneficial to our state, has to be plagued with political biased. Frustrating to say the least. Sounds like some very likable qualities on the surface too - limiting government, cutbacks, ...Then you see that the cutbacks lead to judges going who just so happen to be conservative and redistricting to help the Dems. Lame. It's these kind of things that give politics a bad name. Both parties do these things, and it gives the public the reasons and basis for being so cynical about their own government who is supposed to be leading them. Whether the Dems did this or it was the union all by itself, it reminds me a bit of the Swift Boat action of 2004. "Well we didn't do it, but we are not gonna do anything to stop it either".
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