The Emergence of Emergency Managers

On Thursday, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed Washington, D.C. bankruptcy lawyer Kevyn “I guess it’s better than Kyevn” Orr as the emergency manager of Detroit.  Under Michigan law, the governor can appoint a quasi-dictatorial local government or school district “emergency manager” who has the power to cancel contracts, sell off public property, strip elected officials of pay or their position, and violate collective bargaining agreements.  Governor Snyder cited Detroit’s large fiscal deficit and long term debt load as triggers for the move, making Detroit Michigan’s eighth governing body to be usurped by the state.

Governor Snyder Goes Corleone

The takeover builds on a ballsy political strategy taken by Snyder, whose brazen power moves make Tony Montana look like a TIAA-CREF Roth IRA salesman plotting his COLA pitch.  Swept into power by the Republican wave of 2010, Snyder and Michigan’s Republicans have managed to vastly expand the state’s emergency manager law to include union-smashing capabilities, re-pass a slightly revised version of the same law a month after voters rejected it in a statewide referendum, gerrymander the shit out of Michigan’s congressional districts to give Republicans a 9-5 House advantage in a state that Obama won by 16 points, and pass union-defunding right to work for less money legislation in the birthplace of the UAW… in two years.  That would be like Democrats winning the state house in Alabama for one random congressional cycle and promptly collectivizing all farmland, establishing a 50% quota for female representatives and planting a giant rainbow flag on top of the statehouse.

Right Wing Governors Have Their Balls and Their Word

Snyder’s gangsteritis is shared by rust-belt contemporaries Scott Walker and Mitch Daniels.  The success of these governors in typically pro-labor, populist Midwest states demonstrates that voters in this time of crisis want decisiveness and a clear narrative from politicians.  Walker didn’t fret about pushing his agenda too hard and he didn’t worry about reflecting the stated views of his constituency.  He went rich-guy HAM, gutting worker rights for public employees and sticking to his guns.  Voters facing an anxiety-producing recession rewarded this decisiveness with a nearly 10 point reelection in 2012.  The right-wing narrative ascribing the region’s economic decline to overpaid government workers, job-killing regulations/unions and corrupt local officials may not reflect reality, but it’s repeated hundreds of times a day by hundreds of Republican officials who also conveniently provide policy solutions.

Detroit’s Real Problem is Running Rich People and Industrial Decline

In order to take back power in Detroit and the greater Midwest, the Left must accurately assess the problem and provide relevant answers.  Detroit is in trouble because of a combination of white/rich flight, de-industrialization and a huge drop in the tax base.  Although Detroit city’s population has plummeted by 61% since 1950, the greater Detroit region actually added hundreds of thousands of people over the same period.  In effect, most of the region’s poor people have been penned off in the city.  At the same time, the big three automakers and other regional manufacturers began their long decline, leading to a big drop in jobs.  No rich people + no jobs = no taxes, and thus was sired Sir Kevyn Orr, Czar of Motor City.

Source: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and Census Bureau

The Answer is Redistribution, Democracy and Industrial Growth

The answer to industrial decline and suburban population shift is a redefinition of polity boundaries, re-commitment to democracy and introduction of vigorous industrial policies.  Detroit is poor because most of the region’s poor people have been left in Detroit.  The state of Michigan and federal government should redistribute tax revenue from the burbs to the city to prevent the rich from carving local regions into an increasingly segregated system of economic bantustans.  In addition, Michigan should recommit to democracy.  Local corruption is not the main issue (It’s not like the mayor was banging his chief of staff, lying in court and running criminal enterprises out of his office or anything… oh wait) and elections are not responsible for Detroit’s problems.  Instead of the state government throwing in with the leader principle, why improve governance by putting state funds to use for civic education, voter registration, revitalization of civil society or support of watchdog media groups?  Democracy provides checks and balances, accountability and representation, and it’s rejection during a period of economic decline is extremely dangerous.  Finally, the rust-belt needs an effective national industrial policy to bounce back from the decline of manufacturing.  This entails government investment in new technologies, subsidies for cutting edge industries and massive vocational training, not tax giveaways to circling corporate vultures.

Kevyn Orr may prove Kevyn Oro or he may prove Kevyn Mierdapequena, but unless progressives galvanize behind a program of democracy and industrial expansion for the Midwest, the region is in for a lot less say at the ballot box, a lot less pay in the workplace and a continued decline into economic stagnation.