-Hannah Mead, MCPP Intern, 2008
I can’t even tell if this was a quick response to what hit the fan yesterday or if this was already in the chute, but Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, had a piece in The Detroit News today: “Reform state government to help voting, share pain.”
Share the pain? That’s all the “reformers” have to offer me? I hope for–heck, I demand– better. Michigan’s economic woes are not unavoidable. The pain will not be lessened by sharing it around. And passing a partisan power play masquerading as a “grass-roots” proposal will certainly not alleviate Michiganders’pain.
Sometimes, I really feel bad for politicians. They’re like Dobby the house elf in Harry Potter — we’d all be fine if they’d just stop trying to save us.
I think this passage is especially interesting:
This sounds like its setting up our elected officials as Christ-like figures who can take on our troubles and absolve us of our transgressions. I’m no theologian (not by a long shot), but this attitude seems awfully presumptuous at best.