Monday, February 23, 2015

Michigan Austerity: Proposal 1 and Funding Our Crumbling Infrastructure VIA Regressive Tax Policy

The following is in partial response to Tony Trupiano here.

As I understand it, this is Tony's position: our choice here is between no state funded road repairs/transit or some repairs/transit funding. Vote "yes" for some funding.

Tony is a Democrat. I assume we can all agree that Democrats have basically no executive, legislative or judicial levers at their behest in Michigan. As a result, he is advocating for us to accept our lot and vote for the lesser of two evils.
Tony is a long time labor and Democratic party activist. His strategy for this issue: vote yes even though this is bad policy. Vote yes because we have no power to do otherwise.

This is an opportunity to organize and mobilize across political spectrum differences. 
Tony and his partner in Democratic Party PR, Chris Savage*, seem willing to throw in the towel and "wait until 2016."

And people scratch their heads as Michigan Democrats continue to lose election after election? "We knocked on all the doors, we targeted the right voters, we published sensationalistic and scathing blog articles about our opponents..."

Winning elections will take leadership and a willingness to take actions outside of the electoral process. I am not saying don't bother with the electoral process, instead, I think Democrats like these guys would be more effective and successful at winning elections if they organized and mobilized their supporters to take direct actions toward remedying the road/transit funding hole in our state budget.

Thanks for reading, GP


*Chris Savage is the current Chair of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party.


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