…still has a certain ring to it.
Detroit, near death after years of being crushed by the weight of its own industrial decline, political malfeasance and insurmountable debt, needs a savior. Michigan’s governor will soon appoint an emergency financial manager for the city, giving him or her 18 months to execute a plan to pull the Motor City out of its financial sinkhole.
And Mitt Romney has every reason to volunteer for that job.
Besides, what the hell CAN they do to Mitt Romney, past calling him a racist? Which, and I agree with Glenn on this, they will. But if Romney gets the kind of powers that I would realistically expect from the nickname “Warlord of Detroit” – and, thanks to Right-to-Work, I can see him getting them – and uses them to fix the horrific mess that the Democrats have created… well. That will resonate elsewhere than in Detroit.
And, who knows? Maybe some of the people in Detroit will figure out where their class interests actually lie.
Moe Lane
It would be amusing to watch the city be dragged into the 21st Century kicking and screaming.
I think, Moe, that “Warlord of Detroit” would look wonderful on a Romney resume’ or business card.
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I also think it’s the kind of .. call it “camp political theater” that the Right – especially the establishment-right – like to think they’re ‘above’.
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After all, Mitt wouldn’t go on SNL…
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Mew
I agree with Glenn. We should leave Detroit to its fate. After all they choose democrats to rule them. Let them live with their choice.
I have higher level concerns about this. I really don’t like the unelected minor dictatorial powers approach to disasters like Detroit.
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1. Say the manager gets the city’s finances and ordinances in order. The people of Detroit have zero investment in the manager and will most likely view them as, well, what they are: an unelected tyrant appointed by a political party they hate. Most of the really useful reforms put in place by the manager will get swept away whenever the manager’s term is up. (setting up a downright Turkey like cycle of democracy to dictatorship to democracy to dictatorship…)
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2. But say the manager is successful and the people of Detroit love it. Hooray, we’ve just proven that democracy doesn’t work and have set the stage for people to make the claim that “We need to give the President emergency powers to make and enforce law! Congress is broken! Look at Detroit!”
And here I was thinking of all the good-will and “get it done” cred Republicans could earn and you go and ruin it (correctly I might add) with 2nd and 3rd order moral-hazards.
Well, to your second point, the state of Detroit has already proven that democracy doesn’t work (at this local level). Democracy, for all it’s benifits, does sometimes encounter problems it can not solve.
And thus we get a Chancellor. To square things away until the Republic takes control again.
Worked out great last time.
Does this count as a Godwin fail?
It could work as a Roman or an SW: Old Republic reference.
You could also look at it as democracy in action, where we the people say its OK for a larger body (the state) to take over and run a smaller body (the city) when that smaller body totally faceplants (by repeatedly voting various Batman villans in as mayor, Mayor Bing excepted). There was even an issue on the last state ballot refining the rules for emergency managers (Warlords), so democracy is totally cool with this.
I’ll admit that I don’t know what to do to fix Detroit in the short term. The real solution in to persuade the populous that Socialism, racial identity politics and Democrat the machine are bad. Until then, the emergency manager law is just chipping away at what remains of the concept of self rule in Detroit. They need to believe that they themselves can fix their problems. White Knights and Benevolent Tyrants just mask the real issue and prevent it from being solved.
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As for the law being compatible with democracy just because the people voted for it, well, the history books are full of “We needed to destroy X to save X” moments and they don’t always work out so well.
Comparing crooked Detroit mayors to the Joker and the Penguin give the Batman villans a bad name. At least the Batman villans are competent psychopaths and it takes freaking Batman to catch them.
well, tnfriendofcoal, to clarify I was thinking about more original series Batman villans, more Cesar Romaro than Heath Ledger….
Aruges, just because it goes badly, doesn’t mean its not democratic. That was kind of my point (I think), that “putting it to a popular vote” isn’t always the best direction to go and there’s nothing wrong in admitting this.
Why is the promise of a future Republic needed?
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Hell, a good Warlord (because .. Detroit) would be very well advised to request the election of a Council of Advisors .. or just leave the existing elected City Council in place – but take away their *power*.
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The council wouldn’t *rule*, just debate and listen to complaints and otherwise present the illusion of “getting things done” … but realistically, that’s all Detroit (or any of the Dem-owned rotting urban cores) has had for decades now anyway.
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The Warlord’s job would be to be seen to listen to the council .. and then do whatever the hell he (or she) sees as needful.
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It’s no less democratic (and likely not even less Democrat) than how Detroit et al got here.
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Mew
Union bosses will be pressing White House to implement federal bailout that protects their union dues (kind of like the GM bailout). In fact, they’d probably press for Ratner for the job since he did a great job for them (union bosses) last time. Not even a little sarcastic here.
They really should just build the fence around it and use it as a prison. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Snake Plissken abides.
Moe, I have a call from someone interested in the job — calls himself “Humongous”.
His voice is a little gravelly, but his delivery is good.
Could we just start pretending they are part of Canada?
I agree with Aruges here, and more importantly I think Romney should away as far away from Detroit as possible especially after 2012. Whoever gets the job will spend more time in the courts then on the job and even if he succeeds the Dem’s will just rush back in and wreck it again. Sometimes saving someone from a fate they richly deserve isn’t worth doing. Let Detroit go bankrupt they’ve deserved it for years, they’ll never believe that, but after you get hit in the head enough times you start to notice it hurts and hopefully somewhere along the line you’ll realize doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results doesn’t really help.