From Newt Gingrich's Newsletter: Winning the Future
"The time has come for us to have a deep conversation about donkeys and elephants and the future of America. Maybe having that conversation from the warthog rooting gallery is a pretty good place to start.
The need for this tough-minded, honest conversation has been driven home to me over the last three days after watching the reactions to my comments about Detroit on Chris Wallace's "Fox News Sunday."
On that show, I had singled out the Detroit school system as a disaster that is crippling younger Americans. The Detroit school system graduated 22% of its entering freshman on time, according to a report funded by the Gates Foundation. In a more recent report, that number improved to about 25%. This means 75% of the entering freshman were being cheated.
This means that three out of every four young people in Detroit were being denied the opportunity by the Detroit public schools to participate in the information age and get world-class jobs.
The true human tragedy is that an African-American male who drops out of high school faces a 72% unemployment rate in his 20s and a 60% possibility of going to jail by his mid-30s.
The failure of large, expensive, unionized, bureaucratic systems is a threat to our young people, to our communities and to our country.
The crisis is not one of money.
The crisis is a failure of responsibility, accountability, honesty and determination to protect the children from the bureaucracies that are crippling their lives.
The crisis is a simple failure of citizenship.
The Detroit bureaucratic school system is expensive and large -- it is the largest single employer in the city of Detroit (the city government is the second-largest employer).
The policies of Detroit have driven it from 1,800,000 people in 1950 to decline to 950,000 people today.
Detroit was the highest median income in America in 1950 of major cities. Today it has declined to 61st in median income.
In both population and relative income, Detroit is a case study in policy failure.
Employment in Detroit, 1940-2000
Detroit: 1950 vs. Today
*Using 2000 U.S. Census figures
The iron grip of bad government continues to cripple the city. As one study points out: Of the city's 25 biggest employers, state, county and city governments provide 40% of jobs.
The city of Detroit has a ratio of residents per city employee of 50. Compare this to 68 for Chicago, 78 for Houston, 108 for Los Angeles and 223 for Indianapolis ["Privatization: The Motor City's Renaissance Engine," Michael LaFaive, Winter, 2001, Mackinac Center for Public Policy].
The tragedy of our elephant versus donkey model of politics and our red versus blue mentality of polarization is that no one can think and speak creatively about turning around Detroit and Michigan (the state hit hardest economically, except for Louisiana because of the Hurricane Katrina).
Democrats can't talk creatively about replacing government failure with models that work because their power base is largely the very unionized bureaucracies that need to change and their ideological base is the big-government, regulatory, high-tax model that is failing.
Republicans can't talk creatively about replacing government failure with a model that will work because they regard Detroit as a blue area and therefore not of concern to them. Furthermore, they have a political and governmental doctrine that blocks creative thought in favor of fundraisers, focus groups and high paid consultants who think only of technique and never of historic duty.
Both parties are failing America.
The Republicans are closer to reality in their core doctrines of lower taxes, more entrepreneurship, more private sector job creation and strength in national security.
However, the Republicans refuse to think deeply enough about the performance failures of six years of Republican attempts at governing. They also refuse to invest the energy necessary to understand the Detroits and the Michigans and to create a believable dialogue with people who have been badly served by Democrats but deeply distrust Republicans."
Causes of the Detroit Riot
The origins of urban unrest in Detroit were rooted in a multitude of political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, urban renewal projects, economic inequality, black militancy, and rapid demographic change.
http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm
And even earlier;
Even as World War II was transforming Detroit into the Arsenal of Democracy, cultural and social upheavals brought about by the need for workers to man the bustling factories threatened to turn the city into a domestic battleground.
Recruiters toured the South convincing whites and blacks to head north with promises of high wages in the new war factories. They arrived in such numbers that it was impossible to house them all.
Blacks who believed they were heading to a promised land found a northern bigotry every bit as pervasive and virulent as what they thought they had left behind in the deep south. And southern whites brought their own traditional prejudices with them as both races migrated northward.
The influx of newcomers strained not only housing, but transportation, education and recreational facilities as well. Wartime residents of Detroit endured long lines everywhere, at bus stops, grocery stores, and even at newsstands where they hoped for the chance to be first answering classified ads offering rooms for rent. Even though the city enjoyed full employment, it suffered the many discomforts of wartime rationing. Child-care programs were nonexistent, with grandma the only hope -- provided she wasn't already working at a defense plant.
http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=185&category=events
And Mr. Gingrich blames, "Democrats can't talk creatively about replacing government failure with models that work because their power base is largely the very unionized bureaucracies that need to change and their ideological base is the big-government, regulatory, high-tax model that is failing." and yet how many administrations from both parties have failed in Detroit.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
I think he said that both parties have failed Detroit?
This is relevant to Toledo because the economic make-up of both cities is similar. Plus, I don't have the exact numbers but, (if you do please post them) I would guess that government is either the first, second or third largest employer in Toledo. The public policies and political demographics in both cities isn't disimilar either.
Matt Holdridge
The Toledo Tattler
But Gingrich is a polarizing figure in politics.
And I commented that both parties have failed Detroit.
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
I was and am referring to the federal level efforts
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
I grew up outside Detroit. It's been led by Democrats since the 1970's with Coleman Young and City Council.
Watching Detroit destroy itself for the last 35 plus years made me a believer that Democrats and Union Labor are not effective for building a "sustainable" future.
I've been voting "Conservative" ever since!
The middle class doesn't need unions any more. I would love to see a demographic study of union towns vs. non-union towns when it comes to better lifestyles, lower crime, enjoyable future. I'm betting the union towns look more like Toledo vs. a thriving Greenville, South Carolina.
And with less taxes and smaller government all at the same time of an increased spending on defense, who do either party reconcile the need for many billions needed for repairs to the infrastructure of the country's system?
http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog
I don't buy that Republicans failed Detroit, they haven't ran the city for 40 plus years, same goes with Toledo.
You're insane. I don't think any degree of logic will help you with your hate problem.
People left Detroit for the same reason they're leaving Toledo. They're over taxed and under serviced. PERIOD!
Throw in time, value, money when it comes to providing security & opportunity for your family and your career, and both cities are driving their tax base out of their cities.
What's left is those that can't leave and who really need the services the city can no longer afford. More crime creates additional poverty, while less tax revenues bankrupt both cities. Poor performing schools run by out of control teacher unions lose more students and funding each year. School buildings and maintenance costs suffer with lost revenue, compounded by shady management. Everything that Detroit and Toledo used to be in their glory days are readily available out in the suburbs today.
The outcomes of decades of local liberal policies reinforces why businesses and citizens stay away from moving back to Detroit and Toledo.
There's only one party that I see that had decades of local control / inbreeding within both cities.
but I do know for a fact Lucas County has been under Dem control since before I was born (I'm 65), perhaps since its conception. I DO know that I never remember Detroit or the County it's in VOTING Republican, unless they voted for Reagan, so I would imagine it's the same there.
Since the 1980's,Most repubs that have been elected here have just been democrats with an "R" , other than Maggie and Donna Owens.
And thanks to that, Grinning Idiot Taft, and the Noes, the other party here is now totally non-existent.
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BRING THE TROOPS HOME-NOW!
_________________
"They keep talking about drafting a constitution for Iraq.Why don't we give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, and we're not using it any more".