We shape our own future

I heard it in the last election from Holly Hughes that we needed to stop the flow of the best and the brightest from our state. We needed to cut business taxes to help create jobs, to get jobs to come into our state. Holly had like many other Republican candidates, business experience and the knowledge necessary to make the decisions necessary to start to turn the economy around. I heard her lament that she was running to help make the state economic environment a place that her children and grandchildren would want to live in, a place to stay in. Others said similar things.

Business people like DeVoss before her have been saying the same thing. Another proven businessperson and someone with turnaround savvy, Mitt Romney comes to mind. But for now the results have been the same. They’ve lost. They have lost to people with little or no business experience.

The other side promised great and free things funded on higher business taxes. Now the taxes on bad policy are coming due and everyone is paying.

There is a whole plethora of reasons why we have lost those elections, but the main reason is that the voters haven’t been ready to vote for a candidate that will demand that it is time for the people to get to work and do the hard things to help keep their jobs, their homes and their children. People have voted for those who said, don’t worry let us take care of things for you.

Well they have taken care of things. They have failed. As with the educational system the failure doesn’t lie with a lack of highly paid teachers and administration, or from lack of better schools, or from the lack of government involvement. Rather people are finally waking up to the idea that increased government involvement is the reason for the failures.

The climate is changing and it is one climate change I can understand and believe in. A larger percentage of voters are starting to feel the effects of the continual increase in government control over their lives. They are starting to understand the trade off wasn't worth it. In Michigan the educational and medical systems are so unconnected to the people they serve that the service they provide is losing focus on why they exist.

People have been living with that disconnect for a long time, we have seen it increasing but believed the reasons we were given for it. Efficiency was the byword. In some board room somewhere people are showing with charts and graphs how efficient phone menus are instead of real people answering the phones. But after a decade of experience trying to get thru to a real person to answer a question not on the menu, I realize the question should be, for whom is this so efficient? I know it isn’t for me. Forgive me this; but for whom does the phone toll?

Police for example seem to be there more to write OKs for insurance claims than to actually catch and punish the bad guys. Next time you’re robbed see if they take fingerprints for example.

The list is endless and that is the point. That general discontent led to those promising change without pain being put into office. They are not following thru with their promises, no change and ever increasing pain. In fact I heard recently that it’s all Bush’s fault. Now how that creates a solution is beyond me and that saying is wearing thin. The taxes are being raised and new ones invented. We’ve had 8 years of Democrats in Michigan and the Ron French and Mike Wilkinson article in The Detroit News linked below points to what extent the failure of the last 8 years has cost us.

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http://www.detnews.com/article/20090402/METRO/904020403/Leaving+Michigan+Behind++Eight-year+population+exodus+staggers+state
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Also a hat tip to Nick at RightMichigan for bringing it up. His analysis is linked below. The traffic sign on his sight says it all.

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http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2009/4/2/73853/63959
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As we continue to bleed our warmest blood of all, our children's and their’s; that discontent is becoming anger. All those little things like the phone menu thing, which used to be a funny story at the water cooler, when told at the unemployment line takes on a different meaning.

All those after the fact remembrances of chances gone by now take on a new meaning also; a meaning bread out of a fear of loss. The would of, could of and should ofs, are turning into a more active “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”; a call to action.

Granholm and Cherry have had their second chance.

This anger is manifesting itself in the “Tea Parties” springing up all over the state. Joe the Plumber is making it to the Lansing Tea Party April 15th for example. Some politicians are coming too. I know Jack Hoogendyk will be there and at the Kalamazoo party also.

Pete Hoekstra is running for Governor. Pete has the business credentials along with the political clout to change the course of Michigan. I heard him in Holland recently announce his candidacy. He talked of a grass roots campaign, of keeping the people at the top of the list on who he is working for. His motto for the campaign is “Michigan’s Future Begins With Us”. In his talk he reminded us how great a state this is, he talked about our Universities and our past greatness in industry. The more I think of that slogan, the better it sounds.

The “us” in that saying is a subtle reminder that for things to change the way we want them to we have to join, do some work, make an effort so we can become part of the “us”. If we are to expect the government to put the focus on us we have to stand up and work for it. We have to make the effort.

Pete is not a glory seeking pulpit pounding type of guy. He is a doer. This time around that may be in his favor. People want a solution focused person to guide Michigan; someone with a quiet sense of their own abilities and vision. Someone who will get down to the business of turning this state around.

Funny thing I heard on the way to research this article. After Pete’s announcement I saw that a Democrat called him a clone of Bush and DeVoss.

Enough said, time to get involved.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

PS. Just got a call from Steve Sachs about Mike Noffs Senate bid in the 19th and about the "Adopt a Precinct" program he said was Holly's "Adopt a Precinct Program" I will write an article at my Organize-Take Muskegon Back blog and link it to the side bar hear upper right corner under the 1st video, shortly.