Pitchforks and torches?

It's conventional wisdom that people don't show up for meetings unless they are mad. The Barry County Chamber of Commerce sponsors a monthly meeting between constituents and their state and national reps (or their low level staff flunkies, anyway). From all accounts the meetings tend to attract a small handful of people usually concerned with some particular problem they need somebody to listen to. That's why I found this little gem tucked at the end of the story on the city council meeting in the latest issue (March 16, 2006) issue of The Hastings Banner pretty interesting:

Heard a report from (Hastings Mayor Bob) May about the monthly Legislative Coffee program that took place that morning at the County Seat restaurant. “It was the largest turnout we’ve had in many months, and hopefully there will be a larger crowd next time when it is held at the MiddleVilla Inn,” said the mayor.

I take this as yet another sign that the natives are getting restless and are showing up to give their elected leaders an earful. With problems mounting everyday the state and national government still spends their time grandstanding on hot button issues and doing the bidding of special interests. The coming election is sure to spell doom for many incumbents who may be surprised to find themselves swamped by a tidal wave of voter disgust. While gerrymandering will surely dampen the number of seats that are ripe for a handover, there still exists a good chance that voters will make it known they want to "throw the bums out." Whether certain politicians are saavy enough to ride that wave or get buried by it remains to be seen.

The governor's race is a good example: Granholm could turn the tables on DeVos and make him look like the politicial players he's pretending he's not while she runs against a legislature that is beholden to the ideas of the Mackinac Center which benefits from the wealth of politically-involved billionaires like Dick Devos and their fat cat friends at the expense of the average taxpayer and working stiff who just might be waking up to the fact that over a decade of tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts have left us in a serious budget hole and with crumbling schools and roads while the rich laugh their way to the bank- or to their broker to invest in another company sending our jobs to India and China. On the other hand, Granholm will surely lose if she allows DeVos to pretend to be the outsider (contrary to reality- since his wife was state party chair for the GOP and Tricky Dick was one of the leading figures in the failed fight to get you to give your tax dollars to private Christian madrasas at the expense of public schools in order to provide more of that magical elixir of "competition" that will supposedly solve all of our woes) and if she lets Dick DeVos pin the pain and problems of average voters onto her while continuing to delude them into thinking that all our economic woes can be solved with more and more tax cuts. It will at least be an interesting chess match to watch unfold in the coming months... stay tuned!