EDITORIAL: Appointing emergency managers a step in the wrong direction
Gov. Rick Snyder’s appointment of Michael Brown as emergency manager of Flint Tuesday was another step in the wrong direction for democracy.
Brown, the fourth manager appointed under Snyder, has experience in both public and private spheres, and may well prove to be the strong leader a devastated city needs. But no matter what Brown can claim on his resume, he lacks the consent of the people.
Snyder seems to believe the residents of Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Pontiac and now Flint are unable to govern themselves. It’s not as if Brown was one of the candidates for mayor in Flint, so his appointment doesn’t indicate Snyder believes Flint has chosen incorrectly, but rather the mechanisms that provide leaders in our local governments no longer produce the leadership required.
There are times when extraordinary, emergency situations require the suspension of the mechanisms of modern life. Continued financial troubles in a time of local economic depression is not a catastrophic event, instead it is the continued symptom of a long decline with both local and regional causes.
This is not a period of financial unrest which can only be subdued by a declaration of economic martial law.
It is ironic that as the U.S. pushes for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan we are taking it away in our own backyard.
There are means to take power away from politicians that aren’t performing sufficiently and it isn’t having the executive branch take away all power.
Some of Flint’s leaders may or may not have mismanaged funds. But to pretend that the region’s financial predicament can be resolved simply by installing another bureaucrat with the unilateral power to do away with elected officials and their decisions is not only a huge oversimplification, it is a perversion of America’s founding ideals.
Local concerns can best be rectified on a local level, and depriving the citizens of Flint the right to choose those who will determine their future is a chilling step toward democratic irrelevance.
To repurpose President Bill Clinton’s address upon taking office in 1993, there is nothing wrong with Michigan that cannot be fixed with what is right with Michigan.
Overruling the authority of local governments is a paternalistic move against what should be one of our nation’s most sacred institutions.
Snyder should remember that his government is not only for the people, but by and of them as well.
