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Republicans deserve plenty of blame for Michigan. Recently My district went from a long held republican seat to far left democrat because the idiots cut my conservative congressman off from party money. They called him a lost cause. He went on to lose by a whopping 2%.

Then there is the whole fantasy about union members some of you folks have adopted. Your devotion to the fantasy is no less convincing than that of the global warming worshippers. Reagan had the sense to know that you didn’t win hearts and minds with childish insults and the “union thugs” became the Reagan democrats.

Back when I was a union member I never voted democrat nor was I ever issued a baseball bat. I’m guessing that other FReepers who are or were union members didn’t either. The corporate leadership is just as much to blame for their problems as the unions. They BOTH sat at the table and signed the same contracts.

Keep ceding states to the democrats then whine because people vote for democrats. Pure genius.

I think you may have some valid points. But one thing you cannot deny is the compensation package the UAW has had for the longest time. The differential between what the UAW worker gets and the workers for the foreign manufacturers is too much to overcome. The foreign manufacturers can add more quality and use higher quality materials, parts, etc and then on top of that charge less. It's that simple.

Don't forget that when the foreign manufacturers initially came over, it was small fuel efficient and inexpensive cars that allowed then to get their foot in the door. Detroit gave up on the small car market because they couldn't turn a profit on a small car. This has to do with cost structure and the major component is Labor costs.

But that's not the major focus of my post. What really is killing Michigan is the intellectual environment of the state. My Michigan friends tell me that the current governor is really a joke and is emblematic of the problems with electing liberal politicians. Carl Levin?

The other problems we can't mention. Just think Detroit and the condition of the city. Who has been in charge of running Detroit for the past 40 years. Who was in charge of Detroit say 60 years ago? That's what we can't mention in so called polite company. Yes we can't mention this even on FR. But most of us know the problem.