Politics

Lessenberry: Most State Lawmakers 'Only Fixated on Pleasing the Super-rich'

March 25, 2015, 7:24 AM

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Jack Lessenberry

Jack Lessenberry doesn't have much regard for our state lawmakers, writing in Metro Times that "most lawmakers don't give a damn about what the voters need or want, and are only fixated on pleasing the super-rich in order that they can get jobs from them when their terms are up."

Lessenberry writes about the Reagan years and how wealth was transferred from the poor to the rich:

What's more, we seem intent on doing as much as we can to make it harder and harder for the disadvantaged to lift themselves out of poverty.

Lawmakers in Michigan seem even more enthusiastic about screwing over the people than most. This is largely due to two things: First, term limits, which since the 1990s have destroyed the legislature's institutional memory and power, giving far more clout to special interests and lobbyists.

Next, a terribly gerrymandered apportionment process. Thanks in part to bad luck, an increasingly right-wing Republican Party has been in charge of drawing congressional and legislative district lines after the last few censuses.

Rather than keeping communities with similar interests together, they have enthusiastically perverted the process, drawing the lines to elect large majorities of Republicans even when a majority of the voters choose Democrats.

These two factors have combined to ensure that most lawmakers don't give a damn about what the voters need or want, and are only fixated on pleasing the superrich in order that they can get jobs from them when their terms are up.


Read more:  Metro Times


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