Last night's vigorous, substantive debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan stands in stark contrast to last week's disastrous, embarrassing Republican monkey house poo-fling.
But beyond the adult way in which the issues were discussed, there was strong symbolism of holding the Democratic debate in Flint, which has had its water poisoned by callous and irresponsible Republican ideologues running Michigan's government. Both Clinton and Sanders called for the resignation of Michigan's tea party-backed Rethug Gov. Rick Snyder, who screwed the low-income minority population of Flint out of clean water to save some money. We recall the column that Charles P. Pierce ran in January, where he had this to say about the origins of the poisoning of the Flint water supply:
The crisis has its roots in something fundamental to modern conservative government—the deregulated state. In 2011, under a controversial state law that he signed shortly after taking office, Governor Rick Snyder removed Walling, Benjamin's friend, and replaced him with an emergency manager. It was under this regime that the decision was made to change Flint's water supply from the Detroit water district to the Flint River, which required the water to go through the antiquated lead-lined pipes that have now poisoned a generation of the city's children. Everything else—including the alleged cover-up and the calls for Snyder's resignation that have come from everyone from Michael Moore to Bernie Sanders—has, well, flowed from that.
It is an actual issue affecting actual people, an issue that nonetheless has tributaries bleeding into all the vague conceptual issues that only get talked about. The crumbling infrastructure. The deplorable lack of a coherent national plan to revitalize our cities. The hundreds of environmental crises that sit like little Hiroshimas in the poor places all over the country. Deregulation in its many guises. Class. And, of course, race, even though this cannot be About Race because nothing in America ever is About Race. Issues like this bubble up from the bottom until, suddenly, they explode, and all the political pros scramble to catch up. (emphasis added)Repeated calls by the Republican candidates for spending cuts for public infrastructure and for cutting or eliminating safe air and water environmental regulations are clear signs that the Rethugs are fostering the conditions for more Flints. They have to be called out for the failure of their philosophy of government, and they have to be stopped.
