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Gaffer Variety:
DeVos 035:
By Willie Gaffer:
April 10, 2006:
This guy is a Republican. He may also be a Republicrumb, I don't know that yet. He is the son of a founder of AmWay. That's how he got wealthy. Some media reports have said he has about 2.5 billion, that's billion bucks. Others put it in the millions. It does not matter. Either way he is doing very well. I had thought he earned it, but that is unlikely. He is just the second generation of another nouveau riche family. His pop was a huckster, possible a dominant predator. I won't judge him by that alone. That's just one strike. I'll wait and see for the rest.
If you want to write to him, here is an address:
DeVos for Governor
P.O. Box 22216
Lansing, MI 48909
The reason I am looking into this guy is he running for governor of Michigan against Grranholm. Granholm is a person I definitely do not like. Here are just four of her games I do not like. I don't like her opposing the repeal of the Michigan Single Business Tax. I don't like her standing in line at the federal trough begging for handouts instead of acting creatively to regenerate Michigan. I don't like her sucking up to and rewarding big business instead of encouraging entrepreneurs. Then, there is the cool cities silliness where she gives grants to Michigan cities to do stupid things. One city built a fountain in the center of town. Somehow this is supposed to create jobs. Huh!
There are other things I don't like about her, like her staged town meetings where the questioners have to submit their questions in advance and are hand picked for the staged show. These are nothing more than advertising photo-ops for her. They have no relation to reality or to Michigan's problems. In addition, I do not like her penchant for photo-ops in general. Whenever someone in Michigan does something useful anywhere, you can count on her to be there for the photo-op. We are supposed to believe she somehow made it happen.
Okay, back to DeVos. I sent this guy a copy of my book, "Will-Yam
in the Land of Giants." That book has a couple of sections
about Michigan's lack of leadership. He could use the information
in his campaign if he is a bit smarter than most politicians.
Right now, I have no evidence that he is or is not smart. At any
rate, I don't expect him to get excited about my input and call
me. What if he did, what would I tell him?
I suppose I would tell him the same things I would have told Hillary
if she had asked me. She didn't so I wrote a bunch of essays about
it. They are called, "Notes For Hillary" and they are
in "The Gaffer's Variety" archives. Since then, I have
lost all confidence in her. She has already gone negative.
Enough of Hillary. What if DeVos asked me to join his campaign team? After all, I am more articulate, clever, and thoughtful than any politician I know about. If he was astute, he might ask me. What would I say? I would have to say, no thank you. I cannot join your campaign team. I must maintain my independence. If you start screwing up, I have to be ready and willing to bring that to the attention of my readers. These people who read what I write count on me to tell it the way I see it. If I had a vested interest in one candidate, my work would be suspect. I cannot allow that to happen.
Even so, I could give him some thoughts about how to campaign for governor. The first thing a politician must know about Michigan is it is not just one state, it is two. There are two distinct sets of voters with two different sets of interests. These two are, the big cities people and the out-state people. This is probably true of most Midwestern states. There are some things that are most important to city dwellers that are not especially relevant to anyone else in the state. Jobs and quality of life are the things these folks will cite, one way or another. For sure, there is a different set of things that are important to the out-state folks. They already have quality of life. The single biggest issue for them is to prevent government interference in their affairs.
Now there is a third set of people who are those folks who live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP). Sometimes they call themselves Yoopers or Da Yoopers. These people have a unique mindset. It is almost like they are from a different country. They think of themselves as independent and self sufficient. Sure, that's why so many of them are on the government dole. Even so, they do not pose a special problem for a republican. If they vote at all, they will probably vote republican. It's kind of a knee jerk thing. In the end there are not enough of them to change an election unless it is already too close to call.
About the city dwellers, the truth is they are almost all knee jerk democrats and likely to remain that way. These knee jerk democrats, so far as I can tell, constitute about 40 percent of the voters in Michigan. The best thing a republican in Michigan can hope for is bad weather on election day. A large number of these people will not vote at all if they have an excuse for not going out.
Most of the out-state people are just as dumb. The difference is, they are knee jerk republicans and they constitute about 30 percent of the voters. The rest of the voters, the reasonably thoughtful ones, are mostly suburbanites. Already, you can see the problem. If Granholm can get all of the city dwellers out to vote, she only needs a few of these suburbanites to win. DeVose, will need damn near all of the suburbanites and some luck to go with it.
So how do you campaign in a situation where most of the voters have already decided, decades before the election, how they will vote? You campaign, not by pandering to their idiocies, but by leading them to the important issues. You make them understand that jobs will grow out of a healthy economy, not out of government intervention and pandering to big business. You point out that the concessions made to big business will never be recovered and the voters will have to pay the difference. You tell them they need a tax situation that will encourage entrepreneurs to grow their business in Michigan. Then you explain the biggest single thing they can do to encourage business in Michigan is to create a good educational environment. The good creative people will come if they can ensure a good education for their kids.
In truth, the really important thing is something both groups do not realize is important. That is education. It is the candidate's job to make them understand that. America's future depends on the effective education of our kids. Without that, Michigan or any other state can have no future. If DeVos can make that clear to the voters, he will have a good change of being elected. Of course, he will also have to enhance his campaign strategy. Running the same ad over and over and over again will eventually bore even a knee jerk republican.
After I wrote this essay I did get a response from DeVos about my book. It was in the way of a thank you note and he promised he would read it paying particular attention to the parts I pointed out. His note seemed to be a rather personalized missive. I suspect it was written by someone other than DeVos, but it was not just a form letter. It was a reasonable response to the points I made. I'll wait to see what else happens if anything.
I will continue of keep track of this guy. If you want to do
likewise here is his website, http://www.devoseforgovernor.com/.
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