Simple Simon Conservatives Trace All Detroit’s Problems To A Familiar Boogeyman: Liberalism

Frank Lucas: Simple Simon-ass motherfuckers!
From the 2007 film American Gangster

Simple-Simon conservatives take great pleasure in attacking cities like Detroit and Chicago (right-wing Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham did that again over the weekend in an effort to take a shot at President Obama). However, for the purposes of this blog, I am choosing to focus on one of the many shots being taken at Detroit. Full disclosure: Detroit is where I was born and raised. So, as a native Detroiter, we are accustomed to outside agitators gleefully taking cheap shots at the city of Detroit. Since the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, the city of Chicago has gotten a taste for how viciously some are willing to attack a city (as far as I am concerned, it was wrong when people attacked Texas to get at George W. Bush and it’s wrong when people attack Chicago to get at President Obama). Still, the business of attacking cities for political purposes continues and thrives in today’s United States of America.

The following is a brief blog (with a biased video) from Steven Crowder, writing for the far-right site Big Hollywood (a safe haven for some of the nuttiest commentaries and irrational theories you will find):

I know that some of you may think that the last thing Detroit needs is another hit piece. Granted, some could consider this video as THE hit piece. Detroit however, can serve as a valuable lesson to the rest of the country. It has been the perfect laboratory for leftist policies at work. The more you examine the policies of Detroit’s politicians, the more strikingly similar to this administration they become. The results… are shocking. Notice how I added the “…” for dramatic effect? I’m thoughtful like that.

Crowder is right on one thing: this is a hit piece with a dual purpose: smear Detroit and take a shot at the favorite boogeyman of the far-right freaks: liberalism.

The depth and breadth of the ignorance of this video is nothing short of staggering. It’s so one-dimensional and tired it makes the old Atari 2600 look modern.

This Simple-Simon conservative mostly ignores the biggest factors in Detroit’s decline (while taking great joy in bashing unions like the United Auto Workers … as conservatives love to do while favoring the rich corporate executives who run countries):

• Auto industry decline
• Auto industry mismanagement
• Economically depending too much on the auto industry
• White flight
• Racial tension (race rioting) … sparked partly by competition for jobs and housing
• Broken political promises (Crowder cites this, but only to attack liberals)
• Shrinking population
• Eroding tax base (a part of shrinking population and fleeing businesses)
• Outsourcing to foreign countries
• Relocation of major businesses to the suburbs
• The U.S. trade deficit

… on and on it goes. But, why focus on those factors when Earth-is-flat Republicans can simply focus on their favorite topic: liberalism.

He ends the video with a shot of President Obama painted on a wall to take another partisan cheap shot in this far-right video that is lower and more disgusting than some of the filth it filmed and focused on in Detroit.

That’s not to say Detroit has its problems because it sure as hell does. But this garbage video is nothing more than the exploitation of Detroit for political purposes.

NOTE: I am not posting the video, but you can visit the Big Hollywood site to look at it if you choose.

The Detroit Syndrome of Economic Failure:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/138341-the-detroit-syndrome-of-economic-failure

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit

Big Hollywood:
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/scrowder/2009/12/21/is-this-the-future-of-america-detroit/#more-283182

Fox News Commentator Shepard Smith’s Comments Insulting, Degrading And Dangerous

Detroit Public Schools justifiably have been taken to task for a poor record which, most recently, was displayed by record-low test scores that have been in the bright glare of the national media spotlight. As a city, Detroit has been an easy and frequent target of those who want to attack a variety of topics (including the quality of urban black leadership, so-called liberal ideology, the sting of decades of white flight, conflict at times between the city and the suburbs, problems associated with the troubled auto industry and more). Much of the criticism directed at Detroit mostly is justified (even as the city, in some ways, is showing signs of fighting back and perhaps rising up to a more respectable status).

But, even with Detroit’s problems, the comments by Fox News commentator Shepard Smith were irresponsible, ignorant, insulting and perhaps dangerous.

“If my kid were in Detroit, I’d try to burn the place down,” Smith said during a discussion on the city of Detroit’s recently acknowledged record-low test scores.

Obviously, Smith did not mean that comment to be taken literally (as if to say that parents or other citizens should run out into the streets and begin burning up everything in sight. In no way am I saying or insinuating that he had that reality in mind when he made his reckless comments. Two people who understand the discussion and the city of Detroit also believe that Smith went too far with his comments. The two people in question are school board member Tyrone Whinfrey and Detroit Parent Network Executive Director Sharlonda Buckman.

Here are their responses:

“We’re not going to burn down Detroit,” Whinfrey told local Fox affiliate WJBK after the interview. “We’re going to stand together in the city.”

Buckman, a fierce critic of the district herself, said Shepard’s comment was shameful. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

Well said by both Whinfrey and Buckman.

Fox News television commentators often are quick to ditch journalistic integrity, editorialize and take shots at people (almost always liberals or something they feel liberals represent or are responsible for on one level or another). Smith, who is not nearly as bad as most at Fox News, should have been more careful to understand the bitter history in the city of Detroit including fires related to deadly race riots and fires related to the infamous Devil’s Night. Smith’s comments are dangerous because plays to a theme of negative stereotypes of inner city black people rioting and burning stuff down.

It’s easy for people like Shepard Smith to pile on Detroit right now and make degrading comments.

Face it, that’s what a lot of opportunistic people do.

For far too many individuals, you can’t stand tall unless you’re standing on someone else’s back.

Come on Shep … you’re better than that comment.

MLive:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/fox_news_shepard_smith_if_my_k.html