Detroit needs their own Palin, to bust up the crooks and clean house. Not an excuse maker like Ms. Guinier.

nice post.

I definitely cosign.

Lani Guinier anyone?

There are trade offs in any political system. Americans benefit from a relatively transparent system. It’s not a pure representative democracy, and the choices are really proscribed. The stranglehold of the Democrats on Black folk is extremely problematic. Black folk, for the most part, don’t even benefit from a two-party system. In other place and time, we might be better served by having five or six parties with the ways and means to focus voters around issues rather than identity.

People like Kilpatrick can win posts by appearing to listen to disenfranchised voters - by appealing to identity and by appeasing white corporate interests. Coleman Young didn’t have to do that because his time and mandate were different. Dennis Archer did it - because of time and temperament. Kilpatrick tried to mix the old with the new - without a moral compass. Stealing from the city of Detroit in order to tap ass is criminal and jail is too good for him.

If you take the surrounding communities of suburban whites in Michigan out of the picture — and look (even for a minute) at Detroit as an isolated Black community, you have a grown man who decides to steal from seniors and children in order to carry on an affair and flaunt his nose at the very law he pledged to uphold. That’s the very definition of a criminal. It’s so easy to recognize in Clinton, Bush and Cheney. It should be just as easy here.

I certainly don’t believe the voters of Detroit are stupid. Many, many Black Detroiters have voted with their feet and left the city and/or state in order to escape what they rightly see as a deeply entrenched political plantation. There is a dearth of vital, critical young leadership in the city. Previous mayors have contributed to this due to their long-standing refusal to invest in the cultural capital of the city.

There are so many talented youth in Detroit. Many of the smartest folks I’ve ever met went to schools right in the heart of Detroit. Remaining in the city to accept depressed wages, and serious political risk (replete with death threats and gangsterism) requires resolve, commitment and a team. It’s not a task most of them were mentored for in their youth. Detroit won’t be healed until the children of that city coalesce around an ethical center that roots out a corrupt body of misguided elders.

It’s a beautiful place that needs a little love.

I point out blacks with regard to Kwame because I see a lot on message boards saying he doesn’t deserve what he is getting.

D@MN you are a dumb Bamma David.

As for Kwame, he didn’t do all bad while in office. He did increase police presence in bad areas and in turn crime went down. He also cleaned up downtown and oversaw new businesses and stadiums being brought into the city. But at the end of the day, he will be remembered for this scandal.

Hopefully for the people’s sake they will put a honorable and effective leader in his place, but I really doubt that.