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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

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Glenn's Show Prep

Ed Schultz tries to paint Detroit as a Republican failure

July 23, 2013
Wilson

Writer

Ed Schultz: Thanks to a lot of Republican policies, the city is now filing for bankruptcy. Now, it's the largest public sector bankruptcy in U.S. history, and the consequences could be devastating, if you care about people. The already small force of police, firefighters, and EMTs are in danger of future layoffs. That's only going to make it worse. Roughly 30,000 retired workers are concerned about their pensions, you know, things that they're counting on. Make no mistake: Detroit is going bankrupt is exactly what the Republicans want.

Let me give you the history of Detroit. As Pat said a minute ago, they haven't had a Republican since 1961, but it's really, it's really important to understand 1961. Let me ‑‑ let me start with the situation today and then we're going to go back to 1961. In 1960 Detroit had the highest per capita income in the United States. In 1960 they had the highest per capita income in the United States. Now, what happens when somebody is rich, when somebody is fat and sassy? We know it because we've seen it with our own society in the United States. As a whole, the United States, when it was sitting at the top, that's when we started saying, but you know what? We can screw with this a little bit. You know these principles; we still have some poor. And I hate to quote a crazy person like Jesus, but there will always be the poor among us, always. You are never going to get rid of all of the poor and lift every soul out of poverty. How do I know? Because I've been rich and I've been poor. I will probably be poor again someday in my life. But it doesn't matter, as long as I have the opportunity to try again. And there will always be those people that you can never help. There will always be those people ‑‑ I have friends in my life, and I know you do too. I have friends in my life that they ask for help, but they will never do the things that really will change their lives. You know what it is. And I speak as an alcoholic. I know. There were people, when I was drinking, that would say to me, "Glenn ‑‑" you know the truth, in fact, I'm sitting really close to a friend who said, "It's not that hard. It's not that hard. The truth is really simple. You just have to do a few things." Well, I didn't want that truth and so I wouldn't change my life and so I destroyed myself. But that's okay because that worked out in the end. We have a great opportunity... unless we don't learn from the past.

In 1960 Detroit had the highest per capita income in the United States. Today poorest large city in the United States. Once the fourth largest city in the nation, Detroit's population was shrunk from 1.5 million in 1970 to less than 700,000. Detroit's median household income today is $27,000 compared to the state median income of $48,000. Detroit's poverty level is 36.2%. The rest of the state, 15%. Detroit's unemployment rate is now over 18%. Only 53% of Detroit's residents can be part of the labor force. 45.7% have no job and are not even looking. 35% of Detroit's residents are now on food stamps. The out‑of‑wedlock birthrate in Detroit is more than 75%. 363,281 housing units are in Detroit. 99,000 of them are vacant. The Detroit murder rate is 11 times, 11 times higher than the murder rate in New York City. Detroit currently faces an estimated $14 billion in long‑term debt. Now how, how did a city that was the highest per capita income in the United States in 1960 get here? Well, as I said, Detroit hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1961 and has only had one Republican elected to the Detroit city council since 1970. So there's no way this is a GOP failure. But let's not make this about politics. What happened?

In 1960 they had a Republican mayor. They were riding high, but a new guy came to town. A new democratic mayor. 1961 was the year. He was white, but he understood civil rights, he said. He was a democratic mayor and his name was Jerome Cavanagh. He was elected by promising to give the black population the civil rights they lacked, which is great. We want to make sure everybody has the civil right to be who you are. You know, the reason why Detroit grew so fast is because Detroit didn't care for a long time, compared to the South, didn't care what your color was; could you do the job.

Once he was elected, he did everything in his power to bring the taxpayer‑funded government benefits to the black community. He was the only elected official in the U.S. to serve on President Johnson's Model Cities task force. Now, what was the Model Cities task force? What was that? What was he trying to do to Detroit? Well, he thought that there was a model out there that was great. He thought there was a model out there that could take the most prosperous city in the United States of America and make it even better because there was somebody else who had done this before. When they had revitalized Europe, but not Europe ‑‑ Eastern Europe ‑‑ to rebuild the urban areas in Eastern Europe, they looked to the model of the Soviet Union. At the time the socialists hailed the centralized approach to urban development. They said this is the Soviet innovation. This is it. That's why when you go and you look at New York City and you see things like Co‑op City, it looks like Poland. It looks like Russia. Because it was. They actually in the 1960s looked to the Soviet Union and said they have solved the problem. So he took the most prosperous city in America and said, we need to do the things that they are doing in the Soviet Union, a place that didn't have toilet paper for their citizens! And they implemented the model city system in a nine‑square‑mile section of Detroit.

To finance the project, he pushed a new income tax through and a new commuter tax. He promised the mostly poor and black residents of the model city area that the rich would pay for all of the benefits. He bought their votes with money he was taking from the rich residents. More than $400 million was spent on the model city program. The federal government democratic city mayors were soon telling people where to live, what to build, what businesses they could open, when their businesses had to close. In return the people received cash and they received training and education and healthcare.

This caused the greatest resentment among the population of Detroit that anybody has ever seen in America. It helped trigger the breakdown of civil order and the shrinking of the city's population. In 1967 after the police broke up a celebration at an after‑hours club, one of the neighborhoods began to riot. It ignited the worst race riot of the decade. Black‑owned businesses were looted and burned to the ground. 40 people were killed. 5,000 were left homeless. Democratic administrations after Jerome left engaged in massive giveaways in the form of high salaries, lucrative pensions, health benefit packages that you just couldn't get anywhere else. Public service was no longer service. This was the cream of the crop.

This caused the city's debt to grow quickly and dramatically. Public unions were also allowed to implement inefficient work rules and requirements that raised the cost of doing business in the city. Today more than 80% of the city's $14 billion in debt is due to the pensions and the benefit packages of those government workers. The same Democrat‑fostered union mentality took hold in the private sector as well, to the point where Detroit's auto industry which had formed the city's employment backbone began moving to right‑to‑work states in the South that were far less hostile. Much more affordable. They took a city where everybody ‑‑ I shouldn't say everybody. There will always be poor among us, but it was the most prosperous city in the nation. And they drove business out and they started just racking up the debt. And they made service inside the government much more appealing than actually getting a job someplace else. The private sector's demise reflected the fact that half of Detroit's top 10 employers, half of Detroit's top 10 employers are governmental entities. The city has 11,400 workers, followed by the Detroit public schools at 10,951. So the schoolchildren have less than 11,000 but the city government itself has 11,400. Two healthcare systems and the federal government round up the top five. The big government mentality of teachers unions harmed the Detroit public schools. In 2003 there was a Detroit businessman. He was a philanthropist. His name was Robert Thompson. He offered to give $200 million to a foundation to open 15 new charter high schools in Detroit because he knew things weren't working in 2003 and we had to do something. He withdrew his proposal, said "I can't do it anymore because the teachers unions." They argued that the charter schools would drain millions of dollars from the public schools. And then the excessive regulation in Detroit, multiple inspections and inspection fees, incomprehensible building requirements, expensive mandatory public hearings, arbitrary discretion of the officials, lengthy process delays the entrepreneurs from starting their own businesses. Nobody even wants to start a business venture or improve their existing one. According to one survey in Detroit, 56% of small business owners don't even know if they're operating in compliance with Detroit law. They have no idea. Detroit has the highest big city property taxes in the nation, the highest per capita tax burden in Michigan. Property assessments remain overly inflated, amounting to as much as ten times the market price on the property.

In 2011 Detroit ranked first among the 50 largest U.S. cities in taxes and last among property values. Detroit taxes on a $150,000 house were $4,885, twice the national average. And then you go into corruption. And that's a very long list. This is not, this is not a Republican or conservative failure. This isn't even a democratic failure or idea. This is a progressive/socialist/Communist utopia. And that always fails. Don't let them rewrite history.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.