It's a question I've heard before; would a change of political parties in our cities and states really make that big a difference? It's a fair question. As I've noted here on previous episodes, Democrats have had a lock on many local elections, and our big cities are in decline where that happens. But would it be any different with a Republican at the helm?

I'll talk about this, with a few examples, even one involving another game of Name That Quote!

Mentioned links:

The tweet used for Name That Quote

Five Years Later, Scott Walker's Reforms Have Saved Taxpayers Billions

New evidence suggests that Seattle’s ‘radical experiment’ might be a model for the rest of the nation not to follow

Seattle City Council [Wikipedia]

Homicides in Chicago this year double same period last year

Show transcript

We’ve got another entry for Name That Quote, the game show where I quote someone and you try to figure out who said it. The catch, of course, is that it’s definitely not something you’d expect to hear coming out of that person. It just goes to show you that sometimes, people can stumble across the truth.

For a bit of background, recall that Flint, Michigan has been in the news for the lead-contaminated water coming out of faucets all over the city. I noted a couple of episodes back that, while the Republican governor has been coming under pressure to resign over this, the Democratic city council, the temporarily assigned Emergency Manager, the mayor, and even the EPA of a Democratic president all were barely mentioned regarding accountability, if at all. I also noted that this string of Democrats running the city has been going on for quite a long time. Turns out, someone else noticed this, too. Here’s the quote:
Flint has voted for Dems for 84 straight yrs. What did it get us? For 18 months Dems remained silent &ignored pleas while Flint was poisoned
First, I’d like to note that I will never be quoting myself. I know that sounded like something I might have said, but it wasn’t. Clearly it was said by someone who lives in Flint; hence the question, “What did it get us?” I will give you a hint that this was said by someone born and raised in Flint, and as far as I can tell still lives there.

I’ll let you mull that one over, and reveal the speaker at the end of the show.

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I have often remarked on how bad government brings about bad results, and the Flint example is just one of many. But now I want to bring you some good news about how good government brings about good results.

Five years ago, protestors filled Wisconsin’s state capitol and Democratic state senators were hiding out across the border in Illinois to block a vote on Act 10, the entitlement reform package ultimately signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker in March of 2011. Unions and college students cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the capitol during their protests, while the governor was trying to save money for those taxpayers. Did it work?

Well, would you say that a savings of over $5 billion dollars, with savings reaching from the state to the small town level, worked? I know I would. And consider this; Walker came into office inheriting a $3 billion state budget deficit, and his policies erased that. Of course, Walker is a Republican, and he got conservative policies implemented in spite of massive resistance.

But apparently results are not what the protestors want. Union-backed organizations are threatening to spend millions of dollars this year to flip the Wisconsin senate back to Democrat control, because economic sanity is clearly a threat to unions and Democrats. Fighting against lower taxes and better government efficiency seem to be a Democratic Party core principle. That may sound harsh and silly, but just sit back and observe. What other conclusion can you come to?

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Let’s keep with the topic of city and state policies as we move on to Seattle,Washington, where,