Ron Weiser, the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former state chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, was caught on tape bashing Detroit.
Here's the video:
Here's a couple of quotes that Chris Savage of Electablog featured in this blog post about Weiser bashing Detroit:
Well, let’s look at Wayne County. Two big groups. The first one’s Detroit. Population’s now shrunk under 700,000. Last presidential election it was probably about 800-850 (thousand). Less voters.
Secondly, no Coleman Young machine. No Kwame Kilpatrick machine. There is no Dave Bing machine. There’s no machine to go to the pool halls and the barbershops and put those people on buses and then bus them from precinct to precinct where they vote multiple times. And there’s no machine to get ’em to stop playing pool and drinking beer in the pool hall. And it does make a difference.
Obama has hired a lot of people to go help him get that vote out. But if you’re not from Detroit, the places where those pool halls and barbershops are, you’re not going to be going at 6:30 in November. Not without a side arm.
Savage said this about Weiser and other Republicans bashing Detroit:
I’ve said all along that the state’s bedside manner when approaching our failing cities has been atrocious. If you truly want to help our crumbling urban areas, the approach the Snyder administration has taken is just about 180º from what they should be using. In light of this video, it’s much clearer why they use the approach that they do: they despise Detroit and its citizens. They don’t treat them with respect because, simply put, they do not respect them. It’s never been clearer.
This isn't the first time that Republicans have bashed Detroit in the past by any means. Republican Michigan State Senator Rick Jones
went as far as to suggest dissolving Detroit's city government altogether a couple of weeks ago.
Chris Savage is right...Michigan has neglected its cities, and Michigan Republicans, instead of wanting to do anything to make Detroit a better place to live, prefer to bash Detroit and the people who call it home.
Oh, and let's not forget that Michigan Republicans want to run Detroit by appointing an emergency fiscal manager.