This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching. Here is last Saturday's edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents. |
At Eclectablog of Michigan, Chris Savage writes—UNDER NEW (EMERGENCY) MANAGEMENT: How Donald Trump helped end democracy in Atlantic City, New Jersey:
Back in January of last year, Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stripped Atlantic City residents of their democracy and took over control of the city with an Emergency Manager. The move came after the implosion of the casino industry plunged the city into insolvency.
The road to the loss of democracy in Atlantic City began, in part, when Donald Trump, exhibiting his most trumpish self, created what Steven P. Perskie, the former chairman of the Casino Control Commission and a former state Democratic legislator, called a “Potemkin village”, a huge boondoggle that sucked large numbers of individuals and businesses into the vortex behind its false façade and then, when it collapsed in narcissistic egotistical ruin, spit them out. [...]
When the Taj went down in flames, the ripple effect was devastating. It took down investors, suppliers, and anyone who had the misfortune to be touched by Trump’s anti-Midas Touch [...]
What was not known at the time was that the ultimate price to be paid by people who were not Donald Trump, most of whom were not even remotely connected with the P.T. Barnum of our time, would be the loss of democracy at the local level through the imposition of emergency management. Trump walked away rich while Atlantic City ended up losing four of its twelve casinos including the Taj Mahal.
If he could do that for a single city, just imagine what he could do for America. It makes it all the more apparent that when Trump talks about making America great again, he’s talking about the late 19th Century when “avaricious rascals” like Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, J.P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller cheated and robbed investors and consumers, corrupted government, fought ruthlessly among themselves, and in general carried on predatory activities comparable to those of the robber barons of medieval Europe.”
NOTE FROM MB: Apologies to readers and bloggers: Somewhere along the line, 11 of the 12 other excerpts and links to progressive state blogs were chopped from this feature today.