Trump attacks the wrong bogeyman

Roger Rapoport lives in Muskegon. He is the author of “Citizen Moore: The Life and Times of an American Iconoclast” and the producer of the feature films “Waterwalk” and “Pilot Error”

“How could I forget that every truth meant at least two things, that slogans were empty suits draped on the corpse of an idea? The suits depended on how one wore them and this suit was now worn out.” - Viet Thanh Nguyen, “The Sympathizer”

On Labor Day 1960, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy was running late. Barnstorming across Michigan, JFK was greeted by huge audiences in this important swing state.

By the time his plane, The Caroline, a Convair 240, touched down in Muskegon, the crowd at Pere Marquette Park on the Lake Michigan shoreline had become one of the biggest political rallies in our factory town’s history. The sun was beginning to set as he spoke lovingly of the bright promise offered by the Democrats, the party that would enfranchise the disenfranchised as it focused on education, the arts, free enterprise and putting a red-blooded American on the moon.

More than five decades later, Michigan remains securely in the presidential campaign spotlight. Every Labor Day we emerge from our national media imposed cocoon ‒ broken for the occasional Final Four or Big Ten contender, bankruptcy in Detroit or water crisis in Flint ‒ to become breaking news for a couple of months. Celebrity journalists who normally fly over Pure Michigan rediscover our Coney Islands and Vernors Brown Cows while sampling the best of our burgeoning craft beer industry.

The kickoff is always the big Democratic Labor Day rally in Detroit. This year national headliners like Bill Clinton celebrated the state’s heritage as the birthplace of the United Auto Workers, the union that helped midwife the middle class and make our state an economic powerhouse in partnership with the auto companies. Given his narcissistic nose for national media coverage, it was no surprise that Republican nominee Donald Trump crashed Detroit's Democratic love-in weekend by visiting an African-American church for a cable interview.

“It’s time to hold Democratic politicians accountable for what they have done to these communities,” thundered the Republican suitor from Manhattan. “At what point do we say ‘enough’?”

There’s just one little problem with the Michigan iteration of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Last time I fact checked, about 10 seconds ago, our state was firmly in the grip of a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, House, Senate and Supreme Court.

Michigan, home of the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy, Flint water crisis, current school funding crisis, tax hikes for seniors and devastating cuts in revenue sharing for cities like mine, is run by Trump’s party, not Hillary Clinton’s. Even though Democrats consistently win statewide presidential and senatorial contests, Republicans have effectively gerrymandered the majority of congressional and state legislative elections.

Our GOP attorney general, Bill Schuette, who hopes to succeed Gov. Rick (“One Tough Nerd”) Snyder in 2018, is having another disappointing year in court. After losing his battle to block gay marriage, he is currently spending considerable taxpayer dollars fighting a federal court injunction that has halted Republican legislation to end straight-ticket voting in the state.

The courts also enjoined a Republican law passed in the final hours of the 2015 legislative session that would fine Michigan public officials providing nonpartisan factual information about ballot initiatives, such as local millages for mental health care, less than 60 days before an election.

I’m not sure at what point someone on Trump’s campaign team will break the news that it’s the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are firmly in control of Michigan, where businesses have realized more than $10 billion in tax cuts under the Snyder administration.

Nor does Trump appear to understand the anti-labor agenda of Gov. Snyder, who wasn’t interested in a proposed right-to-work bill until he changed his mind and signed it. He also might want to consider why Snyder, the state’s top Republican, has refused to endorse the GOP standard bearer or campaign with him. Even a quick spin down to Shipshewana to rally with Trump running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, is not going to happen.

Despite their differences ‒ Snyder has never followed Trump’s lead and given Howard Stern a series of disturbing interviews on his sex life ‒ Snyder is a good example of what can go wrong when a successful businessmen launches his political career in high office.

If the two men broke bread at the Detroit casino of Trump's choosing, they could share notes on the potential benefits of making controversial hires. Snyder's decision to hire a BP Oil lobbyist to take over the Department of Environmental Quality, in the midst of a battle over shutting down the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac, is the kind of gutsy move Trump would likely echo as commander in chief.

It mirrors Trump's recent hiring of Fox News chief Roger Ailes as a debate advisor, right after the midwife of Richard Nixon's vaunted "Southern Strategy" was fired in the middle of a sexual harassment suit. Should they one day seek a career change, both appear to have a promising future writing headlines for The Onion.

While Snyder and other Michigan Republican leaders sit this one out, Trump still has another opportunity on his next Michigan visit. Instead of wasting his time in Mexico, where there are no votes to be had for either candidate, Trump would be better off setting his sights on Dearborn, home of one of the nation’s largest Muslim communities. While he’s a little late for Ramadan, there is still plenty of time for the GOP candidate to cozy up to his base and pose for photo ops with some of the families he is thinking about deporting.