politcs

Can American politics learn something from religion?

Stateside Staff — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:56:11 +0000

One of the most frustrating aspects of living in American in 2013 is the way we seem to have lost a sense of being on the same team.

Instead of thinking of ourselves as Americans or Michiganders, it's all too often Democrats or Republicans, Christian, or Muslim.

This deep sense of division leads to gridlock in Congress and in Lansing.

Yeah, yeah... you don't trust politicians, but do they trust you?

Stateside Staff — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:58:05 +0000

It seems there’s a fair degree of attention paid to the question of trust, as in, “how much do citizens trust their elected officials?”

We’ve seen citizen trust in the federal government drop dramatically.

And surveys find that, while citizens tend to trust state government more than the federal government and their local government more than federal and state, those citizen to government trust levels tend to be low.

But has anyone ever asked how much do elected officials trust their citizens?

Trust is a two-way street. Yet, this question gets virtually no attention.

That’s why CLOSUP, the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, decided to put that question to local government leaders in its recent Michigan Public Policy Survey.

It’s an interesting “snapshot” of the state of trust between us and the people we’ve elected to lead us.

We sat down with Tom Ivacko from CLOSUP to tell us what exactly happened when politicians were asked if they trust the people that voted for them.

Listen to the full interview above.

How green is your governor?

Zoe Clark — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:03:02 +0000

Rick Snyder was the first Republican running for governor to be endorsed by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters (MLCV), a lobbying group that advocates for conservational and environmental laws and protection.

Playing politics with charter schools

Jack Lessenberry — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:10:16 +0000

It seems pretty clear that Republicans are intent on ramming through legislation that will result in a vast expansion of Michigan charter schools. Up to now, there has been a limit on how many could be authorized. Charter schools had to be sanctioned by universities, and no university could charter more than 150 of them.

Yesterday, the House Education Committee approved a bill removing that cap. New committee chair Tom McMillan pretty much gaveled down any attempt by minority Democrats to amend the bill, with one minor exception.