Thomas Franks, the Clintons and "phony" Democratic populists in the New Gilded Age

[amandabeech]

202. No, west central. North of Muskegon.

Muskegon is dead, and despite the happy talk, Grand Rapids is too.

The Muskegon Heights school district was farmed out to a charter operator. The charter operator was not prepared for the equivalent of an inner city school that had fallen apart. MH ninth graders read at the fifth or sixth grade level and the 9th grade materials they were to study from were far too difficult and basically had to be discarded. Now that charter operator is out and another one has come in. I can't imagine that it will be any different.

Muskegon Heights and Muskegon used to be filled with manufacturing plants of all kinds. There were huge plants that made large auto components, even engines for the tanks that we sent to Vietnam. There were also small specialty manufacturers that required skilled workers. A few of them are doing okay, but they don't produce enough decent jobs to keep things going. It's a minature Detroit. It's just all so sad, and when some poster comes in talking about how complicated trade negotiations are and how we have to compete against the rest of the world, well, it just irks me to no end. You, I think, understand.