DETROIT — During Republican 

presidential 
nominee 
Donald 

Trump’s 
highly-anticipated 

economic 
policy speech 
on Monday, a 
lot was on the 
line. 
Pundits 

from across the political spectrum 
looked toward Detroit for what 
they were hoping would be Trump’s 
unveiling of his goals for the 
economy as president.

However, the reality of the speech 

was much different. In very Trump-
like fashion, the highly-anticipated 
policy speech was delivered to the 
whitest of white collar audiences 
and lacked a meaningful outcome or 
many new concrete policy proposals. 
Additionally, he directed a good 
portion of his speech to attacks on 
Hillary Clinton’s economic plan. 

For me, the most important part 

of the speech wasn’t the lofty talk 
about upstate New York or Trump’s 
claims that he turned around the city 
of New York with his development. 
As a lifelong Michigander, I care a 
lot about how the policies of the 45th 
president will affect the Great Lakes 
State. One of the most meaningful 
lines of the speech came toward the 
end, when Trump said “Detroit — 
the Motor City — will come roaring 
back. We will offer a new future, not 
the same old failed policies of the 
past.”

A promise like this is something 

we’ve all heard before. People who 
claim that they alone know “the 
fix” for Detroit are a dime a dozen, 
and Trump is just another one who 
doesn’t get it. Despite his claim 
about Detroit and many other claims 
about helping Michigan, none of the 
policies he unveiled would come to 
the aid of states like Michigan or 
cities like Detroit.

For example, his policy of making 

child care tax-free doesn’t sound 
like the typical Trump policies, 
sounding rather like the social 
policy of a Democrat. However, 
this policy won’t help Detroit. 
Because Trump’s proposed policy 
will come in the form of a year-end 
tax deduction, the benefits will 
only go to those who make enough 
money to qualify for one of his 
proposed tax brackets. While this 
will help many middle- to upper-
middle-class working families, the 
residents of Detroit, many of whom 
don’t have the money to afford 
quality child care in the first place, 
will not benefit. 

Even more flawed was his attack 

on the estate tax, something that he 
refers to as the “death tax.” Trump 
views the cutting of the estate tax as 
a measure that will help Americans 
out; however, he could not be more 
incorrect. According to the IRS, the 
estate tax only takes effect when 
the value of the transferred assets 
upon death is more than $5.45 
million dollars. The only people 
that this will benefit are white 
collar “old money” Americans, and 
not everyday Detroit residents. 
Just like the child care policy, the 
abolition of the estate tax will only 
benefit wealthy Americans.

Additionally, Trump spent a 

good deal of his speech railing 
what he calls excessive regulation 
by the federal government, which 
in his mind stifles business. He 
called for a halt on new regulations 
and a cutback in regulations by the 
federal government. In a perfect 
world, this new policy would work 
well, but in a world where there 
is no regulation, there is also a 
disproportionate punishment of 
those who are most vulnerable. 
One can argue that a large part 
of the Flint water crisis, a crisis 
that 
affected 
a 
predominantly 

Black 
and 
impoverished 
Flint 

community, happened because of 
a lack of government oversight and 
accountability. Problems like this 
would only become more prevalent 
under a Trump presidency.

Regardless of whether or not 

Trump’s 
proposed 
tax 
breaks 

for corporations or his promise 
to restore law and order to our 
country actually will benefit us, 
one very glaring fact is certain: 
Trump’s 
economic 
plan 
won’t 

benefit the city of Detroit. Sure, 
they may benefit the rich white 
suburban family that can afford to 
spend $10,000 a year on childcare, 
but not the everyday Detroiter.

This, to me, is the reason that 

Trump can’t win. His worldview 
is so skewed that he legitimately 
believes that a few simple tax 
breaks and a few simple tax write-
offs for wealthy families will cause 
Detroit “to come roaring back.” 
Perpetuating a false and dangerous 
narrative 
about 
Detroit 
while 

promising tax breaks for Economic 
Club elites will do more of the same 
for Detroit while benefiting just 
Trump and his white collar elites. 

—Kevin Sweitzer can be 

reached at ksweitz@umich.edu.

4

Thursday, August 11, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

LARA MOEHLMAN

EDITOR IN CHIEF

JEREMY KAPLAN

EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

BRADLEY WHIPPLE

MANAGING EDITOR

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at 

the University of Michigan since 1890.

M

ichigan 
primary 
and 

local 
elections 
were 

held on Tuesday, August 

2, 
and 
as 
I 

approached my 
polling 
place, 

I realized just 
how silent it 
was. A flurry of campaign signs 
dotted 
the 
grass 
outside 
the 

building, but indoors, I was the 
only voter. The man running my 
precinct laughed that I was the 
“after-work rush” they had been 
eagerly awaiting. How can a single 
person be a rush? Oh, that’s right — 
because there was nobody there for 
several hours prior to my arrival. In 
fact, the election officials informed 
me that I was the 11th voter that 
day. Eleventh.

I’m registered in an area that is 

primarily students and youth voters. 
Obviously, the fact that this election 
occurred at a time of year when many 
students are off-campus contributed 
to lower turnout at my polling place. 
Voter turnout at other stations or in 
other precincts was probably higher, 
just due to proportional populations. 
However, local and state elections 
are notorious for low turnouts. In 
this particular election, just a little 
more than 17 percent of registered 
voters 
in 
Washtenaw 
County 

turned out at the polls to exercise 
their right to representation.

Just 
17 
percent 
of 
people 

determined who would govern 
our city council. Just 17 percent 
of people dictated the fate of our 
state-level representation. Just 17 
percent of people decided the best 
candidates for county office.

All this, in an election year — 

perhaps the most volatile, visible, 
voracious 
election 
year 
we’ve 

ever experienced. A year where 
young voters have been engaged, 
when first-time voters have been 
introduced 
to 
politics, 
when 

encroachments 
upon 
universal 

enfranchisement have been struck 
down. But simply making people 

aware of the fact that politics exists 
is not enough. Simply sharing John 
Oliver clips referring to Donald 
Trump by an ancient family name 
will not amount to direct, sustained, 
focused action. It may inspire 
people to care about issues of 
immigration policy or xenophobia, 
which are undoubtedly important. 
But clicking share will not alone 
amount to meaningful progress. 
If voters, particularly students and 
youth voters, want to fulfill their 
newfound political engagement and 
reap the benefits of representative 
democracy, it is essential to first 
represent 
themselves. 
Until 
83 

percent of people are not regularly 
failing to participate in local and 
state politics, real representative 
democracy will not be in place.

I 
know 
that 
reading 
about 

candidates’ views is not as sexy 
as 
watching 
Weekend 
Update 

or Stephen Colbert or (the late, 
great show from) Jon Stewart. It’s 
objectively more entertaining to 
laugh about impressions or the 
absurdity of the state of things 
today than it is to do the local work 
of actually changing the state of 
things today. Personally, I would 
much rather eat popcorn and 
hang out with friends and follow 
a political comedian on Snapchat 
rather than waking up early to 
canvass or register voters. I think 
everyone would. And I get that it’s 
more dramatic to wax poetic in 
the “great-man” style of history, 
envisioning an America that is 
shaped primarily and solely by the 
man (or woman) in the Oval Office. 
But evidentiary, tangible progress 
— whether it’s fixing roads or 
building a library for a community 
in need or creating extracurricular 
programs 
to 
teach 
students 

valuable skills or implementing 
city-wide environmental safety 
measures to prevent massive public 
health crises — comes at the local 
and state levels. No matter how 
much you agree or disagree with 

a president, your representation 
in your immediate communities 
will ultimately influence your life, 
your health, your wallet and your 
happiness more.

If you are a Democrat wondering 

why 
Republicans 
control 
the 

majority of governorships and state 
houses, giving a leg up on agenda 
setting, local and state elections are 
the way forward toward change. If 
you are a Republican wondering 
how 
an 
unfit 
demagogue 
is 

dominating and drowning out the 
conservative ideals you believe 
in, local and state elections are 
your opportunity to find honest 
candidates driven by integrity to 
fight for your beliefs. If you are a 
third-party voter hungry for more 
representation of your Libertarian 
or 
environmentalist 
or 
other 

priorities, local and state elections 
matter. If you are undecided but 
fed up with the current state of 
polarization and impersonalization 
in politics, local and state elections 
are your opportunity to weigh the 
candidates on issues that matter to 
you and your community directly, 
intimately 
— 
local 
and 
state 

elections matter.

So, local and state elections are 

important. What do you do next? 
How do you be one of the people who 
helps boost that percentage from 17 
percent to perhaps something a bit 
more representative? Register to 
vote. Find out when elections are 
happening. Become informed on 
local, state and federal issues and 
candidates. Encourage friends and 
family to participate. Attend a city 
council or school board meeting 
and give your input, or check out 
a speech, rally, town hall or public 
event for a candidate you want to 
learn more about. And actually 
get out there — exercise the 
fundamental right of democracy 
and go to the polls. 

—Madeline Nowicki can be 

reached at nowickim@umich.edu.

Local elections matter

Trump missed the mark

KEVIN 
SWEITZER

MADELINE
NOWICKI