Auchtoon!

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
April 20, 2014

Last week on MLive there was a guest article, “Why this young, college educated couple is leaving Michigan after graduation,” which was trending big. The author, a young man who had moved to Michigan so his wife could attend grad school at MSU, ticks off a list of reasons why they did not stick around after she graduated, but generalized as “the state’s political system is out of control.” Go ahead and read the article yourself; he has some decent points. But for me, the guy comes off as presenting himself and his generation on some higher moral plane. I’ve certainly made fun of baby boomers enough for this, so I had no problem calling BS on millennials.

And the BS is this: yes, it would be nice to have a cleaner, more forward-thinking political culture. But 9 out of 10 young people are going to base their choice of where to live not on political culture but on a decent job and weather conditions. Which is why I drew Mr. High and Mighty selling out at his first opportunity to live in South Carolina. Why South Carolina? Well, I lived there once, so I felt I had the right. But also because it can be counted on for being politically stuck in the past. And then yesterday, as if on cue: “SC GOP Snubs Desegregation Judge.“