Dewey from Detriot has a great post up that draws our attention not just to the awful state of the formerly great city of Detroit, but also why the current condition of that city, and the lessons that it teaches, are ones that we need to keep closely in mind as our entire country lurches down the same path.

I see the same thing happening in, of all places, California, which like Detroit used to be considered a leader in business and dynamism.

The very same dynamic, however, is quickly eating away at the foundations of that success, thanks to the same toxic combination of union power coupled with Democratic dominance in the legislature.  Sounds pretty familiar to Detroiters, I'm sure.

Think it can't happen here?  So did the denizens of Detroit fifty years ago.

Michigan Central Station, Detroit, now.  An abandoned hulk.

But before, a shining example of Detroit's former success, built to be an example of all that is good in public governance.

The people of my own state of California vote over and over again for the same people and the same policies that led to this.  I don't have an answer for this seemingly purposeful decision to jump into destruction.  Perhaps the founders of our country were right that a democracy (or in our case, a republic) cannot last if the people aren't both moral and engaged in the business of government. 

Perhaps it really is the fate of democracies to shoot skyward, like a rocket, bright and beautiful for an instant, before exploding into smoke and ash, as the natural tendencies of human nature bring things to ruin.

The only thing I can think of that might cure this is a severe restriction in the right to vote, a solution that seems like anathema to most today, but which isn't really so far from the rule when our nation was first so successfully founded.  Allowing the franchise to extend broadly to the immature, the disengaged and to those who do not contribute anything significant to society brings us certainly onto the shoals of disaster.  Maybe after the collapse is over, and if a tyrant doesn't seize power first, we can recognize and make the needed changes, and return to the roots of our founding, which have given us so many years of success, both politically and economically.  Let's prepare and hope, because at this juncture, Detroit, in one form or another, will be the fate of us all.

More ruin porn here.

Update:  more evidence that California is on it's way to being a sunny, temperate Detroit.