Clint Eastwood Super Bowl ad
As we all know by now, one of the ads during Sunday’s Super Bowl featured Clint Eastwood speaking on behalf of Chrysler. I usually wouldn’t give any of those stupid Super Bowl commercials a second of my attention, but Mr. Eastwood brings a certain gravitas to anything he touches, so I immediately looked up when I heard his famously gruff voice.
The commercial for Chrysler “halftime in America” was extremely well done with its Hollywood quality cinematography. Now just remove the references to Detroit from the piece and you have one hell of an inspirational rally call for America. Needless to say, the Eastwood commercial is now getting a lot attention, especially from the so-called conservative press. Although I hate to be a downer by throwing cold water on all the warm and mushy feelings generated by the ad… Splash!
This isn’t the first ad that Chrysler has run in which it attempts to depict the city of Detroit as a metaphor for some sort of a grand turnaround or comeback; a phoenix rising from the ashes.
This is where these commercials begin to lose me.
If anything, Detroit should be held up as a clear example of how not to run a city, or anything else for that matter. These ads that seem to portray Detroit as a city admirably attempting to get back on its feet are a bit convoluted. The city of Detroit is far from an innocent victim of circumstance. Instead, the blame for the state of Detroit squarely lies upon the majority of the citizens of Detroit. They are the ones who have continuously supported the slimy, dishonest, and corrupt Democrat machine that has been running the place for the past 40 years or so. And ultimately, the people of a free society usually get what they ask for.
Detroit has been figuratively, and in some cases literally, burned to the ground as a result of the left-wing socialist policies of its elected leaders and entrenched bureaucrats. Not to mention the tolerated “street thug mentality” that permeates throughout a large portion of its population which is largely to blame for turning the city into a cesspool of crime and apathy. What in fact makes a city, town, or even a business bad? Detroit is a bad place because of its people, not all of course, but the problem surely isn’t in the air or in the concrete and asphalt. I know this isn’t the diplomatic or politically correct way to say it, but it’s nonetheless true. In order for the city of Detroit to make a real comeback, its people need to change. They need to take some responsibility for the embarrassingly shameful shape of their city.
I don’t in any way mean to knock the beautiful state of Michigan that’s predominantly populated with good hardworking people. It’s unfortunate that one badly run major metropolis can often drag an entire state down into its muck.
It wasn’t too long ago that my home town of NYC was slowly turning into a Detroit. Crime was rampant and many of the neighborhoods were turning into warzones. By 1993 the good citizens of NYC had enough and decided that they would finally do something about it. They changed course by first electing Rudy Giuliani mayor, and by demanding that the streets be taken back from the thugs. Regardless of what people now say about Giuliani, he governed NYC with common sense conservative principles and deserves much of the credit for turning the city around. Most Democrats even voted for him because they chose real change and a future over political affiliation.
The political and sociological shift of the early nineties not only attracted new businesses and capital to NYC, but it also attracted tons of new young people from all over the country to come here to pursue their dreams. This in turn created a need for housing and a boom for developers of high-end full service condos and apartment buildings. Who is rushing to go live in Detroit? The answer is obviously no one! Decent people continue to leave the city in droves just as I would have surely left NYC if not for the dramatic turnaround.
The city of Detroit needs to stop portraying itself as an innocent victim of God knows what. After all, how can anyone expect different results while doing the same things over and over again?
Editor’s Note: I’m not by any means claiming that New York is a utopia. The city still has many problems and can be a very frustrating place. But all in all it’s a pretty good place to live, especially for a large city with over 8 million people. There’s no doubt that all of the changes that began in the early nineties can easily be undone, and are already being undone to a certain extent. It’s always up to the people, as it will be this coming November. We the people still have the power. The question is: are we so discouraged, apathetic, and beaten as to not really care anymore?
