I don’t want to make it sound like the Grand Hotel on Mackinac is full of happy clowns, ferris wheels and cotton candy carts, but there is a discernible difference at this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber.
While it’s been a while since I’ve actually seen it, I believe it’s optimism.
Last year’s edition of this conference was like attending a wake. General Motors was declaring bankruptcy, and the heaviness of that development (“say it ain’t so!”) hung over the Grand Hotel like the rain that greeted those who mustered the enthusiasm to attend. There were bitter spats that even broke out in some of the sessions (I remember blogging about one such dust-up between First Gentleman Dan Mulhern and Nolan Finley of the Detroit News) and the whole place was as edgy as Christopher Walken.
Fast forward to 2010 and the vast blue sunny sky arrived as if to coincide with a new outlook. GM has bounced back far quicker than anyone predicted, and there are signs all over that something is shifting. A guy like Newt Gingrich delivering the keynote address could generally be counted on to create a polarized crowd of adorers and revilers. Instead, Gingrich ripped into the state for its past sins and prescribed a list of previously designated non-starters — and there was nary a peep of protest. City Council President Charles Pugh told me he agreed with about 90% of what Gingrich had to say. Keep in mind Gringrich urged, among other things, “Right to Work,” school vouchers, “work for welfare,” and forcing teachers to pay a portion of their own healthcare. Maybe you have to get to this point for revolution to sound preferable to evolution.
Now make no mistake; the knock on this conference has always been that for all of its hew and cry, it seldom leads to anything tangible. But as a journalist, I’ve always looked at this conference as a barometer. And the read right now (notable in an election year) is that real change seems far more palatable than it has in the past. In some ways, change is already coming — GalaxE Solutions is bringing 500 high tech jobs to downtown Detroit and the Chevy Volt will roll out this fall with breathtaking potential behind it. When the winds of change start to blow, rather than planting a windbreak, maybe we’ll finally be ready to hoist a sail and go along.
-Devin, Mackinac Island
