NRO on the Flint water crisis

The lead-in-the-drinking-water in Flint, Michigan is a travesty. But the editors of the National Review nails it today when they explain that this is not a Republican scandal.

From National Review Online:

So while those who fault Governor Snyder are not entirely wrong, what is deeply dishonest is the story put forward by such people as the filmmaker Michael Moore, who enjoys pretending to be from gritty, blue-collar Flint (he actually hails from an affluent suburb nearby), that this is, somehow, the result of the Republican approach to government or conservative governing ideas. That is absurd.

Flint is a mess made by Democrats, made worse by the Democrats in Detroit, and ignored by the Democrats in the White House. The worst that can be said of the Republican on the scene is that he failed to save the local Democrats from the worst effects of their own excesses. But that is the Democrats' approach to calculating the chain of responsibility: Go up the ladder or down, as needed, until a Republican is located, or a private firm, in which case capitalism can be blamed. The Democratic monopolies in Flint, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Newark? Somehow, somewhere, there's a Republican responsible for that, even if he has to be brought in on an overnight flight from Oklahoma.

Flint is nothing more than a miniature Detroit. And Detroit is what Democrats do.

One thing NRO did miss in its otherwise brilliant piece is that Democrats have been waiting for years to find an issue with which to attack Michigan's emergency manager law because it disempowers incompetent liberal bureaucrats. And they found one in that tainted water.

Related post:

Michael Moore says Flint water crisis is intentional