Mass abstention in Detroit mayoral election

Only one in seven eligible voters participated in a special mayoral election in Detroit, Michigan, Wednesday... David Bing, a former basketball star and a wealthy businessman, defeated Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., by a 52-48 percent margin. Less than 100,000 of the eligible 600,000 voters went to the ballot box.

Bing and Cockrel represent rival factions of the black business establishment... Both ran on the basis of providing ever more incentives to big business, more cuts in city services and law and order repression. Neither offered any answer to the staggering social problems confronting the working class in Detroit. At 22 percent, the city has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, along with one of the highest percentages of home foreclosures.

In recent weeks several more blows have been delivered to city residents: the Detroit Public Schools announced the closing of 50 schools over the next two years; Chrysler declared bankruptcy and the Obama administration threatened to deliver General Motors to the same fate; and auto supply giant American Axle announced the closing of its largest plant. Neither candidate had anything to say about these attacks, which will devastate the lives of thousands of city residents. Bing’s election platform—a “Vision for Detroit”—mentions the words “unemployment” and “foreclosure” exactly once, and “crime” 20 times.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/detr-m08.shtml

I often wonder if there is anything about this country that they like at all.

personally, i think 22% unemployment in what was once *the* manufacturing city of the world is worth discussing.