By Joel Thurtell
Gov. Snyder, consider yourself small game.
Matty Moroun thinks you’re a rabbit dumb enough to be lured into one of his kill zones.
Matty’s in for a surprise.
I think you’re a fox.
When I was a kid in the fifties, you couldn’t turn a TV set on without catching one or the other of the “western” soap operas.
There was this wonderful cowboy metaphor.
“Box canyon.”
Wikipedia says a “box canyon” is ” a small ravine or canyon with steep walls on three sides, allowing access and egress only through the mouth of the canyon. Box canyons were frequently used in the American West as convenient corrals, with their entrances fenced. They were also used as kill sites for wild game, which could be driven into the confined space and killed.”
A box canyon is the Michigan Legislature.
You can walk in through the open side.
But the other three sides are lined with elected representatives ignoring their constituencies so they can do the will of the man who showered them with money.
Matty Moroun.
The Michigan Legislature is a slaughterhouse for governors proposing any idea that runs counter to Matty’s will.
Gov. Snyder wants to build a new bridge between the United States and Canada.
Matty doesn’t want a new bridge — unless he controls it.
A new bridge under government control would ruin Matty’s little monopoly, the dilapidated Ambassador Bridge, right out of business.
So Matty bought himself a Legislature.
It is Matty’s version of the cowboy’s box canyon.
Only Matty has so much control over the Legislature that he doesn’t even need to bait the governor into his trap.
Last year, his hirelings — aka legislators — murdered the governor’s bridge proposal in committee.
The guv never even made it to the floor of the canyon.
Now, for some time, it’s been evident that the governor is looking for a way to avoid walking into Matty’s legislative box canyon.
Matty’s making ready a second cul de sac.
He wants to entice the guv into the trap of Michigan popular opinion.
Matty thinks public opinion is like the Legislature.
For sale.
According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, this year Matty has spent $1.6 million and last year $6 million on TV lies against the new bridge.
Money talks and liars win in the box canyon of public opinion.
All this posturing is meant to pave the way to a landslide win for Matty’s proposed referendum on the public bridge in November.
The referendum is another of Matty’s box canyons.
All the governor has to do is not set foot in Matty’s kill sites.
If Matty were truly interested in democratic legitimacy, he’d be pushing for votes across Canada and the United States, since all Canadians and Americans have an interest in this project.
But a win for Matty across two nations would be far more expensive and far less certain — definitely not a box canyon.
All these little box canyons of Matty’s add up to one huge strategic blunder.
Matty has turned Michigan into a box canyon, and he’s driving himself into his own trap.
In kowtowing to Matty, the Michigan Legislature has written itself out of the script.
Michigan Legislature.
November referendum.
Irrelevant.
Powerful interests in Michigan and Ontario are driving this. So are the the federal governments of the United States and Canada.
Two nations against one billionaire.
Watch your step, Matty — you’re stumbling into your own box.
