If Nixon deserved points for going to China, Rand Paul deserves points for going to Detroit — and trying to convert the GOP from a pasty white guys' party to a multi-hued one where everyone, even people with "pony tails, tattoos and earrings," are welcome.
But his actual plan to try and save Detroit by creating Economic Freedom Zones, I note in the Washington Examiner this morning, is simply old garb with new accessories. It's basic premise that it is not government but entrepreneurs who can revive economic basket cases like Detroit is obvious to everyone (except liberals, communists and the Pope). But the problem is that the lovers of America's regulatory state will never unshackle entrepreneurs and let them work their magic as this plan would require. I note:
This approach worked well in England, turning London's depressed docklands into a super-dynamic hub for finance and other businesses in the 1980s. It also transformed India's Bangalore from a sleepy little town (that Winston Churchill once compared to a prison) into a global IT powerhouse in the 1990s. But it has been a disappointing failure in America. Why? Because neither Republicans nor Democrats have ever managed to create anything resembling a genuine enterprise zone.
Go here to read the whole thing.
Note: The headline was changed from the original
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