The Republicans are awash in governors and former governors (and senators) eyeing the White House. One governor who seems to be bucking that trend is Michigan’s Rick Snyder. But he offers a perspective on what ails the national political culture that the others could benefit from hearing.
Snyder, a former business executive, has been described as an unorthodox politician who plays the game differently than many of his contemporaries. He governs conservatively but says he tries not to make ideology his principal calling card.
Dan Balz is Chief Correspondent at The Washington Post. He has served as the paper’s National Editor, Political Editor, White House correspondent and Southwest correspondent. View Archive
“I’m a proud Republican,” he said in an interview on a trip to Washington last week. “I’ve never hidden that fact. I tell, if people ask. But I’ve never gone out to tell anyone that I’m a Republican in my materials or anything else — or a conservative. You’re sort of creating a chasm with other people.”
His Twitter handle is “onetoughnerd,” taken from the ads he ran during his victorious 2010 primary campaign. He’s invariably cheerful — except about the state of national politics.
Like other citizens who live outside Washington, Snyder looks at the practice of politics in the nation’s capital with disdain and disappointment. He said the standards for acceptable behavior in politics are far lower than would be acceptable in other realms, from family relationships to the business world.
“We’re a great country, but can you maintain status as a great country if you spend the majority of your time fighting and blaming one another?” he said. “That’s not a sustainable long-term answer. So the real question is: What’s going to trigger a change enough so people say we need to bring that bar back up.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-gop-governor-not-running-for-president-has-ideas-for-those-who-are/2015/03/28/a443795c-d4c8-11e4-8fce-3941fc548f1c_story.html
