Metro Times - You Don't Know Dick

[bfealk]

You don’t know Dick
The hard-right face DeVos isn’t showing voters
by Curt Guyette
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos has been focusing on the economy because that’s the No. 1 issue facing a state that’s in last place economically, and that’s what voters want to hear about, says campaign spokesman John Truscott. But there’s another side to Dick DeVos, the hard-right face of a social and economic conservative who, not all that long ago, would have been considered extreme even among Republicans. But his views have largely become part of the political mainstream, at least in part, because of the financial support provided by the DeVos family. This political shift is testament to the quiet efforts undertaken by the DeVoses and other extremely wealthy right-wingers for more than three decades. Using donations from private foundations they control, as well as personal contributions and money kicked in from their companies, these people have been funding conservative think tanks, activist groups and fundamentalist Christian organizations in an attempt to direct America’s political mainstream further and further to the right.
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=9712

[noonwitch]

1. I know Dick, I'm from GR

My dad knew Peter Sechia pretty well before dad retired and moved to Florida.

The DeVos' are hypocrits and are not the faithful christians they pretend to be.
1. They own a plant in China and make a profit off of a nation that persecutes christians, and anyone else who dissents against their regime.
2. They con people into buying distributorships of their products. The old recruiting method (as shown on 60 Minutes back in the early 80s) was telling people that "God wants you to be rich, God wants you to get rich selling AMWAY products". I guess the Van Andels and DeVoses got the camel through the eye of the needle.
3. When the company first bought and renovated the old Pantlind hotel in downtown GR (which I will admit that they did a good job restoring it to it's previous glory), Peter Sechia owned all the restaurants because DeVos's dad and Van Andel believed it was against their faith to own liquor licenses. The hotel now owns all the restaurants (I think Sechia sold them to the company about the time he became Daddy Bush's ambassador to Italy), so I don't know how they decided it was suddenly okay. Not that I have a problem with christians serving alcohol or anything, but it is an interesting switch of morals.

[MoeHayNow]

2. I don't personally know Dick

But part of my secret shame is that my mom and dad were (and maybe still are) Amway distributors. So, any mention of DeVos makes my skin crawl.
It's hard to believe that people will buy his line about creating jobs after he moved jobs to China. Maybe it's the God, guns and anti-abortion fundy talking points that will get people to vote for him.

Hypocrites? Oh yeah, in the strictest sense of the word.
It's all about getting money from people who can little afford it and stuff their own pockets with it.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. I picked up a bunch of these so I can leave them in spots all over

town that don't carry the Metro Times. :thumbsup:

[vanboggie]

4. Yes, they're a hypocritical bunch

After Betsy proclaimed that the Michigan economy was tanking because workers made too much money, Amway hourly employees had their wages frozen (so I hear anyway). Coming from wealth and marrying wealth, it is too bad she can't comprehend that many in the middle class have to live paycheck to paycheck. She and her Blackwater brother - they are both mercenaries, they just use different methods.

edited to tone down subject line :)