title:  Michigan’s Republican Governor Just Won A Major Leadership Award
text: Fortune released their  The World s 19 Most Disappointing Leaders  list on March 30. Coming in at number one on the list is Michigan s Republican governor Rick Snyder.Fortune gave Snyder the  Don t Blame Me, I m Just The Governor Award  for his failures over his handling of the Flint water crisis. Fortune writes:Snyder and his team sparked national outrage after an attempt at cost-savings left the impoverished city of Flint, Mich. with a lead-tainted water supply that is being blamed for illness and brain damage, especially among its youngest residents. Called to testify before Congress, Snyder, who touted his competence in his gubernatorial campaign, labeled the experience the  most humbling  of his life then attempted to shift blame. He described it as a  failure of government  and blasted the Environmental Protection Agency for its  dumb and dangerous  rules on allowable amounts of lead in water systems.Because you don t win an award like that and not offer a response, Ari Adler, a spokesman for Snyder, said that Snyder is concerned with  fixing problems, not internet polls.  The rank of each leader received was based on internet votes. Though, the 19 leaders in the poll were chosen by Fortune s editorial staff.Adler also said: The decision on whether to use corrosion control in the Flint water supply was not about saving money, but rather was a mistake made by bureaucrats who misinterpreted a flawed federal rule. Gov. Snyder is the only leader at all levels of government involved in the Flint water crisis who has been willing to stand up and apologize, take responsibility for what happened on his watch, and tackle the problems head on to fix what happened in Flint and fix the system that caused it to happen. It s responses like this that make one wonder how much money Snyder has wasted after he hired two PR firms while the nation raged against him. You can t say that you have accepted responsibility for a crisis right after you blame other people for that crisis.There is also the fact that the Flint water crisis did not happen in a bubble. It happened while the Snyder administration worked fervently to erode democracy in Michigan. It happened while Detroit s and other communities school systems and critical infrastructure were left to ruin.That s why Snyder s sorry-not-sorry is even more disingenuous than it might seem at first glance. He has at no point even acknowledged that his administration s system-wide dismantlement of local governments and austerity measurements that have proven to be fatal, have anything to do with the crisis. The only thing Snyder kind-of-but-not-really acknowledges is that his administration is in charge and, therefore, shares some of the responsibility for the Flint water crisis on the basis of Snyder being Michigan s figurehead.So here s to Snyder s latest achievement. Let it be the first of many.Featured Image:  (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) 