James Madison wrote in the federalist paper #51,

"It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part."

America won World War II not only because of the soldiers in Normandy, but because of the factories of Detroit.  It is at these same factories that the rights of the blue collared workers were seriously taken advantage of by fat cat, incompetent, corporate executives.  The people, by virtue of a democracy, rose up in rebellion and formed Unions, which to this day plays an integral part of Detroit and the Democratic party.  The party builds its platform around protecting the interests of the middle class against the aggrandizement of a few who enrich themselves off the masses.  Even the founding fathers realized the dangers of a dominating aristocracy. 

To compare Detroit to communism is incredibly foolish.  Last I checked, the city government of Detroit was freely elected by the people.  Last I checked, the newspapers aren’t censored by big brother.  Last I checked, you sir, can still live in Detroit as a registered Republican without being sent off to jail.

You of all people should know the difference between Democrats standing up for the rights of people and repressive communism.  I would almost dare you to paint a big sign that says “Free Tibet” in your apartment window! 

We will always have people who will live in poverty.  Nevertheless, it was after all a Democratic president that signed a welfare reform bill, severely limiting the welfare checks you mentioned.  It was this same democratic president who led the creation of several social services giving people a chance to rise above poverty.  It’s under these same services – further funded by our current president – that people in the bottom income brackets are seeing the greatest growth.

Democracy is the existence of power resting with the people.  In China, the police will tell you they are there to protect your rights because you can’t protect your own.  Hence China has a stained record on human rights.  In America, the people are fully capable of standing up to the government and securing their own rights without fear of retribution from the government.  That, sir, is a major difference.

You're right, what I should have done is compared Detroit to socialist France. While the government principles of communism are void from Detroit, the economic philosophy is alive and well: 1 part democracy plus 1 part communism equals socialism. (I wonder if the French Canadians up north had any influence on all of this...)

You mentioned unions. Post WWII, companies in Detroit were taking advantage of their employees, and the employees fought back with unions. The tides have changed: now it is the employees who are taking advantage of the companies with their onerous pensions plans and other union benefits. Such hand-outs are crippling the Big-3 car makers in Detroit, and the irony is there won't be any pensions if the company goes bankrupt - as all 3 are on the brink of such.

The stale, protectionist economic attributes Detroit possesses drives away competition. The government attributes of socialism/communism tries to create a state of equality, with little regard to expended effort and talent. Such economic principles are evident in the stats: unemployment dropped to 8.5% at the end of 2007, which is the highest in the country, but better than its previous high of 14.2% in 2005. One quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and relies on the government to live. Thanks to St. Louis, Detroit is just recently now the 2nd most dangerous city in the States, down from number 1.

You say denizens of Detroit elect their leaders, but a mere democratic election of a leader is not the sole recipe for prosperity.

As the saying goes, if you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to get the same results you've always gotten.