I am pleased to report that Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an absolutely thriving mid-sized American city that almost feels like walking back in time.It has sidewalks full of people, streets full of cars and big beautiful buildings filled with businesses.When I asked locals what the secret of this success was, a surprising number of people cited a handful of billionaire philanthropic families: the very same billionaires that Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayad says should not exist in the Wolverine State, or anywhere in America.Among these wealthy families with deep roots in Grand Rapids and broader Western Michigan are the Davos, Van Andel and Meijer families, whose names can be seen on institutions all over town — owing the billions they have donated.An 1880s replica of Grand Rapids, Michigan, pictured at the Public Museum.
(David Marcus/Fox News Digital)DAVID MARCUS: IN BOOMING DETROIT, VOTERS SKEPTICAL OF SOCIALISM SNAKE OILJoan is a docent at the splendid Grand Rapids Public Museum, just across from the Gerald R.Ford Presidential Library, and she told Fox News Digital of the museum and Grand Rapids’ success, "We have a few families that really do a lot to fill gaps and help to make things happen."Inside the massive museum, which looks like it should be in a city with an NFL team, is a mini Grand Rapids from the 1880s with stores to poke into.
It was at the chemist that I met Joan, and honestly, add a bit of glass and steel and the city today seems just as bustling.At one point, I found myself in the museum, looking at the bones of a prehistoric mastodon.Through the window behind it, bright yellow construction machines worked along the waterfront, while beyond them stood the short, proud buildings on the other side of the Grand River, from which the town takes its name.In this parallax, one can see a kind of continuity that most American cities lack: the past, present and future in a positive lockstep.A prehistoric mastodon is pictured inside the Grand...