ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
Though I am grateful that Rick Albin and WOOD-TV Channel 8 offer a local politics chat program Sunday mornings, I was disappointed in the interview with State Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Shelbyville).
The most important goal of such public affairs programming is to enlighten viewers about issues and the people who have the authority to act on them. Albin’s 10-minute back-and-forth didn’t produce much in either category.
To be sure, he was able to get from Smit her opposition to Democats moving too quickly on legislation since January. But about the only other takeaway was that she was a rural township clerk who was alarmed by provisions of Proposal 2 in last November’s election.
Mr. Albin has a nasty habit of slowing down the conversation too much by his qualifying what he’s about to ask and previewing a glimpse of what’s to come (it’s the broadcast equivalent of bait clicking).
First, neither really explained adequately Proposal 2, which was approved last November by 60 percent of voters statewide. Smit was limited to opposing it because it’s too burdensome on clerks, which opponents would say she and her colleagues should know government’s function is to serve the people, not the elected officials.
I agree with Rep. Smit to a degree that the nine-day voting window for voting in person is excessive, especially now that voting by mail is totally legal. She should have been allowed to say so.
Rep. Smit also was clearly opposed to the pace of change in legislative actions by a newly-elected Democratic majority. The easy response to that notion is that state government for too long has been inactive or has dragged its feet, so an activist approach to lawmaking may be welcome.
Furthermore, this flies in the face of the Republicans in 2016 ramming through the Right to Work law in less than 24 hours in a lame duck session.
Totally overlooked in the broadcast was an examination of just who Rep. Smit is, which has tremendous bearing on how she plans to legislate.
Rep. Smit is a solid representative of the fundamentalist Christian right style of politics. She refused to wear a mask in public during the Covid pandemic. Her campaign ads overwhelmingly dealt with Culture Wars and she was the spokeswoman for the GOP minority that voted against extending Elliott-Larsen protections to LGBTQ individuals in Michigan.
When she was campaigning for state rep., I acknowledged that she is a moral, upright person, sort of a nice version of fellow State Rep. Angela Rigas, West Michigan’s answer to Lauren Bobert and Majorie Taylor Greene.
However, I must also acknowledge that Rep. Smit is doing pretty much what her constituents in her district want her to do. She is in the minority in Lansing, but is the majority in the 43rd District.
Albin and WOOD-TV deserve praise for trying to get local officials in front of West Michigan viewers, but a more thorough job of presenting the candidate’s views and issues they discuss is needed.
