ACHTUNG: The following is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.
“No man, woman or child is safe as long as the State Legislature is in session.” — James Wasserman
The dirty tricks in Lansing are hiding in plain sight these days with a lame-duck State Legislature that’s doing its damndest to overturn the will of the people from the Nov. 6 general election.
Perhaps the most astonishing shenanigans are shown in the State Senate’s 26-12 vote along party lines to blow away a minimum wage initiative and extension of sick leave benefits, both of which serve poor and middle class working stiffs.
The GOP’s egregious offense is that lawmakers last September halted a grass-roots voters’ petition campaign that gathered enough signatures to put the proposal on the ballot. Legislators adopted the plan in September to take it off the ballot, but now are rolling back the proposal’s provisions.
This reminds me of State Rep. Mary Whiteford’s comments in a candidate forum in October that sometimes the legislature needs to serve as a check on balance on the will of the people. Indeed. So this means we certainly don’t live in a democracy.
Regardless of the pros and cons over increasing the minimum wage from $9.25 to $12 an hour, this ugly development is nothing but an end run around the peoples’ right to decide.
“Let the will of the people be heard.” — Albert Parsons, 1886
On another front, the Michigan Legislature has seen introduction of a bill to make growing marijuana at home illegal, despite the state-wide ballot passage, in another effort to make it difficult, if not impossible, for people to obtain a substance that’s supposed to become legal Dec. 6. The will of a lawmaker trumps the will the people.
Furthermore, though residents overwhelmingly approved an anti-gerrymandering proposal, state lawmakers already are making it difficult to determine who will serve on a bipartisan panel to draw district boundaries.
Not to be outdone, despite 2-to-1 approval by voters, the GOP majority in Lansing is proposing to change voter-approved same day voter registration to two weeks before the election. They say it’s to help the clerks and election officials. How about helping the unwashed masses of voters?
“We don’t work for you guys. You’re supposed to be working for us.” — Ward Weiler, longtime watchdog, to the Barry County Board of Commissioners
Then comes news that a prominent Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill to end the 40-year old 10-cent bottle deposit law, which was so successful in reducing litter in Michigan that Republican Congressman Paul Henry introduced a bill to expand the process to nationwide.
For those who have short memories, it wasn’t that long ago that Gov. Rick Snyder and the GOP-dominated Legislature passed a Right to Work law tin lame duck session o further hurt unions. They accomplished that in less than 24 hours, but for eight years couldn’t find a way to fix the roads, even though the GOP had huge majorities in the House and Senate and owned the governor’s chair and the courts.
Connect the dots. You will understand the unpleasant conclusion that the State Legislature in Lansing, which includes Reps. Whiteford, Steve Johnson and State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker, care not a whit about the wishes of the people who foolishly elected them.
“And we elected ‘em again and again.” — Tom Paxton
Former President Jimmy Carter not long ago asserted that the United States no longer has a functioning democracy. It’s run by an oligarchy.
Mr. Carter is right. And what are we going to do about it? Keep voting in the same bozos?
Just another page in the book, in a lame duck year, ( and parties make no difference ) do the we will screw you over, so try to stop us.
Vote they say…your vote counts …it makes a difference….except in a lame duck session
Just wondering why the founding fathers never saw this happening . Must be politicians worked for the people back then.
Instead of lame duck they should call it lame jackass session. Your vote counts, but we re-elect the same JAS every time. Once they are in four years, they learn how to vote on their behalf. Maybe Bush 41 will send an angel to set things strait.
Dems or Reps all crooks. ever watch “Clear and Present Danger”: Now you have a chip in the game. Just a movie but the truth. SAD
Dave, you and President Carter are both wrong, we don’t live in a Democracy, it is a Republic – a form of government where individual U.S. citizens elect a person or persons to represent them in government.
Democracy is mob rule.
David, you need to do some research here. The ballot proposal for minimum wage and PTO was drafted by an out-of-state organization attempting to impose their views on Michigan. There was no political discourse on the impact on the Michigan economy, employment or benefits. That leads to bad legislation which ultimately hurts the state. You can make the same type of argument for the marijuana ballot proposal. In that case the legislature looked at the proposal and allowed it to proceed with no limitations. Now that it is to go into effect we need to balance the rights of those who were for the proposal and those who are against. Finally, I found it hard to believe that anyone who has an informed opinion and wants to vote can’t make an effort two weeks before the election.
For the “they all do it” crowd, please enlighten others and myself about the last time a majority lame duck session in Lansing went to work to modify a bill that same body had passed months before. Our state legislature just did that with the minimum wage bill the state senate and house passed and Gov. Snyder signed. Just making $12/hour now will go into effect in 2030, rather than 2022 date they approved. They also moved to cut the earned sick days from the 72 hours in the bill they passed to 36 hours per year and exempt all employers with fewer than 50 employees. Then tell us when the same legislators set about to modify a recently passed ballot proposal, much less three.
Mr. Rose refuses to accept the reality of politics in Lansing and other state capitals. Mr. Rose was never gracing this publication with handwringing about out-of-state organizations when our former state representative, current Allegan County Clerk Bob Genetski, co-sponsored pattern legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to limit state university tuition. Mr. Rose was absent when the same group, whose membership includes business groups like contractors to prisons and private prisons, pushed privatization of state prison food services.
Regarding the recent proposals Mr. Rose is suddenly so concerned with, he’s favoring modifying proposals our state’s voters just approved by significant majorities. Is Mr. Rose blessed with more wisdom that’s shared with our GOP legislators who know know better than MI voters?
Why don’t we just give up our right to vote on ballot proposals and leave it to the much more wise legislators who clearly understand what’s good for MI more than the voters across the state. Same goes for all those lost souls who voted for Governor-elect Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General-elect Dana Nessel and Secretary of State-elect Jocelyn Benson.
According to the logic Mr. Rose demonstrates here, those three women are so unable to perform their new jobs the GOP majority state legislature needs to pass laws to transfer power to the themselves, effectively giving the legislative branch more oversight power than the executive branch and the judicial branch. Then they need to modify the proposal and put new laws into place to stop incoming Sec of State Benson from implementing the proposal that won. Why? Because the legislators, like Mr Rose, think they know better?
I believe MI GOP legislators truly don’t trust the voters when they have the audacity to vote for candidates and proposals not endorsed and supported by the GOP and their donor base.