ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

I was naive enough a few years ago to believe our Michigan Legislature could not sink any lower after approving a law permitting widespread use of obnoxious fireworks.

But I was wrong. Our boys and girls in Lansing, who are supposed to represent us, the people, just recently in lame-duck session, astonishingly collectively thumbed their noses at their constituents and the supposedly democratic principle of the will of the people.

I remain astonished that the people of Michigan seem to be taking this development lying down after Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill making it nearly impossible for ordinary citizens to sign petitions to put statewide proposals on the ballot.

This State Legislature has committed a crime against democracy, a crime against representative government, all by worshipping at the altar of politics, the Republican Party and dirty money. The vast majority of legislators who voted for this bill were Republicans and now a Republican governor has signed this piece of trash, a slap in the face of voters in this state.

The new law would create a cap on a percentage of voters who can sign petitions from each district, thereby limiting the power at the ballot box of voters based on where they live. The name of this game is very simple — make it difficult for voters to get issues on the ballot for people to decide on them. Increase the power of corrupt and beholden lawmakers and decrease the power of the people.

This, in the wake of five proposals in 2018 that qualified for inclusion on the Michigan Nov. 6 general election ballot. The GOP legislators found the voters’ wishes on these issues not to be to their liking, so they used a lame-duck session that either reverse them or water them down.

It was no secret the GOP senators and legislators in Lansing opposed legalization of marijuana, creating a more non-partisan panel to stop gerrymandering and widening access for people to register to vote. But they pulled nothing short of a dirty trick on the folks who gathered enough signatures to place a minimum wage and extended family leave issues on the ballot for consideration of voters statewide. They headed the last two off at the pass in September, and in lame duck voted to circumvent the intentions of the process.

For the first time ever, I must extend gratitude to State Rep. Steven Johnson of the 72nd District, who voted against this piece of anti-democratic garbage. At the same time, my perceptions of the integrity of State Rep. Mary Whiteford of the 80th District appear to continue to be in free fall. She apparently has consumed the GOP Kool-Aid at the expense of the people.

As a life-long student of history, I was captivated by the stories of the era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era. This was when a president put a stop to big business monopolies and trusts and the people were granted the ability to rise up in righteous indignation to create the processes of initiative, referendum and recall when legislators failed to get the job done themselves.

As the historian Howard Zinn pointed out, in his Peoples’ History of the United States, the rights of the people were not legislated by lawmakers, they were fought for over many years by citizens’ groups. What the State Legislature and governor have done is circumvented this democratic process.

It took a little more than 100 years for the Michigan Legislature to defecate all over the hard work and heroic sacrifices our ancestors made so that we the people indeed could be granted a seat at the table of power.

With apologies to Ranger Rick — the rotting of our state government continues from within.