Michigan, I feel your pain. I know how it feels to have your governor who campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs, and then he turns around and rips the heart out of your state. You feel powerless, like you have been kicked in, for lack of better words, the nuts.
As a Badger I feel your pain.
You have a right to be angry. Your rights, whether you support unions or not, have been trampled upon. When legislation is passed with little to no debate, when a corporate front group instead of legislators writes legislation, when a governor signs said legislation in private, surrounded by police officers—all of America loses.
Governor Snyder and Governor Walker are cut from the same cloth—little men with big aspirations. Ignoring facts and ignoring the will of the people they have both enacted divisive legislation while each one believes that he is the next Ronald Reagan. They are legends in their own minds and they have been overcome by delusions of grandeur. Delusions that come from the corporate owned right-wing echo chamber; the same echo chamber that calls kindergarten teachers thugs and public servants slobs.
What do images of police in riot gear surrounding the Michigan Capitol and continued police intimidation in the Wisconsin Capitol tell us? The right is afraid of our power. Yes, Michigan is now a right to work for less state; however, if the GOP in Michigan was so sure that this legislation was good for the state of Michigan, if the GOP in Wisconsin was so sure that Act 10 was the right thing to do—why didn’t they campaign on these things? Why jam them through the legislature so quickly, or in Wisconsin’s case, illegally? It is because the GOP is dying and they know it. Their ideas are poisonous which is why they never bring them up on the campaign trail. Hatred and bigotry are not the future, kowtowing to the robber barons of today is not how America becomes strong. While the GOP claims victory in Wisconsin and Michigan it is only a matter of time before their divisive politics come around and bite them.
Wolverines do not despair. Learn from Wisconsin. Study our movement. Understand our successes and learn from our mistakes. Above all never give up. Keep fighting and remember it may take years to undo the damage done by Walker and Snyder; however, laws can be passed, laws can be overturned in court and those same laws can be repealed by a democratic majority.
WOLVERINES! BADGERS! SOLIDARITY!