Republicans have all but formally withdrawn from participating in true American democracy. In both Washington and state capitals around the country, they’ve pursued absolute power at any cost, abusing the trust of voters and quite often banishing them from the process. They’ve rigged the game at every turn, with voter suppression tactics, like gerrymandering and Voter ID laws, and parliamentary maneuvers that smother every attempt to reform the system.
It takes a lot of long-term devotion to sabotage and oligarchy to sink the United States, the first modern democracy, to 19th place in the annual survey of most democratic nations. The patriotic American might scoff at that ranking, but with scams like what just went down in Michigan, it may even be a little bit generous.
Last month, grassroots activists delivered over 400,000 signatures in support of a ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage. That was more than enough to get certified to appear on the November ballot alongside another initiative that would require employers to give their workers paid sick leave. After the Michigan Supreme Court declined a business group’s request to toss the measure off the ballot, Republicans took an even slimier route to solving the crisis of having to pay its most vulnerable workers a few bucks extra an hour.
Via the Detroit Free Press:
Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature on Wednesday approved citizen-initiated legislation raising the state’s minimum wage to $12 per hour and requiring paid sick leave, a move designed to make the proposals easier to change.
Many Democrats, who generally support the policies, opposed the effort to keep the initiatives off the Nov. 6 ballot. They warned the GOP majority could “gut” the proposals later this year in the so-called lame-duck session, while no Republicans spoke in favor of the initiatives during the legislative debates.
The Michigan Constitution gives lawmakers 40 days to act on initiated legislation or allow it to go to the ballot. But amending citizen-initiated legislation in the same two-year term would be unprecedented under the 1963 state Constitution, and some legal experts contend it would violate the state Constitution.
The idea here is that by passing this now, instead of needing a 3/4 majority, they would only need a simple majority in the legislature to change the text of the initiative if it was to pass (and it’s polling very well, as are minimum wage initiatives across the country).
Additionally, if the GOP succeeds in taking the minimum wage initiative off the ballot, it could take away one of the Democrats’ big GOTV tools in this crucial election.
The group that led the charge on the ballot initiative, One Fair Wage, says they’ll sue if Republicans try to change the voter-approved legislation after it passes, but if there’s one thing we know about the GOP, it’s that they don’t really care.
Michigan has been dominated by far-right Republicans for years, in part thanks to the DeVos family’s money and in part thanks to the terrible gerrymander they passed years ago. But the GOP has so bungled the task of actually governing that, combined with the progressive energy rippling across the country, Democrats have a real chance of taking back a lot of power this year. That’ll be crucial, because beyond this gross abuse of power, the Michigan GOP is introducing Medicaid work requirements, refuses to fix Flint’s water, and has slashed education and other budgets.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gretchen Whitmer is leading GOP Attorney General Bill Schuette (a man so noxiously right wing that not even current Gov. Rick Snyder will endorse him) in the polls. And while taking back the State Senate is a tall order, Team Blue does have a good shot at winning back the State House. With some help from a Democratic official there, I put together a list of State Legislature seats that are very flippable for Democrats.
CLICK HERE to donate to Gretchen Whitmer and Democrats running to flip seats in the Michigan Legislature and help workers!
Also: I created this fundraising page for the Democrats running for US Congress in pure toss-up races this November.
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