Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Michigan GOP Taking Over a Town? Strips Voting Rights?

Image from source, Detroit News
What does "limited" or "small" government mean to you? It's the mantra of the so called (dwindling) tea party. Nearly every prominent Republican touts it, as do all of the right-wing talk radio personalities. Get government out of our lives! Government does nothing right! Government isn't the answer to the problem, government is the problem!

So why do the Republicans govern so differently from their big talk? Why do conservatives want to be able to strip my right to marry in California? Why do conservatives want to decide what goes on in any given pregnant woman's uterus? Why do they think they can just decide to get rid of things that unions fought for? Why do they think that a certain brand of a certain sect of a certain religion ought to have the rule of law over people who are not of the same faith? And when you've answered all of those questions, what about the crap that's going down in Michigan?

When The Rachel Maddow Show began commenting on the ridiculously overreaching policies going into effect in Michigan, many on the right laughed her off. Oh, she's just a "True Twit," making mountains out of mole hills. But what Rachel was getting at seems to be coming to pass. Legislators in Michigan think that if a town isn't doing so well, they can appoint somebody to swoop in, and take over, duly elected representatives be damned. How is this small government?

[Excerpt]

Emergency manager cuts roles of Benton Harbor officials



In a move believed to be the first under sweeping new state legislation, Emergency Manager Joseph Harris suspended decision-making powers of city officials Friday.


Officials only can call meetings to order, adjourn them and approve minutes of meetings as part of the order issued Friday. . .

Read more at: The Detroit News

3 comments:

  1. Umm, Jamie, you may want to re-think this post. The Dem's came up with this bill and they used it to take over the Detroit School District. So, while the GOP governor may do this, it won't be for the first time and the first time was done by the former Democrat governor.
    they closed down half the schools and laid off thousands of teachers.
    I'm just saying...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, I'm willing to admit I don't know everything about the history of this type of maneuver. And I'll condemn any Democratic politician who proposes something like this too. But a Republican particularly--with their "smaller government" rhetoric, should avoid this like poison. I'll do some more reading though, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And Dan, while I may not have the entire story on the background of these "ixnay on your city government" laws, my point stands about conservatives supposedly wanting small government, but being extremely intrusive when they want to be.

    ReplyDelete

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