More than a year ago, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said of state Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, “Term limits can’t come fast enough for some people.”
This had to do with a dispute over state funding to protect our water from the famous sinkhole that destroyed some homes in Fraser at Christmas time two years ago.
I don’t remember how that was resolved, but I’ve been both fascinated and appalled by Meekhof. The legislator, who has little formal education beyond high school, doesn’t appear to believe in democracy in any sense I understand.
He has done everything in his power to block efforts to make it easier for citizens to vote, by, for example, making it easier to get absentee ballots. He sneered at calls to expand the Freedom of Information Act to the governor and the legislatures’ communications, telling one reporter, “you guys are the only people who care about this.”
Nor does he have any desire to end the gerrymandering practices that gave him a safe seat in the legislature. He might have stayed there for life, had it not been for term limits.
And, in what may prove to be one of his last anti-democratic moves, Meekhof helped lead the legislature to cynically “pass” both initiatives into law, with the clear understanding that after the November election, Meekhof and his Republican wrecking crew would either eliminate or gut those bills, and they didn’t bother to disguise that this is exactly what they intend.
Now, there would be nothing wrong with the Republicans, and the restaurant lobby, trying to persuade voters to vote no on these bills. They would, after all, have virtually unlimited cash available, and legally could disguise where it came from, since Michigan, in part thanks to Meekhof, makes it easy for donors to keep their identities secret.
But campaigns are expensive, and the last thing they wanted was to increase turnout. Voters who showed up primarily to vote to raise the minimum wage or give folks sick time are unlikely to vote for Republican candidates.
So, they just took that decision away from the people. None of us should be surprised. Think back six years ago. The voters went to the polls in November, 2012 and repealed the law allowing governors to appoint emergency managers for cities and other public entities that were in financial trouble. Within weeks, the legislature passed another emergency manager law.
They also passed anti-union legislation making Michigan a right-to-work state. Governor Rick Snyder signed both, even though he had said that right-to-work was not on his “agenda.”
People were outraged, but the voters did not punish those who did this. Two years later, Snyder was re-elected, and the Republicans actually gained seats in the legislature.
Based on that past performance, those who today are taking away the people’s right to referenda on increasing sick time and the minimum wage have reason to believe they won’t suffer any consequences. Sixto Rodriguez sang, “the public is irate but forgets the vote date.”
Too often, that’s about right. If you want to take your government back, you still can, but it is going to require work, and showing up. There are a couple constitutional amendments that are on the ballot this year – Voters not Politicians, and Promote the Vote.
You might start by showing up, paying attention, and voting yes on these. You’ve got one life and one state, and you might as well use the one to start fixing the other.
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