Go blue.
When Michigan-native Mitt Romney went on his “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” tour, people missed his point.
The future GOP nominee didn’t want the auto industry to go out of business — he wanted to use the financial crisis to bust the auto workers unions. He wanted the Big Three to survive just without the careers that helped create America’s middle class.
If you want to know how Romney would have managed his “auto rescue,” take a look at what happened to Delphi Automotive, an automotive parts manufacturer based in Ohio that now has no union workers that’s creating lots of jobs — in China.
President Obama’s auto rescue rescued Michigan’s economy. But like most swing states, Republicans swept into office during the worst of the financial crisis. Their agenda was micro-Romneyism — tax cuts for corporations, cuts to education, rampant privatization and a war on union workers. Our economy is recovering despite these attacks on the middle class, thanks to the president. The challenge now is to make sure voters know this.
If Democrats fighting back against Republicans in the post-Obama-on-the-ballot era, it has to happen in Michigan.
As they have nationally, the GOP in this state has redistricted itself into power and then decided to test if it still might be possible to lose it. As they are nationally, the Tea Party is at war with the GOP establishment that recognizing they would like to win the White House one day.
If there’s any hope of taking back the House in 2014, Democrats will have to win most of if not all of competitive districts in the state.
If there’s any hope of keeping the U.S. Senate, Rep. Gary Peter’s needs to win here, easily.
If there’s any hope of rejecting Tea Partyism in a nerds’s clothing, Mark Schauer has to be our state’s next governor.
If there’s any hope Republicans rejecting their own suicidal tendencies, it has to happen in Michigan. Only in Michigan are members of the Suicide Caucus that forced the government shutdown and would like to force a debt default facing serious primary challenges.
This state is a petri dish for the battle between progressive politics and Teavangelicalism on the local and state level, and Eclectablog is dedicated to making sure progressives are armed with insight about what’s going on in Michigan and nationally.
Chris Savage, Anne Savage and Amy Lynn Smith live and blog this battle on a daily basis. If you’d like to help us, there are three ways you can do that:
First, you can make your donation using the PayPal link below. You can change the amount if you wish.
[donateplus]
Or you can wait until the TinyPass pop-up pops up (every tenth click on the site) and donate that way. If you do that, the popups will go away as long as you have cookies enabled. Again, the default amounts for annual or monthly donations can be adjusted to whatever you wish them to be.
Finally, if you would prefer to send a check, send Chris an email and I’ll give you the address.
If you cannot afford to support us financially, you can still help. Please share our content on your Facebook page or other social media like Twitter, Reddit, etc. Put a “Like” on our Facebook page and click the “Invite friends” button and encourage your friends to like us, too.
Thanks so much,
LOLGOP, Chris, Anne and Amy
[Photo by Anne Savage.]
