It’s all so much easier to govern when you stack the deck
[Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog]
This whole Republican shutdown thing is just so frustrating to Michigan governor Rick Snyder. Thing is, he has the solution. What’s amazing is how simple it is:
Elect huge Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and a Republican president. Gridlock solved.
Here is his latest missive, direct from the governor’s official web page:
The immediate crisis is over, but the underlying issues haven’t been resolved. This agreement only provides a temporary respite. In a few months, our nation and its people could be facing the same crisis again.This is a fundamental failure of our political culture. If the shutdown had continued and the nation gone into default, the people in need are the ones who would have paid the highest price. Fighting has replaced serving the people as the top priority in Washington.
This is unacceptable. Our nation’s toughest problems persist year after year because any efforts to solve them quickly vanish in a quagmire of political infighting. Our nation and its people deserve better.
Our leaders in Washington should look to Michigan to see how it’s possible to improve the political culture. We’re using an approach that I call ‘relentless positive action.’ That means no blame, no credit, just focus on solving a problem and then move on to the next one.
Of course, Republicans and Democrats have differing ideas and points of view. That’s to be expected. And sometimes, we have passionate disagreements. But, we find the areas where we agree and build upon them to fix our problems. And, at all times, we keep moving forward.
Our leaders need to recognize that the system in Washington is broken and needs to be fixed. It’s time for mutual respect and statesmanship to push aside fighting and finger-pointing and create a new political culture devoted to serving the people. Our nation needs its leaders to end their obsession with placing blame and focus on working together to implement solutions.
Let’s just take a moment to unpack this laughable bit of myth-making.
First, this bit: “Our leaders in Washington should look to Michigan to see how it’s possible to improve the political culture.”
If Rick Snyder thinks the “political culture” in Michigan is improved, he is sadly mistaken. Look at the numerous examples. We have Republicans refusing to even recognize Democrats on the House floor so that they can pass bills with immediate effect without having the votes to do so. Remember this?
And this?
Photos courtesy of the Michigan House Democrats
We have massive demonstrations on the grounds of the Capitol as Republicans lock their opponents out of the building, fill the gallery with their staffers so labor supporters can’t partake in the democratic process, and rush anti-labor bills through the legislature with no debate and no hearings.
Eclectameme by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog
How is this for “improved political culture”? Tear gas in the Capitol building:
This is what democracy looks like: pic.twitter.com/uh9dKqbI #SaveMI #RightToWork
— Jared Volz (@JaredVolz) December 11, 2012
And then we have this: “Republicans and Democrats have differing ideas and points of view. That’s to be expected. And sometimes, we have passionate disagreements. But, we find the areas where we agree and build upon them to fix our problems. And, at all times, we keep moving forward.”
If you look at the bills passed in the Michigan legislature since the winter of 2011, you will find that a huge proportion of the new laws are part of a concerted effort by far-right conservative Tea Partarians in the Michigan legislature to enact their agenda as rapidly as possible. In the lame duck session of 2012 alone, nearly 300 bills were passed in the space of only a few weeks. That forward movement described by Governor Snyder is, in fact, a steamroller crushing anything standing in its way. That’s the good governor’s idea of “relentless positive action”. It’s relentless, for sure. But it has nothing to do with finding areas where we agree and building upon them to fix our problems”. Not even close.
And, finally, this: Our leaders need to recognize that the system in Washington is broken and needs to be fixed. It’s time for mutual respect and statesmanship to push aside fighting and finger-pointing and create a new political culture devoted to serving the people. Our nation needs its leaders to end their obsession with placing blame and focus on working together to implement solutions.
This is probably the most insulting thing in this campaign rhetoric statement by Governor Snyder. He and his fellow Republicans have spent the past two and half years running roughshod over their political opponents. They have disrespected them in countless ways, often in offensively demeaning fashion, particularly toward the Democratic women. But, when the Democrats push back, they are accused of “finger point” and “blame placing”. Suggesting that Michigan is somehow a model for solving the gridlock in Washington, D.C. is ludicrous.
It’s easy to pass laws and timely budgets and to make claims about how well everyone is working together when you control the entire process. And Republicans absolutely DO control every aspect of Michigan’s government including our courts and our election boards.
So, please, Governor Snyder, don’t insult our intelligence. We all know that is Republicans that caused recent shutdown and who held the country hostage over the debt ceiling for the past three weeks. We also know that there is a toxic, corrosive political environment in Michigan and your Republican caucus, drunk with power and arrogant with their majorities are to blame.
