The following essay was written by my friend Krystle DuPree, a member of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party Executive Board (among many other roles she has) of which I am the Chair. It is in response to an article posted on MLive.com titled “Ann Arbor area’s cost of living jeopardizes veteran’s efforts to escape poverty“. Since the article was published, […]

If you can ban Nazis, you can ban Republicans If you want to know what the gravestone of American democracy might say, consider this recent Vice headline: Why Won’t Twitter Treat White Supremacy Like ISIS? Because It Would Mean Banning Some Republican Politicians Too. Possibly in response to this embarrassing admission and the obvious failure to successfully delouse one of […]

Trump did his best to wink at neo-Nazis let him know he values their support. And his defenders are doing the same. On Friday, Donald Trump again defended his need to praise the people who marched with neo-Nazis and members of the Klan a few days after a neo-Nazi killed a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. He’s gleefully buying […]

A couple of weeks ago, I published an essay titled Betsy DeVos and the Koch brothers must be so proud: Michigan teacher salaries down 16% from 2009. The title is pretty self-explanatory and the bottom line is that there is a very predictable (and predicted) teacher shortage in our state now because of how we have demonized, diminished, and demeaned […]

In what can only be described as some of the best news I have heard this year, particularly regarding Michigan, a three-judge federal panel declared many of Michigan’s Congressional, State House, and State Senate districts to be unconstitutional. Their decision (which you can read HERE) was unanimous: The “predominate purpose” of the redistricting plan approved by the GOP-led Legislature in […]

For those of us following the news, each new day brings a bevy of unbelievable and shocking stories… Reports of Russian election meddling! A national emergency (that’s not a national emergency)! Cabinet secretaries wreaking havoc on the environment, education, and human rights! Kids in cages at the border! The Mueller Report! And in the middle of each of these stories? […]

Michigan can be the model for turning purple and then red states back into functioning democracies. Your support of Eclectablog can help. Rep. Fred Upton is on the run. In 2017, he single-handedly kept Obamacare repeal alive with the “Upton Amendment” that made House Republicans more comfortable with gutting protections for Americans with pre-exisiting conditions. In 2019, he’s playing up […]

Most Americans are happy with their current insurance, but they may have no idea what it is costing them Let me start with some truisms. America cannot go on being the only rich country on earth that lets tens of millions of its citizens go without insurance or enough health insurance. We cannot go on spending more on health care […]

INSERT PAINFUL EYEROLL HERE… The Republican Speaker of the House in Michigan’s legislature is Lee Chatfield, a 30-year old father of five and graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University who attempted to bring a loaded handgun onto a commercial flight last summer. In a recent interview, Chatfield characterized Attorney General Dana Nessel and Governor Gretchen Whitmer as “driven purely by […]

The death cult v. democracy One of the most under-reported stories of 2018 was that we saw the highest voter turnout in a midterm election in a century, according to the United States Elections Project. This means that 2018 we saw the most voter activation since before only white males were guaranteed the vote. And you should expect the same […]

In light of Betsy DeVos’ comments on the benefits of large class sizes and hiring fewer teachers – “In fact, students may be better served by being in larger classes, if by hiring fewer teachers, a district or state can better compensate those who have demonstrated high ability and outstanding results…” – I wanted to share the following statistics from […]