If you’ve been watching the ever-increasing demonization of teachers in Michigan over the past decade, you probably have asked yourself at one time or another, “Why the hell would ANYONE want to be a teacher in Michigan?” It’s a fair question. Republicans in our state legislature have cut their benefits, based their advancement on student progress when much of what […]

The horrors of what the GOP almost pulled off reveal both the historic effectiveness of the Resistance and how tenuous the victory over Trumpcare may be What else is Mike Pence going to say? Can he admit that “the dawn of a new unified Republican government” has led to no significant legislative achievements in six months, highlighted by a complete […]

I’m often asked why we focus on Michigan so much at Eclectablog. The easy answer, of course, is that all of us live here and care about our state deeply. The less obvious answer is that Michigan has become the beta testing ground for some of the most egregious Republican overreach you’ll find in the USA. In our statewide elections, […]

I hate writing fundraising pleas. You hate reading them. Those are facts. Also a fact: We’re all in this together. I just finished a Powerpoint presentation I am giving at Netroots Nation this week in Atlanta where I’m on a panel sponsored by the Center for Media & Democracy titled “Dismantling the Corporate Influence Machine in the States”. As I […]

A jointly-authored article from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and State Superintendent of Schools Brian Whiston appeared recently in The Detroit News. The article was supposed to be a defense of the state’s school reform agenda–which has been, shall we say…underwhelming…in terms of actually…you know…uh…reforming our state’s schools. The overarching theme of the article, such as it was, was that greater […]

Let’s face it, progressive blogs, especially here in Michigan, are becoming more and more rare. In our state, there were once two major progressive political blogs: Michigan Liberal and Blogging for Michigan. Neither of these websites exists today. In fact, Eclectablog is one of the only progressive sites in the state still bringing you news and commentary about what’s happening […]

The following guest post was written by Friend of the Blog Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga). Barb is currently serving her second term as the Ingham County Clerk. Before that, Clerk Byrum served in the Michigan House of Representatives for six years. She currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Legislative Committee of the Michigan Association of County Clerks (MACC) and also […]

It’s becoming an all too familiar news story in Michigan these days: A “failing” public school system faces “competition” from a charter school that sucks even more resources and students away from the traditional schools and then, when they can’t make enough money, the charter school closes and things are worse off than they were before. For example, it happened […]

There are two ways defeat the forces of conservatism in America. The first is to spend ungodly amounts of money to purchase state legislatures, judicial positions, governors’ seats, Congressional seats, and the presidency. News flash: Progressives do NOT have the seemingly endless supply of corporate interests to fund this sort of decades-long program, one that is playing out precisely as […]

Support Eclectablog because we take Kid Rock seriously for you Is Kid Rock — AKA Robert James Ritchie who grew up in this plush home in Bruce Township, Michigan — a serious candidate for the U.S. Senate? No, but he could be a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan next November. And if there’s anything the last year […]

Peggy Noonan is out with a new opinion piece in the Wall St. Journal (“Trump is Woody Allen Without the Humor”) on the daily circus that is the Trump administration, and it’s getting a lot of attention. While I rarely agree with Noonan’s “takes” on the world of politics, the thing that I found the most troubling in this essay was not […]