MI Governor Loses ‘Consent of the Governed’

 
Picture of Gov. Gretchen Whitmore (D-MI)

Gov. Gretchen Whitmore (D-MI)

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s handling of the COVID-19 lockdown has stood out as one of the most severe and arbitrary in the US. Michiganders are unable to purchase gardening supplies but lottery tickets are fine. They can travel to Walmart but not to their cabins in the countryside. They can paddle a canoe but can’t ride a jet ski.

Many officials and citizens have had enough. A group of county sheriffs announced Wednesday that they will not enforce some of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown orders. At the same time, thousands of Michiganders gathered at the state capitol to protest her actions in a rally they dubbed “Operation Gridlock.”

Sheriffs from four contiguous counties in the northwest corner of the lower peninsula are placing their constitutional duties above the governor’s mandates.

We write today to inform the public for our respective counties of our opposition to some of Governor Whitmer’s executive orders. While we understand her desire to protect the public, we question some restrictions that she has imposed as overstepping her executive authority. She has created a vague framework of emergency laws that only confuse Michigan residents.

As a result, we will not have strict enforcement of these orders.

…Our focus needs to be on reopening our counties and getting people back to work. We also need to be aware that this virus is deadly and that we need to continue to practice social distancing, washing of hands, wearing of masks as well as other medically recommended measures.

Gov. Whitmer has faced an unprecedented backlash from the public due to her bizarre overreach, both online and at the state capitol.

“There is no reason why she can’t be looking at some safe ways to be opening up businesses. Instead of talking about what’s essential and nonessential, let’s talk about what’s safe and not safe,” said Meshawn Maddock, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Conservative Coalition. “Safe businesses and safe workers need to get back to work.”

Officials with the Conservative Coalition said they had instructed all participants to remain in cars and adhere to social distancing guidelines, although video from the scene showed citizens milling about outside of vehicles. Michigan State Police have reportedly been told to stand down and not arrest the protesters for refusing to follow the public gathering ban.

“People are basically being told what they can and can’t buy at stores,” Conservative Coalition member Matt Seely told News 8. “Nothing makes sense. You can buy a bottle of liquor, but you can’t buy a gallon of paint.”

Whitmer (and several other governors, all Democrats) don’t understand that lockdown orders only last as long as officials and the public allow them to. The principle of “consent of the governed” was popularized by John Locke, but has existed forever. Even autocrats who theoretically held absolute power were overthrown when the people had enough. Roman generals shivved unpopular emperors and a Milanese mob swung Mussolini from a lamppost. Mercifully, our political leaders are merely recalled from office or tossed out on election day.

The Declaration of Independence made the US the first nation to enshrine this concept in its founding documents. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Aside from political theory, attaining the consent of the governed is just common-sense leadership. Many governors understood this from the start and are leading far more effective responses. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has spent the past three months meeting with healthcare experts, scientists, educators, business leaders, and political leaders from both parties. He shares their views with the public several times a day and telegraphs future orders to prepare everyone ahead of time.

After getting buy-in, he methodically recommended increasing limits on schools, businesses, and other institutions. And the vast majority of these moves were recommendations, not orders enforced at gunpoint. Arizonans, now educated on the issue, willingly chose to follow these guidelines. On Monday, he began preparing the public for a re-opening of our economy.

In response to this steady leadership, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema blasted him on social media. In March, she demanded a total shutdown everywhere, from downtown Phoenix to sleepy ranching towns. She ignored the consent of the governed and insisted on autocratic whim. Worse still, she shouted “take action now!” as she delayed the Coronavirus relief bill a week on the orders of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

Gov. Whitmer followed Sinema’s advice and the expected backlash has begun. If Whitmer wants to keep her job, she might want to read her John Locke. Without the consent of Michigan’s voters, her future COVID-19 orders will fail and she won’t stay in Lansing much longer.

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  1. Roderic Coolidge
    Roderic
    @rhfabian

    There doesn’t seem to be much difference in the severity of the pandemic between states that have strictly locked down and states that have not.

    In Texas, many businesses have been kept open but have made pains to adapt to the pandemic.  For example, they have put marks on the floor to indicated 6 foot spacing between patrons, put up Plexiglas shields between checkers and customers, limited the number of people in a store at one time, and so on.   Texas is projected to see the peak of the disease a little later than some states, but otherwise looks to be in good shape.

    Some businesses in Texas were not able to stay open because the customers stayed away.  Barber shops and some restaurants come to mind in that regard.

    • #31
  2. Bill Gates Will Inject You Now Inactive
    Bill Gates Will Inject You Now
    @Pseudodionysius

    You can call the Michigan Governor by her new nickname: “Tammy”

    • #32
  3. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    I don’t often approve of civil disobedience but, when I do, I like it to look like this: respectful, measured, and worthy of the act.

    This country was founded on civil disobedience (Stamp Act, Tea Act, etc.)

    The civil rights act 1964 was preceded by civil disobedience.

    The roaring 20s, the jazz age was the period of Prohibition.

    Thoreau, Gandhi, MLK

     

    I didn’t say I never approve of civil disobedience. I say I don’t often approve of it. And that’s true: I think it is most often a mistake.

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    Looking back, it is now generally conceded that America was on the brink of defeating the epidemic of 2020 until a defiant mob of Jet-Ski riding amateur horticulturalists from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ignored sensible restrictions and launched the second great wave of Wuhan Flu.

    These restrictions are not sensible – otherwise people in Michigan wouldn’t protest like this

    I think we need to work on the concept of humor.

     

    • #33
  4. DrewInWisconsin is done with t… Member
    DrewInWisconsin is done with t…
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Well, our stupid governor extended “Safer at Home” for five more weeks.

    For the record, the models showed deaths in Wisconsin to be between 400 and 1500 by last Wednesday. That is 8 days ago.

    We’re at maybe 180 today.

    I wonder how many suicides due to despair and joblessness will be worth it to him. I wonder how many drug overdoses. How many homicides.

    How many small businesses must be destroyed in order to make him happy.

    The government wants to be the giver and taker of all goods and finances. You must be made to be subservient.

    “They’ll turn us all to beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.”

     

    • #34
  5. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Ray Kujawa (View Comment):

    The western states not including CO and NM appear ready to handle new surges in cases and ought to be permitted to resume work. The only thing I would like to see before going back to work is getting face masks (cloth) stocked in the grocery stores or available for free distribution to the public. We’ve been advised that they intend to distribute them at work, but to expect they won’t necessarily have enough for everybody, so bring your own. I’ve made my own, improvised from stuff at home because Anazon delivery dates even for ‘in stock’ masks were out in May thru early June.

    Once a person views the video of third world workers rushing the production of the masks such that after being cut and sewed, they drop to the floor, where they end up being gently massaged by the workers’ feet, the notion of using a mask loses its appeal.

    • #35
  6. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    Bill Gates Will Inject You Now (View Comment):

    You can call the Michigan Governor by her new nickname: “Tammy”

    A popular meme going around on Facebook asks why Catilyn Jenner keeps talking about Michigan.

    • #36
  7. E. Kent Golding Moderator
    E. Kent Golding
    @EKentGolding

    Ralphie (View Comment):

    Bill Gates Will Inject You Now (View Comment):

    You can call the Michigan Governor by her new nickname: “Tammy”

    A popular meme going around on Facebook asks why Catilyn Jenner keeps talking about Michigan.

    I would rather have Catilyn Jenner as Governor.

    • #37
  8. Hugh Member
    Hugh
    @Hugh

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Does she look like the Wicked Witch, or what?

    “my public support is melting!.  It’s melting!”

    • #38
  9. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    Hugh (View Comment):

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Does she look like the Wicked Witch, or what?

    “my public support is melting!. It’s melting!”

    It isn’t a good picture. I think she’s an attractive woman. Jon could at least have given us that, for crying out loud.

    • #39
  10. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    E. Kent Golding (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin is done with t… (View Comment):

    Eww. My Michigan friends are putting “I Stand With That Woman From Michigan!” banners on their Facebook profiles.

    Do they realize how this marks them as lunatics?

    You say Lunatic, I say Michigander.

    We voted this moron in.

    One of the main reasons I left Michigan was Democrat politicians like her. That was in 1979. Never regretted going to Texas.

    • #40
  11. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    Roderic (View Comment):

    There doesn’t seem to be much difference in the severity of the pandemic between states that have strictly locked down and states that have not.

    In Texas, many businesses have been kept open but have made pains to adapt to the pandemic. For example, they have put marks on the floor to indicated 6 foot spacing between patrons, put up Plexiglas shields between checkers and customers, limited the number of people in a store at one time, and so on. Texas is projected to see the peak of the disease a little later than some states, but otherwise looks to be in good shape.

    Some businesses in Texas were not able to stay open because the customers stayed away. Barber shops and some restaurants come to mind in that regard.

    The bolded must depend on where you live in Texas. Here in North Texas, the barber shops, hair salons, nail salons, etc. were told they had to close. Restaurants were told they had to close their dine-in facilities – so delivery and carryout only or lock the doors for the duration.

    • #41
  12. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):
    Does she look like the Wicked Witch, or what?

    You took the words right out of my mouth @RushBabe49. 

    • #42
  13. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Henry Racette (View Comment):
    BITCOIN

    you’re not funny

     

    • #43
  14. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Many officials and citizens have had enough. A group of county sheriffs announced Wednesday that they will not enforce some of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown orders. At the same time, thousands of Michiganders gathered at the state capitol to protest her actions in a rally they dubbed “Operation Gridlock.”

    I know. I know. Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. But I’m going to say, “Hallelujah!” and “May the rest of the country start following this example” anyway. Why? Because I’m beginning to think this is the only way we’re ever going to be able to get on with life. 

    • #44
  15. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    I guess it’s just me, but does anyone else see a resemblance between the governor and Leona Helmsley aka “The Queen of Mean”?  Just wonderin’

    • #45
  16. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):
    BITCOIN

    you’re not funny

     

    But I amuse myself.

    • #46
  17. Cow Girl Thatcher
    Cow Girl
    @CowGirl

    I read something or (heard it on NPR maybe) that the crowd who gathered at the state capital of Michigan were waving Confederate flags!! Really, I know I read or heard this…I looked at the video that Jon posted and didn’t see any flags other than the US flag and the Don’t Tread on Me Flags. What’s up with the rumor about the Stars and Bars? And why in the world would anyone in Michigan use that flag, anyway??

    • #47
  18. DrewInWisconsin is done with t… Member
    DrewInWisconsin is done with t…
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Cow Girl (View Comment):

    I read something or (heard it on NPR maybe) that the crowd who gathered at the state capital of Michigan were waving Confederate flags!! Really, I know I read or heard this…I looked at the video that Jon posted and didn’t see any flags other than the US flag and the Don’t Tread on Me Flags. What’s up with the rumor about the Stars and Bars? And why in the world would anyone in Michigan use that flag, anyway??

    NPR lies.

    • #48
  19. DJ EJ Member
    DJ EJ
    @DJEJ

    DrewInWisconsin is done with t… (View Comment):

    Well, our stupid governor extended “Safer at Home” for five more weeks.

    For the record, the models showed deaths in Wisconsin to be between 400 and 1500 by last Wednesday. That is 8 days ago.

    We’re at maybe 180 today.

    I wonder how many suicides due to despair and joblessness will be worth it to him. I wonder how many drug overdoses. How many homicides.

    How many small businesses must be destroyed in order to make him happy.

    The government wants to be the giver and taker of all goods and finances. You must be made to be subservient.

    “They’ll turn us all to beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.”

    This group started yesterday and doubled its membership today. The stats in Wisconsin as of today:

    Total Population of Wisconsin: 5,822,000

    Total number of Wisconsin COVID-19 diagnoses as of 04/16/20 according to worldometers.info: 3875

    Percentage of Wisconsin residents diagnosed with COVID-19: 0.067%

    Total COVID-19 deaths in Wisconsin as of 04/16/20 according to worldometers.info: 197

    Percentage of Wisconsin residents who have died from?/with? (distinction unknown) COVID-19: 0.0034%

    Total number of COVID-19 patients in Aurora hospitals (15 total hospitals) in all of Wisconsin: 112

    • #49
  20. JuliaBlaschke Lincoln
    JuliaBlaschke
    @JuliaBlaschke

    She would have made a good Soviet Commissar.

    • #50
  21. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    Looking back, it is now generally conceded that America was on the brink of defeating the epidemic of 2020 until a defiant mob of Jet-Ski riding amateur horticulturalists from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ignored sensible restrictions and launched the second great wave of Wuhan Flu.

    Those bastards.

    • #51
  22. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Cow Girl (View Comment):

    I read something or (heard it on NPR maybe) that the crowd who gathered at the state capital of Michigan were waving Confederate flags!! Really, I know I read or heard this…I looked at the video that Jon posted and didn’t see any flags other than the US flag and the Don’t Tread on Me Flags. What’s up with the rumor about the Stars and Bars? And why in the world would anyone in Michigan use that flag, anyway??

    It could have happened somewhere.  I don’t happen to know whether or not it did in this case, but there are Confederate flags to be seen here in Michigan. I am not in favor.  I don’t think they’re quite as common as in north-central Indiana or Illinois, but I don’t have data to prove it. 

    • #52
  23. A10Pilot, Jonah’s Air Power … Inactive
    A10Pilot, Jonah’s Air Power …
    @A10Pilot

    She appears to have Lost the Mandate of Heaven, to use a Chinese expression.

    • #53
  24. Kervinlee Inactive
    Kervinlee
    @Kervinlee

    CACrabtree (View Comment):

    I guess it’s just me, but does anyone else see a resemblance between the governor and Leona Helmsley aka “The Queen of Mean”? Just wonderin’

    Something about her appearance just seems a little off. The photos and videos I’ve seen of her aren’t flattering. She looks crazy to me. Another make-up artist, maybe? Someone not a mortician.

    • #54
  25. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    Out of curiosity, why is this post pinned? It’s an interesting and important discussion, and I don’t object — I’m just wondering.

    • #55
  26. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Does she look like the Wicked Witch, or what?

    Vampire.

    • #56
  27. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    Michigan flag

    What a wonderful time to be living in the People’s Republic of Michigan!

    • #57
  28. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    Some of my friends were defending the governor and attacking the protests.  To which I replied.  “Whats going on in Michigan that has thousands of people in cars driving around the capitol, but we see nothing like this in the other 49 states.”

    They didnt really have a good answer to that.

    • #58
  29. Guruforhire Inactive
    Guruforhire
    @Guruforhire

    ToryWarWriter (View Comment):

    Some of my friends were defending the governor and attacking the protests. To which I replied. “Whats going on in Michigan that has thousands of people in cars driving around the capitol, but we see nothing like this in the other 49 states.”

    They didnt really have a good answer to that.

    yet.

    • #59
  30. DrewInWisconsin is done with t… Member
    DrewInWisconsin is done with t…
    @DrewInWisconsin

    ToryWarWriter (View Comment):

    Some of my friends were defending the governor and attacking the protests. To which I replied. “Whats going on in Michigan that has thousands of people in cars driving around the capitol, but we see nothing like this in the other 49 states.”

    They’re planned.

    I think Wisconsin has one planned for the 24th (which was supposed to be the day our shut-down lifted) and I think they’re gathering at the capitol in Minnesota today.

    But I agree. I have Michigan acquaintances who are just parroting the words of their governor about how recent snow means they can’t go golfing or do gardening anyway, so they should just shut up.

    These people make for good “kept citizens.”

    • #60
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