How Michigan became the progressive powerhouse of the Midwest
LGBTQ+ equality, abortion rights, climate change policy, voting rights, education investment, gun reforms, unions on the march — the Mitten State has it all.
For years, Michigan was a national laughingstock, as bad news stalked the state like the villain in a bad ‘80s horror film.
There was the one-state recession of the early aughts, thanks to the bruised auto industry that almost collapsed during the Great Recession that followed, and two partial state government shutdowns.
Then came Republicans shoving Right to Work through a decade ago in an attempt to reverse Michigan’s economic fortunes (but really to placate rich donors), despite the vocal protest of over 10,000 union members on the Capitol lawn that made international news.
And then there was the Flint water crisis, the crown jewel of GOP former Gov. Rick Snyder’s dismal, eight-year tenure, as the state’s effort to save a few bucks in a city the administration didn’t care about resulted in Flint residents, particularly children, paying the ultimate price with their health.
It’s easy to forget how exactly the bad old days felt in Michigan.
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But today, Michigan is known as the anti-Florida (thanks to some savvy marketing from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer), a veritable liberaltopia in the Midwest, which is expected to play a vital role, yet again, in picking the president next year.
This year, Whitmer partnered with the first Democratic legislative majority in roughly 40 years to not only reverse longstanding right-wing policies, but to pass major legislation furthering progressive causes like abortion rights, climate change policy, LGBTQ+ equality, education funding, voting rights, gun reforms and labor rights. All this took place as unions are again on the march thanks to massive victories like the UAW’s “Stand Up Strike” against the domestic automakers headquartered in Michigan.
For too long, it was easy to feel helpless in Michigan.
Efforts to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination started and stalled. Anti-abortion lobbyists successfully kept chipping away at basic health care rights. And a devastating 2021 school shooting in Oxford resulted in thoughts and prayers, but little immediate legislative action.
But as it turns out, it wasn’t that leaders didn’t care about issues deeply important to most Michiganders. It was just that not enough of them were in a position to do anything about it.
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Michigan is proof that real progressive victories that change the lives of millions are possible in swing states, not just deep-blue California.
So can this success be duplicated?
Like almost anything in politics, the answer is: not exactly. A unique set of circumstances, laws and players made this possible in Michigan. But there are still crucial lessons for leaders and advocates across the country.
Michigan did have some structural advantages that others don’t that helped prime the state for progressive triumphs this year.
The Mitten State’s relatively straightforward process for ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments (which many states lack — and Michigan Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to clamp down on) laid the groundwork, with voters approving an independent redistricting process and voting rights amendments in 2018.
That helped even the playing field after decades of gerrymandering and recent Republican attempts to make it harder to vote. Fairer maps for the 2022 election and policies like same-day voter registration and no-reason absentee voting, definitely helped propel Democratic candidates to victory in key legislative seats last year.
Michigan also had the gift of an eye-popping $9.2 billion budget surplus at the beginning of the year, bolstered by an unexpectedly strong economy for which Biden has yet to get credit and the last GOP-controlled Legislature that sat on billions of federal COVID aid naively hoping that Republican Tudor Dixon would vanquish Whitmer in the election (she lost by 11 points).
But, hands down, the biggest boon to Michigan progress has been having Gretchen Whitmer at the helm.
Voters chose a governor in 2019 who came armed with the most experience since Republichan John Engler was elected in 1990. In her more than 14 years in the Legislature, she endured it all in the minority as the state rotted under austerity. As a minority leader, she did thankless work behind the scenes on issues like Medicaid expansion, as Republicans weren’t eager to boost her stature by passing landmark legislation bearing her name.
And so, when Democrats defied the odds and ran the table in last year’s midterms, Whitmer was exceptionally ready to govern with the majority.
Whitmer was ready on Day 1 to finally deliver on Democratic priorities. Deftly drawing on institutional knowledge, her team had a clear plan of attack. The governor showed her methodical mastery of the legislative process that requires constantly balancing competing interests and resolving maddening intraparty conflicts.
We have all the best people. We just have to work hard to get them elected.
It’s easy to give up before we even start. It’s a good thing Michigan didn’t, and it’s a good thing that Wisconsin isn’t. We have to believe that we can win, we have to make plans for what we want to accomplish, and we have to set things in motion so we can hit the ground running when we do win.
Should we all be thinking about the role we want to have in setting the stage to make it all happen?
Open thread!
mrmoshpotato
Ummmm, where’s Dan Cortese?
Suzanne
That makes it sound extra-awesome.
Old School
There’s value in experience? But I thought governor was an entry-level position for whatever billionaire wanted to do something other than run their company.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: You made me look up Dan Cortese, and I still have no idea what that means. I need to get out more.
Leto
@Old School: you’re thinking Supreme Court justice, as well as Senator; that’s where billionaires go to hone their political experiences.
Jerry
I grew up in Northern Michigan (kinda betwen Traverse and Petoskey) and would love to move back for my daughter’s sake, but my born ‘n raised Tar Heel wife will have none of that.
WaterGirl
@Jerry: It’s a beautiful state.
Harrison Wesley
The aroma of Whitmer ’28 is in the air……….
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
“the trees are the right height [in Michigan]” ~ Willard Mittens Romney VII
twbrandt
For the first time in decades I’m not reluctant to say I live in Michigan.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Whomever he may be, he’s no Rishigan Fishigan.
:)
Baud
There were only two things stopping us from having revolutionary success at the federal level after Biden was elected: Manchinema and the filibuster.
Even with that, we had maybe the most productive couple of years since the 1970s (followed closely by the first two years of Obama).
MagdaInBlack
This makes me happy for the folks in Michigan and also makes me happy because my dream home is somewhere (yet undetermined) near Marquette, MI
Yet undetermined = I haven’t won Lotto yet.
Baud
Also, too, WaterGirl must be on the doomers’ enemies’ list.
Baud
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: It’s funny because Whitmer is wearing mittens in the photo.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Not only that, but the mittens have the Michigan mitten image on them.
Beagleowned
I’ve lived in mid Michigan for 13 years, having moved from Indiana. Upon arrival I engaged in local politics, in part, because I sensed a possibility for meaningful change. I cannot begin to express how good it feels.
My town, in the mid of the mitt, is still predominantly conservative but the political environment has morphed. Most local conservatives have either dialed it down OR ramped it up (MAGA Trumpists). They fight each other more than they fight the progressives. This summer post from MLive is indicative.
“It began with a rattling door at a Republican convention at a Clare hotel. Moments later, a county GOP chairman and a Republican activist took off their glasses in preparation for a fight. What commenced involved a kicked groin, a wrestling-style tackle and broken dentures.“
I still wear my Mona Lisa smile every time I read this.
WaterGirl
@Baud: You have no idea how right you are.
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: The motto in Illinois used to be “you can’t win if you don’t play.”
Scout211
Oh yeah. I saw this post with Governor Whitmer’s smiling photo and all those great things being said about her and I just had to comment here and tell you all about her sordid past and all the bad choices she made when she was younger and stupider . . .
However, I found NOTHING and would not care a lick if I did.
She’s a wonderful governor and the Democrats in the state of Michigan are doing wonderful things.
Thanks, WaterGirl!
JML
Big Gretch is awesome. (her embracing that nickname is part of what makes her great, you know?) She’s done a pretty fantastic job in MI and she’ll absolutely be someone to look at in ’28 as a presidential contender.
Michigan is actually a decent representative of the country as a whole: when you put the dems in charge it does well and things get fixed. When you let the GOP run the show, things go to crap in a big hurry.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: The path is different, but I am hoping that Wisconsin can follow in their footsteps. Maybe even North Carolina. Time will tell.
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: So you’re saying I should buy some?
WaterGirl
@JML:
Too long for a bumper sticker or a rotating tag! Dammit!
Rudi666
@MagdaInBlack:
Lake Superior is nasty in October and November.
https://wfnt.com/wow-marquette-woman-captures-first-winter-storm/
Many years ago I drove along US2 and saw waves crashing onto road.
Baud
@JML:
@WaterGirl:
I think you saw the same thing in California when the Dems got a supermajority and could pass a budget.
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: I’m not suggesting that you blow your food and rent money on lottery tickets.
But you can’t win if you don’t play! Maybe one ticket a year as an investment in your future? :-)
Omnes Omnibus
With a number of statewide elections culninating last year’s state supreme court election, Wisconsin is in the process of getting itself on the same path. FWIW I think there are a lot of states were it can be done. As we are seeing though, it is a process, and it can take several elections to reach a tipping point. We all just need to do the work and not give up.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yeppers.
I was watching the recording of the Four Directions zoom this morning so I could make a few short clips to share with folks who weren’t able to attend.
Somewhere toward the end, OJ was saying that the Native vote tends to go toward Democrats, like 96 or 97%. I said “one group want to help you, the other group wants to kill you, it’s not hard to decide.”
*unless you’re a Republican voter, I guess.
Tony Jay
Doomers shroomers. You’ve got a progressive Government, a host of ambitious young Democratic leaders and a legion of highly motivated activists ready to bleed fire and sweat nitroglycerine to roll-back the hordes of MAGAstan from She to Seething She. That’s not nothing, that’s a lot.
You want doom and gloom. You get your arses over to Britain and smell the misery. It’s mould and old cow piss for Christmas over here, me old chums. Count your blessings and all that.
trollhattan
@JML:
Knew nothing of her, then the armed invasion of their capitol and her response, which had Trump calling her “That woman in Michigan.” She doesn’t back down and instead leans in, including wearing a tee emblazoned with “That Woman in Michigan.” Instant fan. If she decides to run I’ll give her a serious look.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I need something to vote for.
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Oh, I thought that was a British Yuletide tradition.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Thanks for that!
Pinkpuppy
@mrmoshpotato: I had to google to run that reference down: that is an impressively deep cut. That SNL Weekend Update episoede is one of the strangest onesI have seen, and that is saying something.
rikyrah
the mittens are so cute :)
WaterGirl
@Baud: I am reaching across the internet to smack you. Could you come a little closer?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I am a mitten girl, myself.
Baud
@WaterGirl: It’s a little early for Balloon Juice After Dark, no?
WaterGirl
@Pinkpuppy: Can you fill me in? I googled and I watched half the video that Mr. Mashed Potato linked, and I still don’t understand.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Never too early!
Frankensteinbeck
@Old School:
@Leto:
No, no. It’s President that the billionaires try to leap straight to, because government should be run like a business. Supreme Court Justice positions are handed to lawyers just far enough up the economic scale to be noticed and treated as lovable puppies by their betters.
cain
Wish my wife luck – she’s heading to her meet with the assistant superintendent and HR – now that she’s been vindicated on basically everything that they accused her of – she’s heading back to negotiate her return to work after being put on administrative leave.
She ain’t going alone.
HR has done fucked up, and they are not to be trusted – neither is the distrct. She’s coming with her lawyer present (a fact they don’t know until she shows up) She’s got herself a list of demands including removing everything from her file, an apology, and she’s planning on making sure her reputation is intact and she can find another job in education.
Meanwhile in her absence, the school has fallen completely apart – without her there – the kids are screaming that they want her (this is the assistant principal they are crying for!) the teachers are needing help, the para educators and counselors are directionless. She got pictures of her office plastered with cards, notes, flowers and pictures from the kids. Just imagine how nutty the principal is feeling right now knowing nobody gives a shit about her and will likely be gone by March.
Baud
@cain: Good. Suck it, bad people.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Well, that explains why I’ve never won.
Butch
@MagdaInBlack: The area from about Houghton to Munising has become a high tech hub, believe it or not (one company in Houghton is involved in “electrospray propulsion technology for nanosatellites;” I don’t know what it means but it compels me to believe it). Housing up here is increasing but still affordable; we bought our UP farmhouse back in 2010 for $34,000, and it’s actually a pretty nice place.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yup.
cain
@Tony Jay: It’s funny how all the parties currently suck there. I can’t believe that this silly island has lost so much stature. I hope Good job Tony Blair for starting the whole Brexit thing.
MagdaInBlack
@Butch: I had read something about that, now that you mention it. I’m glad to hear it, altho I have been watching housing prices go up too.
WaterGirl
@cain: We are all pulling for you!
cain
@Baud: They’ve stepped in it so badly. You can smell their panic. Imagine, pulling the racism card.
She’s considered a protective class.
Will update later on what happened. :)
WaterGirl
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. That’s the first rule. Lucky you are learning it now while you are still young.
jimmiraybob
@Beagleowned:
I think that it’s past time that we should be making the distinction between “conservative” and “regressive reactionary fascist*.”
Also too, I have been beagle owned since the ’60s.
*insert authoritarian placeholder name as desired.
Scout211
Oh wow, cain. I missed the chapter of her being vindicated. What good news!
Alison Rose
@Scout211:
She married Kimberly Guilfoyle, too???
trollhattan
@Baud: A.K.A. spotted dick.
WaterGirl
@cain: Can I remove a couple of the details from that particular comment? I am not a lawyer, but I think your wife’s case is more likely to be successful if you are not sharing any identifiable details in public, even on our blog.
Ken
Anyone think there’d be a market for Dark Brandon T-shirts with the slogan “Vote for me if you want to live”?
Matt McIrvin
@Tony Jay: There’s a thread on LGM *right now* in which most of the discussion is about how the Trump dictatorship is probably inevitable, a boot stamping on a human face forever.
cain
@WaterGirl: Sure go ahead.
I don’t think we planning on a lawsuit unless they something really egregious.
SuzieC
Ohio is following in Michigan’s footsteps by putting an independent redistricting commission on the ballot in 2024. Our successful pro-choice constitutional amendment by citizen initiative was modeled after Michigan’s. If Ohio successfully emulates That State Up North, I won’t care if the Buckeyes lose the next 10 games to the Wolverines.
cmorenc
@WaterGirl:
nc’s tantalizing potential to transform red=>purple=>blue is like soccer in the us: “the spirt of the future since 1972”. Problem is that the gop has been able to maintain a durable 1 to 3% demographic electoral advantage over the last 20 years because migration/growth into the blue more urban areas has been counterbalanced by red-leaning migration from other regions into both suburban and exurban areas – eg the explosive growth in se coastal brunswick county is being fueled by the same sort of folks who move to myrtle beach sc or the villages in florida. The blue crescent running from charlotte to raleigh-durham isn’t quite as dominant a demmographic phenomenon as the effect Atlanta is having in slowly transforming georgia , or that NOVA already has in Virginia.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Sorry I missed it. //
Betty Cracker
@JML: One thing I like about Whitmer is that she approaches highly contentious issues as a pragmatist, not an ideologue. It seems more genuine and effective. I could see her approach working in a presidential campaign someday, but possibly she’s not interested. I think she really means it when she says she loves living in Michigan.
Johnny C. Lately
I will never get tired of that picture.
Big Gretch can rock a pair of mittens.
cain
@Scout211: Yep, as I said they should have done the investigation prior to accusing her.
rikyrah
@cain:
Good luck for her.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Maybe, I’m young here at BJ, but at my mid-60’s, I’m grandpa at work.
WaterGirl
@cain: done! thank you.
schrodingers_cat
WTF is up with Venezuela and Guyana?
cain
@rikyrah: Thank you :)
WaterGirl
@cain: Ready, fire, aim!
Getting people in trouble since the beginning of time.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
That’s not a tradition, that’s a life sentence.
cain
@cmorenc: We were close before and somehow the GOP got the reins back. It’s not going to last for them – we’re going to take it back. Colorado was also a purple state now it’s firmly blue.
Old School
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat: Venezuela wants to do a Vlad and nom-nom-nom, because Guyana suddenly contains oil and gas.
Suzanne
@Johnny C. Lately: I like that she wore a big fluffy pink coat, too. Women always get criticized for what they wear, and wearing a bold, pink jacket to look nice but also be highly functional is exactly right.
I wish Sinema could take a clue that she could have some fun with her clothes without being weird about it.
trollhattan
@Old School: Read that as “joined Camero” and though it sounded on brand. “I’m putting straight pipes on the sucker.”
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: Apparently it’s a territorial dispute that goes back to Spain vs. the Netherlands squabbling over colonial possessions centuries ago. It’s demagogue fodder in Venezuela made newly relevant by those offshore oil discoveries.
JWR
ICYMI:
Geminid
@cmorenc: North Carolina is the likeliest new pickup for Democrats next year. In 2020, Joe Biden came up only 74,000 votes short out of 5.4 million votes cast.
That year, the Biden campaign was short of money until mid-August. Then they had to play catchup in more critical states. This time Joe Biden was already investing organizing and advertising resources in North Carolina a year before the election. If this was a betting site, I’d put my Jackal Bucks down on a Biden win in the Tar Heel State.
Ed. I would add that the same demographic trends that helped turn Virginia from red to light blue in the last 3 decades are at work in North Carolina. I think North Carolina will also turn blue and its more a matter of when and not if.
Johnny C. Lately
@trollhattan: I first read it as “joined Cameo” as in “joined the R&B supergroup behind the 80s monster hit Word Up!“
gvg
@schrodingers_cat: I have no knowledge of the region, but I think the answer was at the end of the article. The current President is going to lose reelection because the economy has sucked under him as well as other things, so he is waving the flag and trying to distract the voters. Also appealing to their greed. No idea if it will mean actual actions.
Also, I noted that the indigenous population in the area is on edge. I wonder how much the actual residents in the area care either way except they don’t want a war. The British seem to have divided it up. Only reason to not change is to avoid a nasty war.
divF
@Tony Jay: Part of the problem I have in trying to understand UK politics is WTF is going on with Labor. The Tories have considerable intersection with the GOP, with a gang of plutocrats manipulating a larger population of xenophobes (plus we both have Rupert Murdoch stirring the pot), so I kind of get them. But Labor doesn’t seem to match up anything that is familiar to me here in the US.
cain
@trollhattan: oil and gas is a curse. Unless you got nuclear weapons – you’re a sitting duck for colonizers.
It said at the end that the referendum is not going to change anything. I don’t think people want a war.
But Guyana is still in danger since a lot of companies will offer to do extraction – it’s also heavily forested. I hope that they’ll keep the place pristine but I suspect pressure is going to be overwhelming.
Johnny C. Lately
@Suzanne: I too like the big fluffy coat. As a parent of teenagers I appreciate being able to say “Wear your parka! The governor of Michigan wears hers and you should too! And she’s presidential material!”
Tony Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, but I’ve heard that the sadsacks over there also wear horsehair thongs and scarify their buttocks before sitting on salt. They lurve a bit of miserywank.
trollhattan
@Johnny C. Lately: Heh, that’s going on his resume ASAP: “Founding member of hit group, Cameo.”
Betty Cracker
@cmorenc: Florida has a similar problem — the cities are growing, but so are developments that attract wingnut retirees. 20 years ago, I thought maybe that factor would peter out as fewer people had pensions, but the onslaught continues. Also, we have a growing concentration of right-leaning Latino groups, so Dems are losing ground on that front too. It sucks, but with time, money and effort, I don’t think it’s hopeless in the long term.
narya
@SuzieC: @Omnes Omnibus: Ohio and Wisconsin are on my wishlist. I know there are factors making both difficult, but I think they’re similar enough to each other and to Michigan that there may be some learning opportunities. And both have shown that forced birth policies get people out to vote.
cain
@JWR: If you spend all your time kissing the front runner’s ass – I’m not sure that is a winning strategy.
trollhattan
@JWR: Marking me hearing Doug Burgum exists for the very first time.
TBone
My cousin lives in Michigan and I frequently tell her I’m jealous of her state gov’t. We love Big Gretch and Dana Nessell and all of these others as well (photos at link):
https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/when-will-america-look-like-michigan?publication_id=320974&post_id=137516568&isFreemail=true&r=229wz
WaterGirl
@JWR: I had never heard of Doug Bugum and I had no idea he was running for president.
He will, um, be sorely missed? :-)
Matt McIrvin
@gvg: My impression is that the indigenous population there don’t strongly identify with either country but that they’ve had a process going on in Guyana to get their concerns addressed and don’t want to lose all that slow progress.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay:
LOL x3
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: 😁
I don’t know either. I actually had to look up the correct spelling of his name. I just remembered Bill Hader’s SNL character, and Dan’s name being a running joke.
RaflW
Minnesota’s story is not as dramatic as Michigan’s. But we were a split-power state for many years.
When we secured a trifecta fairly recently, Democrats including second term Gov. (and former US House member) Tim Walz, as well as legislative leaders, took what they learned from watching Republicans, and ran the table with laws like making MN a much more welcoming state for trans and gender-expansive folk, and protecting the right to abortion.
Repubs are screeching “overreach”, but to heck with those aholes. I like this & MI’s version of Democrats way better than the incrementalist, triangulating past.
WaterGirl
@TBone: Ugh on Michael Moore, but this was funny:
Along with this photo:
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Well, that’s more than I know!
WaterGirl
@RaflW: Yes! When Dems have power, they need to use it!
Sure Lurkalot
My nephew and family just moved to Michigan. His wife grew up there and most of her family still lives there as well. They are ultra normies but they did move from Missouri so I hope they realize what a step up they took.
Tony Jay
@divF:
Imagine a Party where the old Blue Dogs rule the roost after allying with the GOP and Fox News to smear everything to the left of Joe Manchin as student politics radicalism, while still expecting – nay, demanding – the votes of those smelly lefties as their natural due.
That’s The NuLab Corporate Franchise for you. Less of a progressive political party and more of a slightly different shaped plug-in for all the old familiar power sockets.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Always a pleasure. Never a chore.
Omnes Omnibus
I do feel as though I need to defend the triangulating Dems of the ’90s. The right was ascendant and Dems needed to play defense. Bill Clinton, et al., did a lot to keep things from getting worse. It’s taken a while for the zeitgeist to shift, but it is happening and it is reflected in how more and more Dems are able to operate.
RaflW
@Baud: Sunset is painfully early these weeks.
cmorenc
@Geminid:
Biden lost NC in 2020 by 74k votes, in substantial part because the Trump campaign concentrated its final two weeks in appearing at rallies in smaller red cities/areas to goose turnout in places that usually lag in turnout. Also, D mojo was unquestionably damaged by a sec scandal coming to light just a little over a month before the election involving the previously promising US Senate candidate Cal Cunningham – a military veteran – it literally sucked the oxygen out of the room the final month of the campaign.
yeah, so an incidence of marital infidelity would be but a small pebble tossed into the waves in many other parts of the country, but this is NC and you can pound your fist in sand for all the good it will do you to point out to voters…but Trump is a serial philanderer…but the votes lost to Cunningham,s situation weren’t Trump voters who wern’t going to vote for Cunningham anyways.
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: Right now in MA, I think the only white guy in the top executive offices is Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin, who has been there for a while.
Old School
I’m hip again! I know the #1 on the Billboard Hot 100!
Edit: OK. I’ve never been hip.
Scout211
NBC has the Time Magazine person of the year short-list.
The nine names on the 2023 shortlist are King Charles III, Jerome Powell, Trump prosecutors, Hollywood strikers, Barbie, Taylor Swift, Xi Jinping, Sam Altman and Vladimir Putin.
TSwift has my vote. Runner-up: Barbie.
What are your choices?
Omnes Omnibus
@Old School: FWIW the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 is seldom hip. Oddly enough, having a Brenda Lee song there in 2023 is about as close as you can get.
sab
@Sure Lurkalot: I lived in western Michigan for the first half of the 1980s. In many ways I loved it and Michiganders, but politically it was fucking toxic. DeVos and VanAndels ran everything, so white Evangelical Dutch Reformed ran everything. Felt like South Africa but milder because they weren’t 10% of the population holding down 90%. But still very racist and Christianist.
Stuns me now when people write about pubs in various places. We had bars in Slavic and Italian neighborhoods, but whole citities were dry not by legislation, but by churches leaning on landlords.
In my neighborhood in a Polish part of Grand Rapids we drank our beer in coffee mugs because of the neighbors.
Omnes Omnibus
@Scout211: Inanimate carbon rod.
rikyrah
@SuzieC:
I know Ohio is red, but, I do believe that it will be a Climate Refugee State eventually.
Mike in NC
Yes, Time, by all means go with the blood-gargling psycho.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: There’s always the folk covering “Wonderful Christmastime”, I’ve heard it at the store. Oddly enough, not Sir Paul’s version. I’ve also heard a cover of “Happy Christmas, the War is Over”, though also not Lennon’s original.
Geminid
@cmorenc: Also, Governor Roy Cooper win by 10,000 votes in 2016, and in 2020 he won reelection by over 240,000 votes. If Cunningham hadn’t messed up, his vote might have fallen halfway between Biden’s and Cooper’s. Then he would have beaten Tom Tillis.
Scout211
For all of you college football playoff fans, USA Today has a great opinion piece on FSU getting cheated out of a “stolen election.”
Florida State could still play for CFP National Championship if Mike Pence has the courage
It goes on and on. A fun read.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Happy to see it!
Omnes Omnibus
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: You poor bastard, you work in retail.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: In the video, Bill Hader as Stefon is recommending NYC nightclubs. He does lists of what these places have to offer, and it includes obscure celebrities like the woman who played the principal in Kindergarten Cop, and for every place he also mentions Dan Cortese, who I guess was a minor celebrity on MTV. So you said “Michigan has it all,” and the commenter said, what about Dan Cortese? It’s a kind of absurd item that has to be on every list, I guess.
West of the Rockies
OT, but worth noting (and gloating): Trump’s DC trial starts in four months! March 4th!
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Also, it’s when he lists “Dan Cortese” that he breaks up.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Oh my god, that’s so good!
sab
My Nook tablet was dying. Asked my husband to get me a new chord at BestBuy. He couldn’t be bothered. Said buy a new Nook. Today I got the car, went to BestBuy, bought a Playstation quality charger, and came home and plugged in my dying Nook. 3% when I left the house. 6% when I rerurned two hours later.
Plugged in the new charger and from 6% to 36% within half an hour. 63% now while I am online. When husband says he is lazy and a luddite I should believe him.
Also too, Barnes and Noble does not at all support their electronics. Caveat emptor. I love my Nook, but plugs and chargers and the actual tablets are supported elsewhere, not by Nook.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Thank you, that helps tremendously.
schrodingers_cat
@trollhattan: I wonder if any of the red roses will protest against their Venezualan buddy.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: I do too. Our mayor Aftab Pureval said the same thing. He thinks Cincinnati will grow as a a result.
I also think Ohio has potential. David Pepper (head of Blue Ohio which encourages and financially supports Democratic candidates in local races) has pointed out that Ohio is Red in part because too many races are uncontested and Democrats running for office can force the local conversation to at least hear different viewpoints. That makes sense to me It’s going to take awhile but at least it’s a step in the right direction. Ohio Dems also have a strong bench with Black women – Joyce Beatty, Emelia Sykes and Shontel Brown. There’s a great talent pool here.
cwmoss
@cmorenc: gerrymandering also fucks over NC big time.
lowtechcyclist
@Alison Rose:
“Who in the ‘verse hasn’t?”
-paraphrasing Mal Reynolds
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t think I have.
sab
@sab: When Kay wanted to move to Michigan I thought she was out of her mind.
Politics can change. Normies can notice that government is toxic. Takes hard work at ground level, but Michigan proves it can be done.
Still hoping for Ohio. I love this state, but when I see state legislature I do wonder why. Then I remember Michigan. It used to be toxic, and Michiganders voted for that toxicity. Now they have changed rheir minds.
lowtechcyclist
@cmorenc:
Holy shit! How many people were in the room at the time? Did any of them get out in time to survive?
/pedant
JWR
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, I remember how hard it was to defend some of the things Clinton did, like ending welfare as we knew it and all that TelCom stuff, (not sure about that last item), while holding out for a time when a Dem president didn’t have to cater either to the Blue Dogs or the Repubs. But he did what he did, and maybe he was the best person to do it, though I did at times wish that HRC was in the top job.
Martin
@Tony Jay: Yeah, hard to build energized momentum when ‘Everyone happy with Brexit yet? Is it doing what everyone wanted?’ is the unavoidable leading act to every single message.
TBone
@WaterGirl: Say what you will about Mike (and I do get it, the cringe) but his body of work, going all the way back to Roger & Me, is solid, as were his election predictions. He’s done a lot of good over the years and I think his heart is in the right place. There are some good pieces of advice in that post along with the “mug” shots.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: I would be very surprised if Venezuela invaded Guyana. They could never succeed because the U.S. military would stop them easily.
Foreign adventures are a quick way for military dictatorships to lose power. In 1983, Argentina’s miltary junta fell in the aftermath of its failed invasion of the Falklands Islands.
Greece’s Colonels ruled that nation from 1967 to 1974. Then, with the Junta’s encouragement, Greek Cypriots overthrew Archbishop Makarios and called for Enosis, a union with Greece. In order to protect Cyprus’s Turkish minority, Turkiye invaded and took over northern Cyprus. The Greek Colonels fell from power not long after this defeat.
SuzieC
@Kathleen: Love this comment. Joyce Beatty is my rep. We have a very strong progressive community in Columbus. Our Indivisible Central Ohio group wrote 25,000 Vote Forward letters to defeat August Issue One and pass November Issue One. We will never stop fighting.
smith
You know how George Santos is now doing customized messages for Cameo? He’s got his first customer! John Fetterman ordered up a personalized Christmas message for Bob Menendez, from one dirty dealer to another.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishments☘🌈 Koch
Dems have a pretty good bench: Whitmer, Kamala, Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, Warnock, Ossoff, Mayor Pete, Elise Slotkin, Fetterman, and I’ve come around on Newsome.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
Nah, you’re thinking of Spotted Dick.
Martin
@Butch: That’s also called a colloid thruster. Used for small satellites like cubesats. It’s a kind of ion thruster, not very powerful but small, very efficient, and very precise. It’s a growing market.
Works by ionizing particles (the electrospray part) and running them through an electric field to accelerate them to create momentum, which needs to be conserved moving the satellite the other way. The energy for the momentum comes from solar rather than a chemical reaction. That’s why it’s efficient. If you’re familiar with how powder coating works, it’s kind of like a weaponized version of that.
VeniceRiley
@Tony Jay: The rain and dark has been a bit much; but the wife got Xmas eve, Xmas day, and boxing day off work. A Christmas miracle! And she’s going to make me a traditional Christmas dinner. I’m going to have a lovely first Christmas all together with my wife and our doggos.
TBone
@smith: That’s our Jawn hahahaha!
Kathleen
@SuzieC: That’s awesome! Hamilton County Democratic Party is strong and successful, and is chaired by a Black woman. We’ve flipped County offices and judgeships which formerly were Republican strongholds. All 3 County Commissioners are Democratic women (2 of whom are Black), and 9 members of City Council are Democrats. Stacey Abrams’ organization figured out Dems could find support in rural areas in Georgia and I think that also exists in Ohio.
Martin
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishments☘🌈 Koch: Newsom is good, but he doesn’t feel authentic. He comes off as seeming a little too good at this. That’s not disqualifying, just a problem that does need to be overcome. And increasingly, the party does need to deliver something other than white men, which he unquestionably is.
SuzieC
@Kathleen: Yay Kathleen! There are several of us progressive Ohioans here on BJ and I hope we communicate more with each other.
Kathleen
@SuzieC: That would be great!
smith
@Martin: The thing that always sets me back about Newsom is something quite superficial — that slicked-back hairstyle makes him seem to me like an oily Hollywood operator who can’t quite be trusted. I never thought I’d say this, coming as I do from the generation whose long hair prompted our elders to believe the world was ending, but I wish he’d adopt more conventional hairstyle.
wjca
This.
Although I am not optimistic that a lot of folks here would be willing to make the mental leap required. Or, perhaps, not capable — the regressive reactionaries having trashed the word “conservative”, quite possibly beyond redemption.
Tony Jay
@Martin:
Brexit is doing exactly what It’s backers intended. The morons who voted for it, not bringing their dreams to life so much, but they get hot and cold running racism, so they’re distracted like kittens with yarn.
@VeniceRiley:
OMG, you’re over here now, aren’t you? I am so, so, so very sorry.
But seriously, enjoying Christmas with your better half is what it’s all about. That and the food. And the drinking. And the music. And the many, many movies.
wjca
@schrodingers_cat:
From the link:
Which is another way of saying that Venezuela knows damn well that they have no case.
smith
@wjca: How many “conservatives” exist today who do not support “regressive reactionary fascists” in practically everything they say and do? At least among public figures, it’s only a handful, and those have been largely sidelined if not expelled from the Regressive Reactionary Fascist Party.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: They meant the other literally.
wjca
Somehow (probably because I suck at pop culture and always have), I read this and thought we were talking about a group of hitmen. What with everything being outsourced these days, there might even be a market there.
WaterGirl
@TBone: John Fetterman is a street fighter.
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: I’m wondering if the weird Massachusetts tradition of often electing moderate Republican governors is ever going to come back. The state Republicans don’t seem inclined to run those guys any more–they’ve gone full MAGA deranged.
(When I said Galvin “had been there for a while”, I was understating–he was first elected in 1994 during the Weld administration, and though he’s a Democrat, he has hung on through Democratic and Republican administrations. And to his credit, it’s become easier to vote here than it used to be, though it took a lot of time.)
There go two miscreants
This is a hobbyhorse of mine, but: one important thing they need to use it for is to repeal old repressive laws, even if those have been overturned by the courts, or have fallen into disuse through consensus non-enforcement. Getting them explicitly off the books is the best solution.
Miss Bianca
So proud of the state I grew up in…*finally*!
Mike E
@Geminid: Cal was never going to win and even if he somehow pulled it off we would have been stuck with another egocentric (cough*Edwards*cough) one-term do nothing (aah*Kay Hagan*choo) senator…sorry to burst your bubble but the NC Dem party is not on the same footing as VA/MI/WI, sadly
Gvg
@Omnes Omnibus: YES! People don’t remember losing before Bill and the triangulating. It was buying time to outlast that damn Reaganism.
Plus there really was rising crime and real inflation and real high interest rates then. We haven’t had it in so long that people think what we have now is high interest rates.
Fake Irishman
@Betty Cracker:
generally agree with this take: When she was minority leader in the MI state senate, she absolute maximized every bit of leverage she had despite only having 12 seats in a heavily gerrymandered 38 seat chamber. Medicaid expansion and a decent minimum wage increase got through in part due to her negotiating skills and willing to compromise with somewhat more reasonable republicans.
She also went to the mat when a deal wasn’t there. I’ll never forget when she basically did everything in debate short of throwing furniture in a futile attempt to stop a mean-spirited bill that would make it illegal for graduate research assistants from forming unions.
During the 2012 state party convention, I got a chance to talk with her for five minutes and thank her for that. She was basically like “it was the least I could do.” And was quite gracious. When I saw her jump in the 2018 governor race, I was extremely pleased.
Adam L Silverman
Geminid
@Mike E: That’s cetainly a condescending way to differ with someone! Cal Cunningham lost by less than 80,000 votes out of 5.4 million. You’re telling me that even without his sex scandal there was still no way Cunningham could have won. Or if he did it somehow wouldn’t have mattered.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is obviously bullshit.
moonbat
@MagdaInBlack:
Where I was born! Well, on K.I. Sawyer AFB or thereabouts.
Mike E
@Geminid: I apologize for the condescending tone… I met Cal Cunningham and he was a poor candidate for office, we needed someone way better and him blowing it actually saved us a lot of grief here in NC. It would have assured a repub taking the seat in the next election, but this is a moot point.
People try to compare NC politics to other states and that’s bullshit, frankly.
Geminid
@Mike E: All states differ, but there are points of comparisons that are worth making. North Carolina has similarities to Virginia and Georgia including large African American populations, and economic growth that increases the proportion of college educated people and immigrants. They are more like each other than Ohio for these reasons.
I would have a hard time comparing Florida to other states, but North Carolina just is not so singular a state and I’m not the only one here who was or will be comparing elements of your state to others.
As for Cunningham, I picked up on the animus you have for him in your first comment. You may be justified in your anger, but it does not make your analysis any sounder
And I will apologize for my angry tone at 163. It’s just that I’d much rather be cussed out than condescended to.
Mike E
@Geminid: My analysis comes from living here for 35+ years. I try to tell people on this site that NC is in a really bad way and get dismissive hand waves, and numbers. Fine. Nothing says, “I really don’t give a shit about North Carolina” more but I honestly feel it’s deserved! I really can’t wait to move away from here since there’s no stopping the TEApubs from their constitution shredding hegemony, not the schlerotic Dem party nor the courts and that’s okay, too. I keep thinking, “Who’d want to live here?” but that’s a moot point as well: blithe peeps are lining up to move to this Right To Work paradise, and more power to ’em I say! Miss E and I will vote with our feet and won’t look back except in sadness.
Don K
@JML:
And they’re even fixing the damned roads!
I am so damned proud of what our MIDems have accomplished this year. The Dems came into office realizing the reason you run for office is to get shit done, and they’ve done it, with a coalition of cities, minority-majority suburbs, and upper-income white suburbs that has held together amazingly well (no Manchinemas in the MI legislature). Now we have to hold onto the House in November.
I live in Bloomfield Township (upper-income suburb that voted reliably Red not so long ago), and am proud to say we are now at least purple, trending towards Blue, voting for the good guys up and down the ballot.
Don K
@There go two miscreants:
Totally this! MI still has a sodomy law on the books that seems facially unconstitutional because it doesn’t really come out and say what you’re not supposed to do, and that should be repealed or really narrowed down to cover only bestiality (don’t make the WA mistake of accidentally legalizing bestiality – it never ends well). There are loads of 19th century laws on the books here that need to go (e.g., adultery, blasphemy).
Geminid
@Mike E: So where are you headed? Roanoke’s a nice place.
WaterGirl
@Don K: so nice to see all the great accomplishments from Michigan in such a short amount of time!
Racer X
Deep-blue California is a more recent phenomenom than people remember. Years and years of republican mis-management until people got fed up and threw them out…followed by solid Democratic leadership, policies and prosperity. I hope Michigan follows the same path.