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Friday, July 18, 2008

Destroy Michigan Government Now!

As our readers probably already know, a state ballot proposal has been submitted to "reform" Michigan government. It has the title of the "Reform Michigan Government Now" proposal. It may or make not make it to the ballot, depending on how many signatures are validated. The interesting thing about this proposal is that it crept up out of nowhere and it's rather mysterious. No one's talking about who is backing it financially, and campaign finance reports aren't available yet. However, it has become clear who the proposal will benefit.

The proposal, which consists of 11 pages of fine print, sprinkles in a few items that most people support with items that start to look a little too targeted. For instance, the proposal would "strengthen the ban on illegal aliens’ ability to register and vote," "require post-election audits of election procedures," and "enact anti-fraud measures to protect the integrity of Michigan’s election process." Those sound like reasonable reforms, and they are probably added into the proposal to make it easier to support. However, when one starts looking at the other legislative and judicial reforms, one sees that governmental representation is dramatically decreased. For instance, the Senate would be reduced from 38 members (1 Senator per 260,000 Michigan residents) to 28 members (1 Senator per 353,000 Michigan residents). In addition, it would decrease the state House from 110 members to 82. This would further strengthen the political party machinery grip on state elective positions, making it even harder for newcomers and non-politicians to get elected. Not to mention that this is a clearly anti-democratic step in the wrong direction. We would prefer to see an increase in both houses of the legislature, so that there are fewer citizens per representative, making for a truly citizen-oriented elected body.

Next comes the axe drop on the Judicial branch. The proposal would reduce the number of Supreme Court justices from seven to five and the number of appeals court judges from 28 to 21. As though the courts weren't clogged enough already, this would make it even harder to work a case up through the appeals process.

If this all seems strangely targeted... well, it is. The Michigan Democratic party is solidly behind this measure and we're finding out more about the motivations behind this measure every day.

What sort of motivations? This week, the Mackinac Center, a free-market think tank in Midland, uncovered the plan on the United Auto Workers' web site. They had posted a PowerPoint presentation explaining the proposal and its effects. Check out the link for the full report, but here are some highlights:





Essentially, this is a proposal to ensure total Democratic Party control over the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of state government. We here at Grand Rapids Pundit want to be quick to point out that we are not Republicans. We do not think that this would be a good idea if it worked in the Republicans' favor. Instead, we prefer split government, where no one party controls all the branches of government. This proposal is a thinly-veiled attempt by the Democratic Party of Michigan, in heavy collaboration with the United Auto Workers, to fundamentally change the structure of state government in their favor.

Hopefully voters will do their research before voting on this proposal, should it make it to the ballot.

3 comments:

  1. [...] Grand Rapids Pundit:  Grand Rapids Pundit also had a thing or two to say. [...]

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  2. "This proposal is a thinly-veiled attempt by the Democratic Party of Michigan, in heavy collaboration with the United Auto Workers, to fundamentally change the structure of state government in their favor."

    So it's basically like the attempts to recall legislators (only for the Republican Party of Michigan, in heavy collaboration with corporate interests).

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  3. I'M TIRED ARE YOU DEMOCRATIC/REPUBLICAN,
    LET BE HONEST, You both lie to the American People, I don't know who steals taxpayers money
    more, Take taxpayers money to fund programs to
    help others, you decide to keep and not use it
    for what it was meant for. Example: Lottery when
    passed, not money was supposed to help schools,
    we pay taxes for roads, Best one I read Owe by the
    way I screwed up $9.1 million, to a con man.
    You know How many people that 9.1 million dollars it could help. One thing I believe this
    country need to get back with GOD, Faith,
    Hope,charity. And our Constitution of United States of America.


    Freedom

    ReplyDelete