Michigan Democratic Party: Our statement on Snyder choosing to side with Dick DeVos and the Koch

[Coyotl]

Michigan Democratic Party
Our statement on Snyder choosing to side with Dick DeVos and the Koch brothers over Michigan's working families:

“If Governor Snyder thinks that Michigan citizens will go home and forget about what happened in Lansing today, he is sorely mistaken,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “The people of Michigan will not forget how he abandoned working families and threw in with corporate CEOs like Dick DeVos and the Koch brothers. They will not forget how the Republican Legislature rushed through these bills with no committee hearings and little debate during the lame duck session. They will not forget how Snyder hid from the public and signed the bills before the ink was dry. Snyder has set the tone for the next two years, and this fight is not over. 2014 starts today.”

Michigan Democratic Party
14,179 likes
https://www.facebook.com/michigandems

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Anyone up for a recall?

Fuck him, and not in a good way.

[llmart]

4. Didn't we try that already?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Nope, not in Michigan. It was tried in Wisconsin.

[GreenEyedLefty]

7. It was tried a year or so ago, and the recall effort fell short of the signatures.

I would love to general strike, except people are such god damned cowards.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Ah, thank you. I was unaware of the prior effort.

[ilikemaps]

13. oh dear

Although he may be controversial, I don't know that cursing his name will help

[HankyDub]

17. it ain't gonna hurt either

its not like it helps to be respectful to these people. They will still do everything they can to take food out of working people's mouths.

[TruthTeller]

15. No, way to costly...

the unions don't have the money for it. Better to build momentum for 2014 elections. Recalls are difficult in MI only 1 state representative in many years. It was costly and took many man hours. Then a republican won the seat. Organize, find good candidates, acts Civil Disobedience, Boycotts and hold the House and Senate members accountable for their actions at public meetings, etc...

[bluestate10]

19. Plan for 2014 and vote that asshole out of office.

More democrats were elected in the last election, those people must focus on halting Snyder while leading well. In 2014, Snyder and all swing district republicans must be eliminated.

[midnight]

20. I agree 2014 is to much time to allow other anti worker legislation.

[MrScorpio]

23. Chances are good that this fucker is going to get reelected if he runs

Too many good Democratic Party voters have left the state due to the depression here.

[putitinD]

2. its time for a general strike

[babylonsister]

3. So cowardly! This is not over by a long shot, I'm sure. nt

[llmart]

6. I thought petitions went around.....

and they couldn't get enough signatures.

Edit to direct my response to California Peggy

[Coyotl]

9. After Walker won, they called it quits.

But the times have changed. A recall is possible. Especially of key Republican legislators. Replace one R and the balance changes by 2 votes!

[Mr.Bill]

10. The Republicans don't know what they are playing with here.

People died for the right to bargain collectively. I fear this is going to get very ugly.

[Coyotl]

11. How Michigan’s Right-To-Work Law Came to Be

http://billmoyers.com/2012/12/11/how-michigans-right-to-work-law-came-to-be/
December 11, 2012
by Theresa Riley

As police held back thousands of protesters near the state capital building, Michigan, the birthplace of the labor movement, became the 24th state to enact so-called “right-to-work” legislation. Earlier today, Governor Rick Snyder signed two bills preventing public and private sector unions from requiring workers to pay union fees.

The Detroit News reports that after requests from Grover Norquist and others, Snyder switched sides on the issue. United Auto Workers President Robert King said in an interview, that the Koch brothers and Amway owner Dick DeVos “bullied and bought their way to get this legislation in Michigan.”

In an editorial headlined “Drinking the Kochs’ Kool Aid,” the Detroit Free Press was unable to account for the governor’s change of heart, but offered some theories on the motivations of State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville. He may have been under pressure, the newspaper said, from the anti-union Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), both financially supported by the Koch brothers. ALEC’s model right-to-work bill “mirrors the Michigan law word for word.”

.....

[freshwest]

12. I hope they can stop this in court. In the meantime, for go it, Michigan.

[snot]

14. Evidently MI citizens forgot what Repubs did in WI . . .

[amandabeech]

16. Dick "Amway" DeVos, together with his wife, Betsy "Blackwater" Prince DeVos,

are the Western Michigan versions of the Koch Brothers, and are despised by many, many Michiganders.

He ran for governor a few years ago on a platform that included turning the entire Michigan public school system into a voucher program. Even my Repub friends from high school wouldn't vote for him.

Grantholm beat him to a pulp.

Her brother is the founder of what was originally called Blackwater, and she has been horrible in West Michigan politics.

Snyder cozies up to these two at his own political risk.

[ReRe]

18. The P-E-O-P-L-E

HAVE NOT BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!!

[HooptieWagon]

21. A statewide strike by all unions is needed.

[tiredtoo]

22. A couple of comments here

First the Detroit Free Press supported Snyder up until today. They just don't understand what happened ? Duh ? Second, hopefully this anger and frustration will carry forth to the next election. We must get out the vote like we did for Obama.

[Coyotl]

24. This won't be forgotten for a few generations of voters, rest assured. They really are

shooting themselves in one leg for temporary political gains. What they have accomplished is to galvanize their opposition and make an unfavorable impression on a lot of young people about to enter the voting population. Odds are already low that the next generation will ever be Republican in any state, much less so Michigan now.

[Recall369]

25. I agree but...

I am sorry this post is so late but I have just joined the group and wanted to reply to this thread.
The Michigan right-to-work movement actually started a lot earlier than most people think. Toward the end of the Engler administration a then high ranking member of the Republican party met with a group in west Michigan that later became the nucleus of the Michigan Tea Party and told them that the ground work for Michigan's right-to-work plan was already in place. He maid references about such groups as the Koch brothers, epically David Koch, working through ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Committee) an organization basically founded and supported by the Koch brothers and other large corporation's, and backed by Dick DeVoss (Amway) The speaker than said "All we have to do is waite for the right governor to take office to put the plan into effect." I do not have the link right now to the video of this that appeared on YouTube but with a little bit of digging I believe it can be found. It is also documented that right after Snyder's election the Koch brothers through one of their many corporation's made a rather large donation to the Michigan Republican Governor's Fund which Rick Snyder has access to as was confirmed by an investigative report by WJR in Detroit right after the right-to-work bill passed the legislature and was sent to Gov. Snyder's desk. There is also a link going around the net comparing the Alec right-to-work bill and the Michigan right-to-work bill side by side and guess what the wording of each bill is almost identical paragraph by paragraph. Right after the Michigan legislature passed the right-to-work bill Mr. Bob King, president of the UAW stated that Republican legislators including Gov. Snyder had been threatened indirectly by the Koch brothers and Dick DeVoss that if they didn't vote for the bill that they would fund a recall of then and have them replaced by good Tea Party Members. This was also mentioned in many articles to follow in the Detroit Free Press.
I also agree that the Republicans may have shot themselves in the foot so to speak with this. But I think that what the Republican Party in Michigan is counting on is right before the election getting a large infusion of money into the state by people like the Koch brothers and DeVoss thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United verse the Federal Election Commission in which the Supreme Court basically ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that corporations were consider people and that money was considered as free speech. The Republicans believe that they can use the money to fund a large propaganda and misinformation campaign through shell groups like American's For Prosperity, which was also organized by the Koch b bothers and supported locally hear in Michigan by DeVoss, to persuade and outright scare the uninformed voters of the need to voters Republican. This tactic was first used in the recall election of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin and again in the last election this past November to defeat Prop. 2 the Save Our Jobs/Protect Michigan's Working Families. Remember the commercials about how if collective bargaining rights were put into the Michigan Contusion teachers would come to school drunk or high and your children would be molested in school ? As a matter of fact that is the major reason that Michigan Rising stopped the second Recall Snyder campaign. What's the use of going through all the money and work to get the recall of Gov. Snyder on the ballot to be outspent 20 to one by the opposition as they were in Wisconsin.
I believe that what we need to do right now until the election 2014 is to keep the issue of the Republicans and right-to-work fresh in the minds of the voters. We also need to back and support groups such as Citizens Against Citizens United and Move to Amend just to name a couple of groups fighting against all this undocumented money being pored into Local, State and Federal elections. If we can do that or at least shine the brightest light we can on these outside groups I believe that we will have a fighting chance in 2014.
I am sorry that this note is so long but when I get fired up I really get fired up. Like I said earlier all the information stated in this letter can be verified with a little digging on the internet. Thanks for listening to me rant. Recall369

[Coyotl]

26. Great rant. Welcome to DU.