For the first time in thirty years, a single political party controls 100% of all practical political power in Michigan. Voters elected a conservative Governor (with an ultra-right-wing lt. gov) by 20 percentage points over a union-backed popular Democrat who is mayor of Michigan's arguably most successful and expanding city (7th in the nation, in fact, in job growth). We flipped the State House from 64-42 Dem-controlled to 62-44 Rep-controlled. We expanded Republican control of the State Senate into a super-supermajority which now doesn't need to consult with Democrats for anything, even for constitutional changes. We elected Republicans in every statewide position of power, including Secretary of State and Attorney General. And we flipped the State Supreme Court from Democrat-controlled to Republican-controlled. In Michigan, a solid blue state which voted for Obama 57%-40% over McCain just two years earlier.
People are suffering here. A lot. They naively believed voting for Obama would fix the problems the nation faced almost immediately. It didn't happen. They're still unemployed, losing their homes, and miserable. They still don't have health care. Voting for "change" didn't change anything. I have no anger at all for my friends and family who voted for Obama in 2008 and then voted Republican in 2010. They're just struggling, desperate, going through bankruptcies, foreclosures, and feel absolutely helpless. They lashed out. Granholm didn't help, Obama didn't help, so voters decided to try something completely different. This state has been paralyzed by gridlock due to our two chambers being run by different parties (a gift just granted to the nation as a whole), so we decided to try the opposite of gridlock -- letting one party run everything, without limits, obstruction, or even debate.
It will be a fascinating experiment. And, while I voted against virtually every single one of the winners, I have to root for them to succeed. I don't have the luxury of hoping they fail, in order to prove a larger point about Republican ideas not working. Because I have a mortgage here, too, and I'm not moving. Yet I'm also very conscious of the fact that Republicans nationwide will be watching Michigan for any and every sign of success, because if our state does turn around, regardless of the circumstances, the GOP will use it as a "case study" for decades to come: Michigan, the "lost" state, worst economy in the nation, was given complete and unprecedented Republican control, and turned itself around.
We shall certainly see.
Incidentally, the last time Republicans controlled the governorship and both state houses (but not the courts or AG's office) was under Engler in 1998, and under that leadership we saw an absolute collapse of what was left of our manufacturing power. While Granholm has admittedly been a rather milquetoast Governor, she was handed a disastrous state economy at the start, and a Republican State Senate which wouldn't let her do a damned thing.
Oh wait, I take that back -- Granholm was able to work across the aisle to create the Michigan Film Incentives, literally the only bright spot in our state's economy in the past five years. In 2007, before the credits went into effect, only $2 million was spent in Michigan on film and television. In 2010? $650 million. It has been a runaway success, saving communities, businesses, and jobs. I can't tell you how many people I know personally who have benefited from these tax credits, and the cost to the state is negligible (since without the credits, the productions wouldn't have shot here anyway.) But I guess we'll never see how far the program could have helped, since Rick Snyder has promised to turn off the credits immediately, thereby strangling this new industry in its crib. And with a complete rubber stamp congress at his disposal, expect it to happen soon. Producers confirmed that even Detroit 1-8-7 will have to go back to shooting in Georgia, which still has their film credits in place.
But hey, losing those jobs is a small price to pay for abolishing gridlock. Right?