This is another letter to Rick Snyder written by the same person. I guess in order to really understand how important these issues are, you would have to be living the nightmare that residents of Michigan are!
Dear Mr. Snyder,
Do you really believe that the citizens of this state are so totally ignorant that we don’t see what you are doing? Of course you don’t. Then why do you continue to tell the lies that you have been telling? Do you really believe that just because the Capitol lawn was empty the day after you signed the Right to Work For Less law that the battle is over? Of course you don’t.
The more personal media interviews you allow, the more I am convinced that you really are just a puppet for people like John Engler and Dick Devos, and GOP “think tanks” like the Mackinac Center, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). What are they holding over your head that makes you so compliant to their will? Why have you allowed these outside interests to control and manipulate you into making policy for this state that will not help her citizens, and may well serve to destroy her completely? You must realize that you are being used. You must realize that when they are done with you they will toss you aside like the schoolyard bullies of your past. How many reports did you write for classmates? How much math homework did you do for classmates? Did they steal your lunch money too? Don’t you hate that you are right back in the schoolyard that you fought so hard to get out of? It’s time for you to ditch your bullies and be the moderate that you campaigned as. Get out your VETO pen and start being the governor of this state. You have a job to do – start doing it. If you were the CEO of a corporation, do you think you’d still be employed? I don’t.
You were elected to be the governor of this state. You sold yourself to us as “One Tough Nerd”. Where did that guy go? He sure isn’t standing up to the schoolyard bullies right now. When will you stop doing their homework for them? When will you stand up and tell them that enough is enough? The citizens of this state have been begging you to do what you were elected to do. We didn’t elect you to ruin this state. We didn’t elect you to perform a lobotomy on our labor unions. We didn’t elect you to villainize our teachers and privatize our educational system. We elected you to serve as OUR voice. WE pay your salary. Dick DeVos and John Engler only get ONE VOTE each – why are the policies you are enacting reflecting their wishes and not those of your other 10 million constituents? The majority of people in this state didn’t like John Engler’s policies in the 90s when he first tried pushing them on us. The majority of people in this state didn’t want Dick DeVos running the show. We have reviewed the policies and politics of these two men and we voted against them. Why are you insisting on shoving their policies down our throats?
I can’t fix everything - I’m just a mom - but I can give you some motherly advice that might help you out. The best way to fix things is to own up to the truth, the real truth. Shed your bullies by telling us what it is they’re holding over your head. Once it’s out in the open, they can’t use it as leverage anymore. Stop telling the scripted lies they are ordering you to tell. Those talking points are pure propaganda and are straight out of the ALEC playbook. Bold-faced lies the lot of it – and you know it. Do you think that if you repeat it often enough we’ll start to believe it? We’re onto that scheme and it isn’t working. You want to fix this mess they have put you in? Veto everything that hits your desk for the rest of this year. Veto everything they pushed through during the Lame Duck marathon session they held on December 12th and 13th. Veto the lot of it. The Senate can over-ride your vetoes, but the House can’t. Let cooler heads prevail. Give your constituents a chance to weigh in on the legislation that was rushed through by the GOP controlled House and Senate. The bad legislation they passed needs to be evaluated and actually read by them. Most of them don’t even know what they voted on. They were provided policy briefs directly from the Mackinac Center. Policy briefs that neglected to mention the more egregious parts of the legislation. Those policy briefs are no substitute for reading the actual language of the bills being voted on. The sloppiness of the current elected body in this state is reprehensible and you know it. You can do something to change that. If you stand up to these bullies and do the right thing for the people of this state, you might be surprised who would stand behind you.
We are not averse to change, but we don’t believe in throwing out the baby with the bath water. Right now, in your campaign to completely “Reinvent Michigan”, you are dangerously close to losing that baby down the drain. You can do something to change that. What do you think Mr. Engler or Mr. DeVos could do to you if you had 15,000 people standing at your back instead of protesting on your front lawn? For every one of those 15,000 protesters in Lansing the other day, there were at least ten who were unable to make it there in person. If you stay on the path you are on, those people are going to start finding a way to be there. Your life will become a living hell of anxiety that you didn’t sign up for. They put you here – your bullies. Only you can tell them to back down. Only you can do the right thing for your constituents. Start by vetoing the bills that passed through the House and Senate on December 12th and 13th. The choice is yours. You can continue to let them bully you into ruining this state, or you can do the right thing and start standing up for the citizens of this state. Michigan is being used as a testing ground for the model bills produced by ALEC. A good number of your GOP legislators are ALEC members and they are using you to pass legislation in this state that will serve to turn our beautiful state into a wasteland. You can do something to change that.
Start by putting a veto on the new Emergency Manager bill. We don’t want EMs and our communities don’t need them. What our communities need is a leadership training team that can visit ailing communities and assist in training the locally elected officials in how to conduct business in an efficient manner. Our communities need to learn how to maximize their assets to raise the revenue they need to survive. They don’t need one individual to go in and sell off all their assets and leave them with nothing. Locally elected officials may not be business people. They may not be accountants and lawyers. Most of them are just normal people who haven’t managed a budget larger than their own salary. Instead of going into a community, telling them they messed things up and firing them – go into their communities and say, “We noticed that you could use some help and we’ve got some suggestions for you and your team.” Ronald Reagan once said that the nine scariest words in the world were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Under any EM Law those are indeed scary words for communities in Michigan. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can do something to change that.
Be the moderate governor that we elected and do what the majority of your constituents want you to do.
Marion Townsend
Dearborn, MI
December 16, 2012