The Democratic Voice

By William Crandell

During the recent lame duck session in Lansing, the Republican majority passed many unpopular bills that were designed to carry forth their radical agenda.
Laws they knew were not going to be accepted by the public and many of them were introduced and passed without holding committee testimony because the GOP knew there would be widespread opposition.

Democrats feel this was done while the Republicans held a super majority in the closing two weeks of the session and was a final kick in the teeth to those that have opposed their callous tactics from the beginning.

In anticipation that unions and various activist groups were going to challenge the new bills and attempt to overturn them, the Republicans also passed legislation that would hamper these efforts by making referendums difficult and to disable the recall process.

Instead of standing behind these news laws with free discussions, they passed legislation that would remove the ability for the people of Michigan to voice their opinion, hold them accountable or remove them from office for their reckless behavior.

Attacking the recall process and making it almost impossible to achieve is cheating and lacks honor.

It is suppressing the right of every person in this state to decide who will govern them and demonstrates the win at all cost corruption that is occurring now in our state government.

Their recent gerrymandering of the district lines of Michigan is also contemptible and a blatant attempt to hold onto power in future elections.

The new recall law takes further steps to guarantee the Republicans maintain their stranglehold on our state government.

The recall process now has to be finished in 60 days instead of 90 which is next to impossible, and it can only be attempted once during a term and then it cannot be attempted during the first six months or the last six months for a representative and during the first year or the last year for a state senator.

Many democrats are accusing the GOP of passing this anti-recall bill because they don’t want to answer for the recent Right to Work legislation that was passed.

The manner in which they passed these bills is further proof that the GOP is only concerned with an agenda of a small minority and that they care nothing for what is in the best interest of this country. All their blustering about patriotism and fairness will not cover up the fact that they are allowing themselves to be purchased by wealthy Americans and are only concerned with exploiting the labor and riches of our nation.

Americans need to wake up and recognize the fact that the current Republican Party is willing to lie, cheat and steal to put forward their radical Tea Party agenda.

I personally believe that we are a better nation than that.