I have watched, with a lot of interest, this latest uproar about the latest “right to work” bill that has just been passed by another GOP controlled state congress, this time in Michigan.
I have watched, with not a little amusement, as unions have organized protest after protest since they got wind of the secret work being done on the bill. Sadly, for them, their protest has proved to be nothing but the proverbial medicine after death, and the bill has been passed and is only awaiting to be signed into law by the state governor who has been all over the news media waxing lyrical about the “great benefits” of “right to work.
This means that the right to work bill will become law shortly and the citizens of Michigan will begin to enjoy their $7.50 per hour wages – a great dividend of all the elections they’ve had in that state since 2010.
You probably didn’t think of it that way, but it’s the fact. Elections have consequences and what you get is a direct result of how you vote and who you elect. I’ve received hundreds of invitations on my various social media accounts, to sign petitions in support of Michigan workers in their fight against this bill and I have turned all of it down.
I have turned them down because I know that I would be wasting my time and energy by doing that, as the people of Michigan signed and sealed their fate on this issue long ago when they elected a Republican governor and gave him a Republican super majority in congress.
I have heard counter arguments to this to the effect that it was not everybody in Michigan who voted for the governor and the GOP congress, and especially, not many of the union members who are protesting.
True! Nobody is ever elected with a hundred percent of the votes but they do certainly have to get a majority of the votes, right? So, why did the Republicans get elected to such a super majority when it is a fact that Michigan is a blue state as is always proved in Presidential elections?
It happened because many of these union members and other workers who are protesting now didn’t show up to vote on election day. Some of them may have believed that those elections weren’t important and stayed away because of that. I’m certain that some stayed away just because they didn’t like that a black guy is in the White House. Still, there might have been those who stayed away because they didn’t think any of the candidates on the ballot met their own high standards.
Whatever the reasons were, the result is that the minority was given the power to elect a government that is now making laws for everybody in the state. Honestly speaking, I feel no pity for the people of Michigan because they made their bed and must now lie on it.
If they don’t like it, they have all the power to change it beginning two years from now when another set of elections are coming up in 2014, instead of carrying placards around and protesting a lost cause – at least temporarily. They should change this government with one that will legislate in a transparent manner, and according to the will of the majority. They only need to care enough to go to the polls….yes, it’s that simple.
