I have deep roots in Michigan. My grandfather went to school there and then raised his family in Kalamazoo. I went to school there. One of my brothers went to school there. My ex-wife is from Detroit. I cannot imagine Michigan as a right-to-work state. It’s a cultural thing. You either understand it, or you don’t. But it runs as deep as U of M’s maize and blue. I think it goes far beyond partisan politics. It’s more like how hunting and fishing are ingrained parts of the culture is many parts of the country (including Michigan). You can’t take that away just by signing a slip of paper that you call a law. The people won’t accept it.
I guess that is what the state’s Democratic congressional delegation was trying to tell Gov. Rick Snyder:
Top Democrats in the Michigan Congressional delegation just wrapped up their meeting with Governor Rick Snyder, during which they urged him in no uncertain terms: If you go forward with “right to work” legislation, you’ll be consigning the state to years of discord and division. They urged him to consider vetoing the legislation or postponing it until the next session — or even agreeing to subject it to referendum.
According to Dems who were on the call, Snyder told them he would “seriously” take into account their objections — which they took as a genuine indication of possible willingness, for now, to reconsider…
…Dems told Snyder that forging ahead with “right to work” legislation risked undermining the progress in labor-management relations in the state and could create a situation similar to Wisconsin, where an ongoing battle over collective bargaining tore the state apart for over a year.
I don’t know much about Gov. Snyder’s personality, but I doubt he will heed these warnings. If he goes ahead and signs the right-to-work legislation, I expect that the GOP’s strength will be wiped out in most of the state, with the exception of some of the Detroit suburbs where auto executives make their home. The Republicans derive a lot of strength in Michigan from a combination of basic social conservatism (especially on the abortion issue) and hostility to Detroit (barely-veiled racial fear and resentment). But I think the culture of unionism trumps the culture of social conservatism. We saw this in recent presidential results in Ohio and Wisconsin, but the phenomenon is much stronger in Michigan.
Going after unions in this way is a sure-fire way to get the so-called Reagan Democrats to drop the Republican Party, and with extreme prejudice.
