Michigan Politics

The results are in and die is cast… Snyder vs. Bernero. This is not exactly a classic confrontation between ideologies, as Snyder seems to be a genuine pragmatist, but it will be an interesting test for both political parties. What was most interesting about the results of the primary could be read between the lines about the Michigan political establishment.

On the GOP side, the culturally intolerant, religious right wing of the Michigan GOP appears to be on life-support and the few surviving Milliken-era Republicans are saying “good riddance”.  Mike Cox was the anointed representative of the “my family values” crowd, an appropriately hypocritical choice. However, Mr. Cox could never shake off the slime of the botched Kilpatrick investigation; and one has to wonder at not only at a dead political career, but about more legal fallout from his involvement in the Manoogian Mansion party once his political cover ends. People often mistake gross incompetence for some sinister motive, but he could have easily silenced critics by taking a polygraph test and releasing the results, or maybe not…

The question for the extreme right wing of the Michigan GOP is will they attempt to undermine Mr. Snyder? He has already proven them to be impotent by winning the nomination without their support and with the support of Independents and disaffected Democrats. Were they attracted by his pragmatism or by the abject horror of even more Cox in Lansing?  Hard to say, but Mr. Snyder has assiduously avoided the culture wars, probably because he is a rational, tolerant human being and, thus, could never win over the radical right of the GOP base. There must be much gnashing of teeth down at the Detroit News and the Right to Life covens today…

On the Democratic side, most of the pundits had it wrong from the start because they failed to consider the one consistent quality of the Michigan Democratic Machine: they are moths around a fire – always anointing the wrong candidate. Dillon was not in the cards because he had alienated the Democratic base in the last 4 years. Being Speaker of the most ineffective Michigan Legislature during the term of one of the most ineffective Democratic Governors in our lifetime, was hardly a qualifying dossier. However, barely being a Democrat seemed to attract the Michigan Trial Lawyers (AKA “The Justice League”) and Establishment Dems, who tried to be cute politically and backed “the only Dem that could win the general election”. They misjudged both Dillon and Bernero.

When will they get it right? Be true to your Progressive values and the base will turn out. If the Michigan GOP has finally been purged its malignant wing, then so too the Democrats might have rediscovered its soul.