![\"State](\"https:\/\/media.townhall.com\/townhall\/reu\/ha\/2021\/152\/e5bcb75e-47eb-493f-b178-408fb84d09d7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>Detroit \u2013 For over a year, Michigan has lived under authoritarian rule.<\/p>\n
In response to the coronavirus epidemic Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer claimed emergency powers on March 10, 2020. A series of long legal battles ultimately led to an October 2 state Supreme Court ruling that nixed her orders as unconstitutional and urged engagement with the state legislature.<\/p>\n
“Our decision leaves open many avenues for the governor and legislature to work together to address (the coronavirus) and we hope that this will take place,” wrote Justice Stephen Markman for the majority.<\/p>\n
Within days, Whitmer simply re-issued her orders via her health department.<\/p>\n
With police authority, an army of citizen spies, a media chorus, and a militant, Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel enforcing her edicts – Whitmer has ruled with an iron fist. She ignored the legislature – issuing orders on mask wearing, limitations on public gatherings, restaurant shutdowns, school closings, and more that she now says will finally end July 1.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s presided over the shuttering of a\u00a0national-high 32% of state businesses<\/a>, the\u00a0highest job-loss rate<\/a> in the country in April, and the loss of population to free states like Florida and Texas. She repeatedly ignored her own edicts with out-of-state travel and restaurant visits. She made national heroes of 78-year old Owasso barber Karl Manke and Polish emigre and restaurant owner Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, 55, who resisted arbitrary edicts.<\/p>\n The daily toll on Michiganders under a despot\u2019s thumb has been widespread. A few examples from around the state (in some cases names are withheld to guard against retribution):<\/p>\n Novi, Michigan.\u00a0<\/strong>A Novi man was taken seriously ill with COVID-19 in April, 2020 and admitted to a Metro Detroit hospital. His concerned family held a prayer vigil outside on their lawn.<\/p>\n A neighbor snitched on the sober gathering and police arrived to send everyone home. Their violation? Under Whitmer\u2019s orders, no more than 10 people were allowed to gather.<\/p>\n Williamston.\u00a0<\/strong>Golf course owner Dave Mahaney followed Whitmer\u2019s re-opening rules at his Brookshire Inn and Golf Club. He kept equipment clean, encouraged social distancing, even enforced one golfer per cart (after Whitmer lifted her golf cart ban).<\/p>\n But he couldn\u2019t abide with the governor\u2019s ban on selling beer. Especially since convenience stores were allowed to sell alcohol. “I took a chance,\u201d he told\u00a0The Detroit News\u00a0in June, 2020. \u201cI just sold beer to my leagues. I try to keep my leagues happy; that\u2019s my bread and butter.”<\/p>\n Someone snitched and an undercover staffer with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission \u2013 posing as a golfer \u2013 busted him with his first license violation in 34 years of operation.<\/p>\n “She never explains herself,” he said. “People in business in this state think she\u2019s a dictator.”<\/p>\n Belding.\u00a0<\/strong>An auto race at rural Grattan Raceway, 25 miles outside Grand Rapids, in August, 2020, had to adhere to a strict set of Whitmer rules.<\/p>\n Race-car tow rigs had to be \u201csocially distanced\u201d by 60 feet in the paddock. No cars parked between rigs. Masks mandatory outside. No spectators. A monitor enforced the orders under threat that a state inspector could drop by and cancel the event.<\/p>\n Lansing.<\/strong>\u00a0In the defunct Soviet Union, elites played by a different set of rules. The\u00a0nomenklatura\u00a0shopped at special stores, traveled to exclusive homes. Michiganders know the type: Whitmer repeatedly violated her own rules.<\/p>\n Memorial Day weekend, 2020<\/em>: Whitmer warned her constituents against traveling to Michigan\u2019s lakes. “If you don’t live in these regions … think long and hard before you take a trip into them,” Whitmer warned, citing \u2013 without evidence \u2013 that gas handles could spread the virus. Then her husband was discovered visiting their second home in Elk Rapids to go boating.<\/p>\n June, 2020<\/em>:\u00a0the governor marched through Detroit with hundreds of Blacks Lives Matter protesters after condemning public protests against her own state shutdown orders as super-spreaders.<\/p>\n January 20, 2021<\/em>:\u00a0After telling Michigan residents to stay home, including over the holidays, Whitmer traveled to President Biden\u2019s<\/p>\n inauguration with her two daughters. The visit also contradicted Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser\u2019s appeal for Americans to stay away from the inauguration.<\/p>\n April, 2021<\/em>:\u00a0Whitmer continued to urge residents not to travel as state COVID cases rose. She singled out Florida in particular, blaming snowbirds for bringing the virus back home. Then she and an aide were caught traveling to Florida.<\/p>\n May, 2021<\/em>:\u00a0Whitmer was caught dining out with 12 friends \u2013 in violation of her order that only six people could gather in a restaurant.<\/p>\n Pontiac.<\/strong>\u00a0A popular restauranter had to lay off 35% of his staff as Whitmer\u2019s orders dragged through 2021. Not allowed to seat his customers inside – even as studies indicated the virus was not being spread by restaurants \u2013 he had to build extra, heated seating capacity outdoors during Michigan\u2019s frigid winter months.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never seen more anger towards a politician than my fellow restaurateurs currently have towards Governor Whitmer,\u201d he said after operating month-to-month in fear of shutdowns.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s nothing like the fear in Detroit. Fear of crime in America\u2019s #3 most violent city pre-dates COVID-19. But it accelerated during the pandemic as police have come under assault and the governor encouraged \u201cthe spirit\u201d of Black Lives Matter\u2019s #DefundPolice mantra.<\/p>\n Non-fatal shootings were up 53 percent in 2020. Homicides increased 19 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Detroit \u2013 For over a year, Michigan has lived under authoritarian rule. In response to the coronavirus epidemic Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer claimed emergency powers on March 10, 2020. A series of long legal battles ultimately led to an October 2 state Supreme Court ruling that nixed her orders as unconstitutional and urged engagement with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27511,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27510\/revisions\/27511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}