It’s not a coincidence that the worst states for COVID are Democrat-run states. It’s also not news. The media could not care less that New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc., have been killing fields for elderly and vulnerable populations. Instead, we’ve been inundated with stories about how Texas and Florida WILL be deathtraps with no follow-ups about how they weren’t. Leftist establishment media is singularly focused on protecting their own at the expense of everything else, but Democrat heroes really have been awful throughout this whole thing, denying them the attention they so richly deserve.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ruled over more deaths than some countries, at least 15,000 of which were a direct result of his own actions regarding nursing homes, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf did everything Cuomo did without achieving the total death numbers he did only because they have fewer people.
But Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been uniquely horrible.
Currently presiding over the state with the worst COVID numbers, you’d never know it from watching the news. The papers and networks obsess about what they hope could be in Republican states, pre-condemning what isn’t happening there, while ignoring Michigan’s surge back to levels of infections rivaling the height of the winter.
If Whitmer were a Republican the media would not talk about anything else. But she’s a Democrat, a Democrat President Trump once referred to as “that woman,” so she could summarily execute random citizens at a daily press conference and it wouldn’t get coverage.
Essentially, she has been executing the civil rights of Michiganders for a year, and it’s done nothing but win her praise.
Famous for banning the purchase of everything she personally deemed “non-essential” at the start of the pandemic – everything from seeds to grow vegetables to baby car seats – no Governor embraced “emergency” powers more fervently. And no Governor revels in them as gleefully still.
The state legislature moved to limit Whitmer’s “emergency” powers, but progressive politicians do not let go of power without a fight. As her authority is being wrestled away from her by the people’s representatives, she’s scrambling to find ways to make permanent everything she can before it’s gone.
Whitmer, who proudly displays a pillow with the face of Dr. Anthony Fauci on it during frequent MSNBC interviews, is making moves to force mandated mask-wearing forever. “The administration of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is drafting permanent rules that, once adopted, would impose an indefinite mandate for employees and customers to wear face masks,” one recent report noted. “Under the draft rules, a gym, bowling alley or other covered facility that is full of vaccinated customers would still have to require its patrons to wear face masks. Also under the proposed rules, fans at sporting events would have to wear masks.”
Reason Magazine reports, “The rules make no accommodations for vaccinations. The word vaccine doesn't even appear in the rules. This means that even if a movie theater or bowling alley has fully vaccinated its entire staff and is in a community with no cases, masks are mandated at all times.”
“What can lawmakers and the public do? Not much,” according to Reason. “The legislature can slow down the implementation of these rules, but not stop them.”
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosens recommendations ever so slightly on masks for vaccinated people, Michigan is looking to make them permanent and it hasn’t been covered outside of the state.
Whitmer, who gleefully embraces a victim mentality every time she’s criticized, is consolidating power in ways no other Governor is and it’s not news somehow. Floridians, Texans, and other Republican-led state residents are free, and Michigan is setting itself up to not be until the executive comically referred to as “WHitLer” is replaced by someone else.
As I look at the state of my birth and youth, I can’t help but wonder how it fell to the point that it would embrace a totalitarian. The only answer is fear.
Fear has driven everything Democrats are pushing through Washington now, which is why they need to keep fear alive, keep people wearing masks even after they’re vaccinated. You don’t have to justify trillions in new spending or a naked power grab if they believe you’re doing it to protect them.
Whitmer is up for reelection next year. Her race, perhaps more than the fight to control Congress, will be the bellwether for where we are as a country. Will fear trump logic, or will the purple state tire of authoritarianism toss WHitLer before things get worse? Let’s hope it’s the latter.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.