Michigan right-to-work law viewed as domino redefining Rust Belt (Bloomberg News)
Michigan Emergency Manager Bill Passed By State Senate (Huffington Post)

I’ve never been one to use emoticons  all that much, probably because I’m a person of words and I prefer to use those to describe how I’m feeling about something. That said, I can appreciate a good emoticon, and one of my favourite is the table-flipping Japanese emoticon (or “emoji”). When used in the right places it can make me laugh, and it’s one of the few emoji where I can really appreciate the aesthetic; emoticons in general leave me wanting, and some of the emoji I’ve seen leave me shaking my head at the choice of characters, but this is one that’s put together very well. (There’s even a table-flipping arcade game in Japan.)

If I were the kind of person to use that emoji, I can think of little else that has me more in the mood to flip tables than what Republicans in Michigan have done not just in the past two weeks, but the past two years in general. Since they took control of both the state’s governorship and legislature at the start of last year, Republicans have systematically ignored the Democrats in the state House of Representatives, claiming laws have passed on a two-thirds voice vote when they haven’t. (The two-thirds threshold is vital because most laws the legislature passes can’t take effect immediately unless they pass by that margin.) They also barred a Democratic representative from speaking on the floor on vital issues simply for using the word “vagina” in a floor speech on reproductive rights. This is something I’ve blogged about in the past, and it’s something that should be getting a lot more national attention because it’s one of the most blatant subversions of the democratic process I have ever seen in my life.

Michigan is not nearly as blue of a state as most people believe it to be — for all the college towns and strong union sentiment in the cities connected with the automotive industry, most of the state north of Detroit and Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo is pretty much a southern state politically speaking, and one of the prime breeding grounds for militia movements — but on the balance it is a fairly reliable blue state in presidential elections, and it’s extremely rare for Republicans to have a year in Michigan like they did in 2010. This past election should have seen a major course correction, as evidenced by how badly Mitt Romney lost the state despite his father’s legacy there. In fact, in last month’s Michigan House elections, Republicans only got 45% of the vote statewide. However, they will still have 54% of the seats in the state House, thanks to them using their power this past term to gerrymander district lines to absurdity. They still lost seats, but if Mitt Romney’s attacks and lies about the auto industry weren’t enough to get Democrats in Michigan out in enough numbers to flip control of the House, I don’t know if anything ever will.

That brings us to the first big news to come out of Michigan after the election, Governor Rick Snyder’s whiplash-inducing reversal on his position to so-called “right to work” laws. “Right to work” forces the extension of union benefits to all workers regardless of whether or not they pay union dues, which is nothing more than a way of kneecapping unions by squeezing their primary source of revenue (why pay for something you’re getting for free anyway?), so that the unions will lose their power and then companies and governments can eliminate all those rights. “Right to work” laws are the first step in an all-too-transparent plan to kill unions once and for all in this country, and for Michigan, the home of the organized labor movement, to have “right to work” laws forced upon it is even more of a slap in the face to workers and progressive activists all over this country.

It’s not like Michiganders’ attitudes about union rights have changed that much in recent years; only six percent of Michigan residents wanted to see the right-to-work law pass. It’s no wonder why Michiganders don’t want “right to work” laws; in states that have them passed, all workers (not just unionized workers) receive less pay, are more likely to be in a low wage job, are less likely to have health insurance (and less likely to be offered health insurance from their employers, and are 36 percent more likely to die at work, among other reasons. Governor Snyder has claimed that he changed his mind on “right to work” because Michigan voters didn’t want to put collective bargaining rights in the state constitution this last election (which is different from  supporting collective bargaining rights); that’s one of the weakest excuses I’ve ever heard for a political reversal (and that covers a lot of ground). I don’t know if national Republicans put him up to this or not, but it doesn’t matter; what matters is that the legislation has been passed, and passed so quickly that there was never even an opportunity to have a public debate about it, much in keeping in line with how Republicans have governed Michigan these past two years.

Worse yet, just this past week Michigan Republicans acted even more brazenly. One of the most controversial uses they made of their power these past two years was to pass — with the fake “two thirds majority” in the House caused by Republicans ignoring the rules of their own chamber and pretending not to hear Democrats shouting in the chamber — a law that allowed the governor to place an “emergency manager” in charge of pretty much any city in Michigan, a manager whose powers completely trumped those of all elected officials in the city, up to and including the power to dissolve the city. These emergency managers did a lot of really unpopular actions that had little, if anything, to do with helping a city and its residents out, and Michigan voters decided to repeal the emergency manager law in the last election by a comfortable margin.

How did Michigan Republicans react to this development? They just passed the law again for Governor Snyder to sign, with an addendum that makes the law not subject to repeal by public vote. I can’t think of a more brazen dismissal of voters’ wishes in my lifetime than this; a month after a state’s residents make it clear that they want to strike an unpopular law from the books, Republicans pass the law again and make it impossible for voters to strike the law down like they just did. They didn’t even bother waiting for a significant period of time to elapse so people might forget about the previous law. I don’t think it’s possible for Michigan Republicans to show less concern for the residents of Michigan than they’ve shown since last month’s election. They even pushed through laws to make potential recalls more difficult, knowing how these unprecedented manouevers of theirs would be received by Michiganders.

Many on the left are saying that it will be more economical to wait until the 2014 elections to try to unseat the Michigan Republicans who have perpetrated these injustices, but I don’t think either Michiganders or the country as a whole can afford to wait that long; even if the odds are difficult, concerned workers and citizens nationwide need to send a strong message now that we will not stand for the gutting of union power, nor will we stand for the tactics that Republicans in Michigan have used to illegally push their agenda on the state. As many have pointed out, if “right to work” laws can take hold in Michigan, then they can take hold anywhere. This may not even be just a national issue; there are already worries that the conservative Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, may now try to pass “right to work” in his country. (Provided there’s a break in his government passing laws to build more prisons.)

It is understandable that national attention right now is focused on the Connecticut school shooting, and to a lesser extent the current debates over marginal tax rates and the debt ceiling. However, it is imperative that all liberals raise awareness of the audacious actions taken by Michigan Republicans and the national implications of their actions, and to take all legal means to reverse them. (The union protests in Lansing were unfortunately marred by acts of violence that absolutely cannot be condoned.) The Michigan House results from this past election point to how difficult it already is for Democrats to win control at the ballot box, and in two years there undoubtedly won’t be as much outrage to fuel campaigns. Even an unsuccessful attempt to retake Michigan governance will at least send a signal to the rest of the country, if not the world, that we will not stand for either the indefencible laws Michigan Republicans have passed or the outrageous tactics they have used to pass them.

It is time to flip Michigan’s table and vote out all the Republicans who have worked so hard to cripple the rights and lives of everyday workers. Neither Michiganders, nor workers across the country and the world, can afford to wait two years.