Tea-Publican Tyranny in Michigan Update: Death of Democracy in Detroit

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last year, the voters of Michigan repealed the state's anti-democratic "financial martial law" statute by a citizens referendum. Under that law, the governor was empowered to declare a "financial emergency" as a means to literally dismiss the duly elected government of a county, city, town, school district, etc., and to appoint an unelected fiancial manager with unlimited powers, answerable to one but the governor.

Tyrannical Tea-Publicans in the Michigan legislature were not going to let Michigan voters tell them what to do, nosiree. Ignoring the will of the voters, during a lame-duck session after the election they quickly passed a new "financial martial law" statute to replace the one the voters has voided, and this time did it in a way that it is not subject to a voter referendum. It was a big "f#%k you!" to Michigan voters.

Now those tyrannical Tea-Publicans have their eyes on the prize: the 18th-largest city in the United States, Detroit. Tea-Publican Gov. Rick Snyder said on Friday he will appoint an emergency financial manager for Detroit. Snyder to name Detroit emergency financial manager, has candidate in mind :

Gov. Rick Snyder today pulled the trigger and announced he will
appoint an emergency financial manager for the state’s largest city.
Snyder said he has a top candidate in mind, and that person would be in
charge for 18 months.

The decision means Motown will soon have someone new in charge of
restructuring Detroit’s dire financial mess. That restructuring likely
will include drastic cuts in public services and a top-down rethinking
of the type of government a shrunken city with a dwindling tax base can
afford.

* * *

Snyder said he will not name who the emergency manager will be right away.

The Detroit City Council is looking at legal options if it can't change governor's mind:

Now that Gov. Rick Snyder has decided that Detroit needs an emergency financial manager, the City Council has 10 days to come up with a plan to make the governor change his mind.

But in case the council can't reverse Snyder's course, preparations already are under way to mount a potential legal challenge to the appointment of an emergency financial manager.

"In this country, the courts are always an option," Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins said after Snyder's announcement. "The question for us is, is it a good option?"

* * *

Several council members said they feared an emergency financial
manager would be a threat to representative democracy because he or she
could cut the council out of the decision-making process.

"The
role of a legislative body is not just to discuss — it's to act,"
Jenkins said. "And this takes that process away, which is the democratic
process, the thing this country was built on."

Councilman James Tate said it's important for the council to do everything in its power to preserve democracy.

Residents of Detroit will hold a primary election in August and a general election in
November for council and mayor. What powers those elected officials will have ultimately will be up to the governor-appointed Emergency Financial Manager.

Detroit has a large African-American population. Financial martial law will disenfrachise the residents of Detroit of their constitutional right to vote, as has already occurred in other Michigan towns, in violation of the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Justice Department must intervene to protect these constitutional rights.

I can't believe that the tyranny going on in Michigan is not a national scandal of greater importance in the media. This should not be happening in America.