Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been brutally effective in implementing some of the most radical proposals in America that progressives love. At the same time, she has managed to flip all three branches of the state’s government to Democratic Party control and win a second term.
Whitmer has shown a pattern of fighting conscience protections for her state’s residents and not always practicing what she preaches. She has not hesitated to enact policies that even she has at times questioned in retrospect.
Some would even says she is one of the worst governors in America currently. Here is a look at her record and progressive track record that make many of the right cringe.
Whitmer Signs Gun Control Law Over Sherriff Protest
Whitmer signed a Red Flag bill into law over the protest of many of the state’s sheriffs, who say it’s unconstitutional. A growing number of Michigan’s counties have passed resolutions calling themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries.
The new law allows family members, police, mental health professionals, former dating partners, and others to petition a judge to have firearms belonging to those deemed as a hazard to themselves or others.
It gives a judge 24 hours to make a decision as to whether or not to impose a protective order. The red-flagged person would have 14 days to prove they do not pose a significant risk. A standard order would last a year.
Michigan’s attorney general put the sheriffs on notice that she would find law enforcement officers who have jurisdiction to enforce the orders in counties that refuse to comply with the law.
Whitmer Forces Anti-Abortion Employers to Cover Abortion
Whitmer’s flaunting of opposition is part of a pattern that also extends to abortion.
Whitmer enshrined abortion rights into the Michigan state constitution. She repealed a 1931 Michigan law that banned abortion. Right to Life Michigan attacked Whitmer this month for signing legislation that it said would undermine conscience protections for employers who object to abortion.
The law requires all health plans that provide coverage for pregnancy to cover abortion.
“Long-standing conscience protections have been stripped from employers who may now be forced to choose between violating their moral principals by providing abortion coverage or dropping their employee healthcare benefits altogether,” Right to Life Michigan said in a press release.
The Michigan Catholic Conference similarly slammed Whitmer’s legislation for making abortion everyone’s business and for pushing it on unwilling employers.
“Despite abortion rights supporters frequently mentioning ‘choice’ and how abortion is ‘no one’s business,’ this bill takes away the choice to decline support for abortions and makes it the business of employers and fellow employees to pay for others’ abortions,” the Michigan Catholic Conference said.
Whitmer Violated Conscience During the Pandemic
She flaunted the consciences of her state’s residents again during the pandemic.
Whitmer imposed some of the harshest lockdowns in the country after the COVID-19 pandemic began. She banned all public and private gatherings outside of the home. She mandated the closure and restriction of many of the state’s retail outlets. “Large stores must also close areas of the store that are dedicated to carpeting, flooring, furniture, garden centers, plant nurseries, or paint.”
Such mandates were considered arbitrary. Whitmer now admits her guidelines were harsh.
“There were some situations where in retrospect they don’t make a lot of sense. If you went into the hardware store. If you went to the hardware store, we didn’t want people all congregating in the gardening supplies, and people said she outlawed seeds,” Whitmer said in an interview CNN’s Chris Wallace in March. “But now I look back and see that maybe that was a little more than we needed to do.”
When it came to her own 6-foot social distancing guidelines and wearing masks indoors, Whitmer didn’t always practice what she preached.
“Michiganders learned that she doesn’t abide by the same arbitrary rules she’s imposed on every resident of Michigan. She shunned masks when she’s with her friends. She was caught red-handed violating her own social distancing guidelines,” the Ballenger Report, a blog covering Michigan politics, wrote in July 2021. “She ordered us not to travel, not to see our families, not to leave our homes, only to hop on a private jet and fly down in secret to Florida to visit with her supposedly ailing father, the well-known retired insurance executive, Dick Whitmer.
The Ballenger Report continued: “After trying to cover up her Florida junket, Whitmer refused to answer the most basic questions about it.”
Whitmer’s husband also got the Governor into trouble when he attempted a boating excursion when the state had restrictions in place.
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
