Michigan GOP self-destructs with right-to-scab law

Gentleladies and gentlemen, we have just witnessed the death of the Michigan Republican Party.

In most states, passing a misnamed "right-to-work" law is fascist. But ramming through a "right-to-work" law in the fifth-most unionized state is both fascist and loldumb.

Today, Republicans in the Wolverine State did just that: Right-wing lawmakers passed a work-for-less law today - and the already unpopular Gov. Rick Snyder signed it into law. They hastily shoved the law through with no public hearings. They did this during a lame duck session, because they knew it couldn't pass once the batch of new legislators elected in November took office.

If last month's defeat of a labor-related referendum emboldened the GOP, they sure didn't learn the right lesson. After all, most stupid people don't learn. While that measure would have added a provision against so-called "right-to-work" laws to the Michigan Constitution, it didn't lose because of that. The measure lost because of a different provision, which would have made it illegal for public workers to go on strike. For that reason, I would have opposed this referendum too.

Meanwhile, 13,000 labor supporters are Occupying the State Capitol in protest - by far the largest protest in the Capitol's history.

Snyder ran on a platform of opposing right-to-scab laws. Now that he signed such a law, everyone knows he's a liar. The more far-reaching point though is that the Democrats and Greens just got a nice holiday gift wrapped with an accordion bow - a gift that will become apparent the next time there's an election. Republicans can get away with passing work-for-less laws in places like Utah. But how in the Wide, Wide World Of Sports do they think this will help them in Michigan, of all places? Even when Indiana fell to the Evil Empire, there was serious talk of shutting down the Super Bowl. So this has the potential to grind Michigan to a standstill.

Granted, the Republicans today seem like little more than a Southern rump party. But its power goes well beyond Dixie. They want to impose their will on people who have rejected it.

And we call it a work-for-less law for a reason. Why do you think work-for-less states are so poor? And, if the Republicans cared about the right to work, where did all the jobs go during their reign? The American economy is much smaller now than in 1980, despite population growth.

American workers need to be armed and ready.