By Thomas Lifson | American Thinker
Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, early on distinguished herself as a pandemic hypocrite, demanding severe lockdowns of her citizens subjects while exempting her family and herself. Her husband was caught boating when she had forbidden ordinary Michiganders to do the same, and she was caught traveling to Florida, violating her own proclamations.
Resentment has grown, and not even an FBI informant–led bogus kidnapping plot has been enough to keep her polls strong as she faces re-election in November 2022. Mary Chastain of Legal Insurrection spotted Whitmer signing legislation that specifically banned the state from enforcing mask mandates and vaccine passports:
Whitmer and the Michigan state legislature agreed on a budget. This is no ordinary budget because it bans mask mandates and vaccine passports:
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state legislature have agreed on a budget proposal that includes language banning health officials from enforcing mask mandates in schools and preventing state public agencies from enforcing vaccines on employees or customers.
“The director or local health officer shall not issue or enforce any orders or other directives that require an individual in this state who is under the age of 18 to wear a face mask or face covering,” the 1,000-page budget states in one section.
Chastain notes that school districts are still free to enforce mask mandates.
The reason for Whitmer’s reversal is not hard to figure out. Her polls stink. The Hill reports on a Trafalgar Group poll that shows her six points behind former Detroit police chief James Craig (who notably kept the peace there as Minneapolis and other cities were burning):
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) trails former Detroit Police Chief James Craig by 6 points in a hypothetical general election match-up, according to a poll released this week.
The survey from the GOP-leaning Trafalgar Group shows Craig, a Republican, leading Whitmer 50.4% to 44.4% among likely general election voters. Another 5.2% of respondents remain undecided.
Craig, who retired as Detroit police chief in June after nearly eight years on the job, announced his campaign for governor earlier this month at the urging of top Michigan Republicans.
Trafalgar may be right-leaning, but other polls also indicate trouble. The Detroit News:
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s job approval has fallen to a point where Michigan voters are nearly split about how she is doing, according to a new poll released Monday, marking a large decline from prior surveys.
The decrease has occurred as the Aug. 31-Sept. 3 survey by the Glengariff Group found that a majority of 600 registered voters said the state is on the wrong track and that they disapprove by a wide margin of the job that President Joe Biden is doing.
About 48% of voters approve of the Democratic governor’s performance and 46% disapprove, according to the poll commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber, whose political action committee in 2018 endorsed Whitmer over Republican Bill Schuette for governor.
The latest numbers are a marked shift from September 2020, when 59% of voters approved of Whitmer’s performance and 38% disapproved (snip)
Much of Whitmer’s approval decline has occurred among independent voters, 39% of whom approved of her performance and 51% of whom disapproved, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
“Michigan elections are decided by independent voters and how she does with these independent voters moving forward will really dictate” her performance in the 2022 election, said Richard Czuba, a pollster with the Lansing-based Glengariff Group.
It looks as though, worldwide, resentment and rebellion against lockdowns and other severe restrictions are on the rise. The fact that so many politicians exempt themselves and their families from the masking and other restrictions they place on those they regard as inferiors isn’t helping.
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