Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been held up as someone on the shortlist to serve as former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate in the 2020 general election. That’s usually something that happens when a politician’s star is on the ascendency. Yep, the Democrats expect big things from Whitmer.
Right now, though, she probably needs to focus on holding onto her job.
Organizers of an online petition want to see Governor Whitmer recalled, WWJ Newsradio 950’s Rob St. Mary reports.
The change.org petition claims Governor Whitmer has failed and goes so far as to say she has caused more Michiganders to get sick by “further promoting the pandemic” while her closing of businesses has been haphazard during the outbreak.
It also goes on to say she hasn’t fixed the roads, tackled P-FAS and is cutting the Pure Michigan tourism campaign. Over 120,0000 people have signed the online petition.
The rhetoric is similar to that of a Facebook group called Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine, which garnered 258,000 members in just a few days.
Now, I’m not going to get into the issues of quarantines in and of themselves. Where I live, I face a very different landscape than most Americans do which may well color some of my opinions. Besides, that’s not what’s important anyway.
You see, Whitmer needs to be recalled in part because her so-called “leadership” is going to kill people.
First, she was one of the governors who worked to ban the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19, though she eventually reversed course on that. How many people may have died during that time that might have been saved? Especially since we all know that her opposition had nothing to do with the medical side of the debate, only that President Donald Trump seemed supportive of the drug.
Then, there’s her decision to ban the sale of any non-essential item in the state, even if the stores are open. This is a huge problem, in part because it also includes vegetable seeds in gardening centers.
“Oh, boohoo. People can’t plant their little veggie garden. It’s not the end of the world,” some might say.
I, however, don’t.
Look, there’s a lot of discussion going on around the lockdown and whether the virus is worse than the economic impact. I’m not getting into that right now, though I do think the economic impact will be horrendous.
But there is something that needs to be understood, and that’s how this shutdown of all movement will affect our food supply. I’ve touched on this before. However, there’s more information that suggests we might be in for a rough time even after this situation has passed.
The United Nations is warning of food shortages. So is the Trump Administration. Even food producers are warning of potential shortages. And none of this touches on the potential reduction in labor to harvest crops already in the field. While this doesn’t necessarily mean we’re facing a famine or anything, we are looking at some potentially lean times with regard to food on our shelves. At a minimum, we could see food costs increase significantly.
Yet as this goes on, what does Whitmer do? She bans the sale of vegetable seeds and gardening supplies. The very supplies that might well allow people to stave off the effect of that food shortage. Yes, that could also mean staving off famine, though that’s a rather extreme possibility.
During World War II, the government pushed people to plant Victory Gardens. This was, in part, to reduce pressure on the food supply. As we’re looking at a food shortage ourselves, governments should be encouraging this.
Not only that, but getting out and working in the yard–with appropriate social distancing–does nothing to spread COVID-19 and gets people out of the house and into the sunlight. That’s important for saving lives as well. After all, vitamin D deficiency has been linked to depression, which we all know is linked to suicide. Just the act of planting a garden can help save a person’s life, after all.
By banning the sale of these non-essential items, even in stores that are deemed essential otherwise, Whitmer may well be consigning many of her constituents to death. If that’s not grounds for a recall, just what is?
To be sure, Whitmer isn’t alone. Vermont pretty much started this insanity and Governor Phil Scott needs to be bounced as well. But let’s start with Whitmer since she seemed bound and determined to let so many people die in so many ways. First banning the use of a drug believed to save lives from the disease, then by banning the sale of food-producing seeds.
