The “blue wall” once referred to a group of Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast states that, conventional wisdom said, “always vote for Democrats.” Unfortunately for Democrats, that was wrong, and in 2016 Donald Trump shockingly won three “blue wall” states — including, narrowly, the state of Michigan.
It maybe shouldn’t have been such a shock, though. All three of the “blue” states Trump won actually had a history of electing Republicans at the state level. Michigan in particular had been fully taken over since 2010 by Republicans, who then spent years gutting unions, restricting abortion, loosening environmental protections, and generally just turning a Republican policy wish list into law. So Trump winning Michigan was, in a way, just the culmination of a years-long drift to the right there.
But by 2022, something had changed dramatically. In a midterm election where Republicans were favored, Democrats won every branch of elected government in Michigan — governor, state House, and state Senate. The state Senate in particular had not been under Democratic control since 1984. And Democrats got busy using their new power immediately: repealing much of the right-wing legislation of the previous years, passing strong LGBTQ protections, quadrupling a tax credit for the poor, and allocating a billion dollars for the auto industry to transition to electric cars. Suddenly Michigan was cranking out more progressive legislation than almost any other state in the US.
So to recap: Michigan was once a blue state, except it wasn’t actually, and in fact over time it got pretty red, but then it became an actual blue state. (Again?) Or something like that. Obviously, the truth is that Michigan is a swing state. But the story of each of those swings is actually key to understanding how US politics work in the 2010s and 2020s. And it can tell us a lot about our next election, too.
Scottie's Playtime 
During the early to mid 1900 the Michigan Republicans (prim on the far west side of the state) slowly begin their take over of state government by gerrymandering voting districts in their favor. Once that was done they started enacting laws to cripple school unions followed by efforts to do a way with labor union’s and a number other desisteous laws resulting into disasters like the Flint weater crisis and eventually the state helping to elect Trump. But slowly thanks to a number of brave souls who worked collecting signatures on petitions that did away with gerrymandering resulting the eliciting of a Demarcate Legislate and Governor and helping Michigan turning blue again.
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Thank you. It’s easy for pundits to forget that Republicans have been working the system for decades in states at the state level, in order to achieve what they did in 2016. And any other chance they get. I think it says a lot for the people of Michigan that they saw that, and are working against it. Not that Republicans will never again win, but they’ll have to appeal to people and win more fairly. (Fingers crossed!)
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Hi Ali. You have more faith than I do in republicans. I think they will do more dirty tricks, more behind the scenes scams, more fraud. In some places that are tight they will pretend to be something they are not, then after they win completely change, pushing the opposite of what they ran on. Hugs. Scottie
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Nah, no faith at all. But that’s the only way they’re ever going to win, unless they go all martial law on the rest of us.
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Hi David. That is great that Michigan is going blue, we need to do that to more states. What bothers me, annoys me, is that republicans know their ideas and policies are not popular with the majority. They know they are in the minority and that most people disagree with what they want. They don’t care! They just don’t care. Rather than trying to change their ideas to meet the people where the people are they cheat to get their way. They insist that they have to have their way, it must be as they say because of … They don’t want to serve, they want to rule. They lie, cheat, pretend to want what the people want to get elected, then reveal who / what they really are. So that is why I think they are so scary to me. That is why the right loves the idea of a dictatorship because they always assume they will be the ones in charge. Hugs. Scottie
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Hi Scottie, Ali and David;
There are other things to remember as well, especially things to take into consideration for the coming elections.
I live in Michigan, on the west side of the state. Very republican area, and most of the people I know are very republican people. (pray for me!) Gov. W. is hated by these people, but they really can’t detail why they hate her. This is typical with most republicans. As you likely heard in the video, college educated people typically vote Dem. The biggest reason, I think, is that college educated people are trained to seek out their own truth rather than (1st) refuse the information coming from the news, and then (2nd) wholeheartedly buy what people like Hannity and Tucker told them.
Something else to consider is that the previous gov. managed to cripple an entire large city (Flint) and then lie about it. Now, even republicans aren’t that stupid, and his lies were seen for what they were. Further, Michigan was a very pro-union state. V.E.R.Y. That waste of flesh sought to destroy the unions in Michigan.
Some things in Gov.W. favor: she got rid of the “right to work”, she worked a lot on roads – trust me, Michigan roads are a huge issue, and between her and Biden they are not perfect but way better. She is stable, reasonable, and there have been few real problems under Gov.W. outside the dumb donald era. The rep. party in MI is broke. A lot of the old school republicans are out, such as Fred Upton – whose family started Whirlpool. That leaves a republican party that is not very stable in many people’s eyes. In the end, people want stability. The China car battery fiasco is going to hurt her. And, she is still getting grief from covid decisions.
Personally, I think the middle field voters are going to go blue. The hard right will never not go red, but I also think Donald embarrassed them – no one can be that consistently stupid. I think some of the Mid-East persuasion will not like Biden, but they hate trupm. yes, I spelled that wrong on purpose. On the whole, I think because Michigan wants consistency, they will vote for the person who has made a good economy, who is relatively safe, stable. Biden. imho
Hugs,
randy
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” … they will vote for the person who has made a good economy, who is relatively safe, stable. Biden.”
I truly, truly hope your prediction comes true! He needs all the support he can get.
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Hi Randy. Like Nan I hope you are correct. The thing is if you ask republicans if they want …, they will answer yes sure. Then you tell that that Biden has done it or is doing it, they either deny it or claim in that case it is bad and now they don’t want it. It is hard to get people to see the good in a person or the good that person has done if they don’t want to or have already made up their minds. I used to try repeatedly in good faith to change minds when people were incorrect on a subject. But that will only work when a person is open to new information or not invested in their own dogma / preconceived notions. Hugs. Scottie
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