Is politics a “blood sport� It’s not supposed to be. But Detroit’s Channel 4 reports that folks called “blockers†are harassing voters who want to sign a petition.
The petition is to recall Michigan’s Speaker of the House Andy Dillon over his massive tax increase. People are hurting in Michigan. But legislators — led by Dillon — decided taxpayers should hurt more, so that spending could grow more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.
At The New Media Journal, Warner Todd Huston writes that “blockers scream at petition signers, calling them names, and hover menacingly over them making them feel threatened and intimidated.†Rose Bogaert of the Wayne County Taxpayers Association says, “They’re literally behaving like thugs out there.â€
Who are these brutes? It turns out many of them are on the state payroll. In fact, they work for none other than Speaker Dillon.
Dillon’s office claims the blockers on his staff are doing this all on their own, taking vacation time. Yeah, right. Maybe now that they’ve been caught.
Leon Drolet, the head of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, isn’t buying that. Instead, he’s offering $250 a pop to identify each of these thugs.
Dillon’s tax increase was a travesty. The use of state workers to violate citizens’ most basic constitutional rights is, well, serious enough that you ought to find out more at MichiganRecalls.com.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.