Today on Stateside, reviewing the year in Michigan politics. We take a look back at this hectic year for Governor Gretchen Whitmer and state lawmakers, and what 12 months of uninterrupted and often absurd political news does to a country. Plus, a peek into what 2021 could bring.[Get Stateside on your phone: subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts today.]
Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
A hectic year of historic proportions
- John Sellek is the founder of Harbor Strategic, a public affairs firm in Lansing and Southeast Michigan
- Adrian Hemond is the founder of Grassroots Midwest, a bipartisan advocacy firm based in Lansing
- They joined us to talk about the biggest and most surprising stories out of Lansing during this big and surprising year. From Governor Whitmer’s hectic year (to put it lightly), to the role of the Legislature, and the wild ride that was the 2020 election.
- “There's been a fair amount of sort of rot in American democracy for a while,” Hemond said. “But seeing that burst into the open this year, where there is a sizable faction of the Republican Party that just wants to invalidate the election, that’s not great for the long term health of the country.”
- “A lot of people are in a real big hurry, because they can’t stand him, to blame Donald Trump for all the negativity and seeming easy ability to attack what were fundamental institutions of American democracy and I think that gives him too much credit,” Sellek said. “I think what he should get credit for, if there’s a sense of credit, is that he spotted it and he went after it because he already saw that it’s there. And he may have amplified it and fired it up, but it was already there. And that is going to be the biggest challenge going forward is, I think even for Democrats, they may not like hearing this, if they really want to try to unify the country and move forward, they’re going to have to not just dance on Donald Trump’s grave and look down at a big part of the Republican Party who is not trusting a lot of things.”
