Whitmer has Cake, Wants to Eat it Too

Gretchen Whitmer wants to have her cake and eat it too.

After spending just about all of 2020 and a good portion of 2021 mandating mandates like they were going out of style, Governor Whitmer instantly and somewhat mysteriously stopped after the CDC unilaterally changed its guidance for the vaccinated in the summer of 2021.

Yeah, things got pretty confusing under Governor Whitmer

From that point forward, “The Great Mandater” hung up her pen, and has been altogether absent as far as government mandated intervention is concerned.

To the delight and dismay of many – depending on your politics – this absent Gretchen Whitmer became the norm for many months. And it almost seemed like people had forgotten about her until November hit, and Covid cases in Michigan began to surge at record levels, despite 70% of the state’s eligible population being fully vaccinated.

There is a notion floating around the internet propagated by Gretchen Whitmer herself, Democrats across the state, and angry Twitter people around the world that the reason Covid is surging in Michigan is due to "lack of mandates." Proponents of this idea go even further than that, stating that the reason these “lifesaving mandates” have stopped is because the mean old Republican Party legislatively handcuffed Gretchen Whitmer, which has led Michigan to its current state.

This is absolute nonsense on every level.

First, and I can’t believe I even have to say this at this point, Covid-19 ALWAYS surges in Michigan in November and then again in the spring. This should be painfully obvious to anyone who has lived in Michigan or can read a chart at a 3rd grade level. The surges are absolutely seasonal, absolutely happen regardless of mandates, and are absolutely not primarily due to behaviors. It blows my mind that every few months Florida and The South’s cases take off and the media goes crazy, and then a few months later things die down there and ramp up in Michigan and the media goes crazy again.

It’s almost like a pattern! Because, you know, it obviously is.

Happens every year

Second, even if Michigan’s Covid-19 surge was somehow related to a lack of mandates, the notion that Gretchen Whitmer has been handcuffed by Republicans and can no longer implement mandates is completely outrageous. All one has to do to prove the illegitimacy of this claim is look at Whitmer’s mandate history.

Yes, it is true Republicans rightfully fought against Whitmer’s limitless ability to keep Michigan in a never ending state of emergency and yes, it is true that the Michigan Supreme Court rightfully struck down her power to keep doing that, but it is totally false that she did stop or had to stop with the mandates at that point.

Anyone who pays attention to Michigan politics at all knows that as soon as the Michigan Supreme Court limited her executive powers, Gretchen Whitmer egregiously manipulated a different, older law related to the MDHHS to continue her mandates…FOR MONTHS.

Governor Whitmer ultimately stopped with the mandates of her own accord many months later, after the CDC changed its guidance on mask wearing and social distancing for the vaccinated. At that time, she ended the majority of her mandates for the vaccinated by directive, and then proceeded to allow all other mandates to expire at the preassigned dates. At no point was the Health Department’s ability to issue mandates (based on the MDHHS law) EVER infringed upon, and Governor Whitmer could without question still utilize this method to indirectly issue new mandates today.

And that, is where the whole “having your cake and eating it too” concept comes into play.

You want to have it, or you want to eat it? You have to choose.

You see, Democrats are up in arms right now, wrongfully claiming that Michigan is a “Covid Disaster Zone” because “ignorant republicans won’t allow Gretchen Whitmer to protect the state.”

Everyone else in the world is saying she is refusing to issue mandates because it will hurt her chances for reelection in 2022.

And what is Gretchen Whitmer herself saying?

Absolutely nothing.

Because what is happening right now is the one way Governor Whitmer gets the best of both worlds.

Gretchen Whitmer knows if she encourages mandates of any type through the MDHHS, something she absolutely could still do, she is going to upset a lot of people. It would without question hurt her chances of being reelected in 2022.

She also knows, however, that Covid-19 is unstoppably surging in Michigan, even though the state imposed some of the most draconian government mandated pandemic restrictions for months. If restrictions worked, Michigan’s current surge doesn’t make any sense, but Gretchen Whitmer doesn’t like that logical narrative.

So she needs a scapegoat.

You see, for Gretchen Whitmer’s preferred narrative to continue, she needs a way to:

A.) Justify NOT issuing new mandates, while at the same time somehow make it so that she isn't blamed for the state’s current surge, in order to maximize her chance at reelection

and

B.) Justify NOT admitting that both vaccinations and her mandates from the previous year and a half have utterly failed to protect the State of Michigan from Covid-19.

The only way to do accomplish both these things?

By continually spouting the same poorly thought out, completely illogical, sad violin sob story that Democrats across Michigan are clinging to now: That mean old Republicans stole Governor Whitmer’s powers and she is therefore helpless against Covid-19.

Nope. You can't blame the elephant for this.

Come on people. Do better.

Make no mistake, Gretchen Whitmer is helpless against the spread of Covid-19 cases, but it has nothing to do with Republicans. She’s helpless because Covid-19 is an easily transmitted, airborne virus which comes and goes in seasonal surges and continues to do so at a record pace in spite of rising vaccination rates and a bazillion useless executive mandates.

So no, Governor Whitmer. And no, Democrats all over Michigan. I’m not letting you have your cake and eat it too.

Either all your mandates and vaccines have failed miserably to protect the state of Michigan from Covid-19 and you won’t admit it, or you are purposely NOT using the powers through the MDHHS that you still have access to because you are more worried about reelection than you are Covid-19.

To me, this is all as easy to see as the fact that in a few months, Florida will have another Covid-19 surge, and the media will once again go crazy about it.