Have you ever known someone who just had to be right?
Generally it isn’t even that these people have to actually be right, it’s just that they need to feel like they are right. They need to be able to justify to themselves that their position is tenable, even if every reasonable person on earth is telling them otherwise.
I’ve met such people. I only half joke when I say I meet one every morning when I look in the mirror. I believe we can all be this way sometimes, especially when we are arguing about or for something about which we hold strong convictions.
So when I start to sense this “I must be right!” mentality creeping up, I try to ground myself with a basic question.
Is it more important to be right or to do what is right?
It’s a question I wish more people would ask themselves about the last two years.
Everybody wants to be right about their firmest convictions. Nobody wants to be in a scenario, especially as an alleged leader, where they are found to have weighed the evidence, considered the options, and just flat out blown it. But it happens.
And when it comes to Gretchen Whitmer’s decisions concerning Michigan, it’s happened a lot.
Remember when news broke that two of the four men accused of plotting to kidnap the Governor were found not guilty and a mistrial was declared for the other two. The office of the Governor immediately released a statement declaring how disappointed she was at the outcome, and shortly thereafter prosecutors were debating whether they would attempt to reopen the case against the accused whose trials ended in a hung jury.
People on both sides of the aisle were a little surprised by the prosecution’s attempt at a potential retrial, but anyone who has actually lived in Michigan over the last few years was not.
If Gretchen Whitmer has proven one thing as Governor, it’s that she’s more concerned with justifying her own decisions as right than she is with doing what is right for Michigan’s citizens. She simply cannot allow the story to end with an impartial jury declaring the people she so vigorously painted as terrorists as not guilty. It destroys her narrative, and she knows full well at this point that her narrative is all she has left.
You see, slowly but surely, the opinions of people across Michigan are starting to shift. More and more people are starting to realize that the seriousness of Covid-19 to the majority of remotely healthy people was vastly exaggerated for political purposes, and that what it truly was in no way justifies the draconian mandates that were unilaterally implemented in its name.
If enough people see the light on this issue, Gretchen Whitmer knows she is in trouble come November. So she finds herself in a corner. Her only hope of winning reelection is convincing enough voters that the dictatorial crusade she went on was in fact justifiable, and the only way to do that is to double down in the same stubborn manner she did during her great circus of mandates throughout 2020 and 2021.
And I’ve got news for you. Her plan is working with some people.
It isn’t working because it’s logical or because all people are stupid or because she is a likable figure. Far from it. It’s working because to many people, admitting Gretchen Whitmer was wrong feels like admitting they were wrong personally. I mean, honestly, after seeing what Covid-19 truly is, how foolish do some of the things we did as a society now look?
Not letting people use their boats or purchase seeds for gardening?
While it all seems pretty silly now, certain people just can’t bring themselves to admit that Gretchen Whitmer's tirades were foolish without feeling like they were fools for buying into them.
To those people I would say two things:
Firstly, no one knew what was happening with Covid-19 at first, so you cannot blame yourself or anyone else for making odd choices based on the information we had. What you can blame people for is being too obstinate to admit those initial decisions were wrong and needed altering once the truth became clear (looking at you, Gretch)
Secondly, what Michigan do you want for the future?
It’s a serious question, and I believe it is the very crux of the upcoming election.
Sadly, it is clear that many people do desire that Michigan. But for anyone who doesn’t, this is my plea:
Help people remember.
Urge them not to forget what the state of Michigan was like ten years ago, before lawmakers went crazy and the freedoms of the individual were trampled by the caricature of a disease that was undeniably exaggerated and manipulated for political gain. Remind them that the state they love hangs in the balance, and that any candidate who runs on the pledge of freedom and local autonomy is a step up from the political malpractice that has been Gretchen Whitmer since 2018.
Memories can be short lived. The consequences of the 2022 election won’t be.
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