[See UPDATE, below.] Not since the days of Jim Crow has a politician's tenure at the state level been characterized by attacking poor and disadvantaged residents quite like that of the current Michigan governor.  The oath of office had hardly been uttered before Gretchen Whitmer preyed on the mentally ill.

There are now only three psychiatric facilities in the entire state of Michigan, one of the more populous in the country.  The Caro Center has existed for decades, but several of its buildings have decayed over time to be unusable.  Only the main building still serves patients suffering from serious ailments like schizophrenia and suicidal tendencies.  Located roughly 70 miles north of Detroit, the Caro Center serves patients from the city's northern suburbs all the way to the western edge of the Upper Peninsula, a region that takes ten hours to traverse by car.  Whitmer said one of the deciding factors in rejecting the plan of action developed by her predecessor was the fact that the location was a hardship for some of the patients' families.  That standard is impossible to meet, given the geographic footprint Caro is responsible for.  Instead of having completed a renovation of the facility, Whitmer has dragged her feet with half-measures.  Now the center is slated to remain open, but with reduced capacity that cannot meet demand for the services offered there.

Whitmer promised to prosecute government officials who worked in the state's Department of Environmental Quality who were responsible for the slow response to the Flint water crisis.  Her opponent in the 2018 gubernatorial race, Bill Schuette, had already charged those employees.  Whitmer claimed that the plea agreement did not go far enough and played up a much harsher punishment that would be handed down by Attorney General Dana Nessel and prosecutor Kym Worthy of Wayne County.  Instead, the state dropped all charges.  It was a ruse, a mirage that went from infrastructure-heavy "fix the damn roads!" on the campaign trail to business as usual once elected.  MDEQ was rebranded instead as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE, pronounced "eagle").

Funny thing: When you don't punish incompetence, rebranding rarely works.  EGLE couldn't get off the ground before another crushing error.  After forcing a dam operator to keep lake levels dangerously high, the structure gave way, unleashing a torrent of water into the city of Midland.  Over 2,000 homes and businesses were affected, with the most recent damage estimate at over $175 million.  Whitmer's decisions have harmed deep blue Flint and ruby-red Midland alike.

Nothing compares to what she has done since the onset of COVID-19.  For political points, Whitmer stood between doctors and their patients, forbidding the use of hydroxychloroquine this spring.  Just months later, Henry Ford Health System released a study saying that HCQ is remarkably effective in combatting the disease.

She has stood in the schoolhouse door, slamming shut the only opportunity many children in Democrat strongholds like Detroit have at escaping poverty.  In March, when schools were closed to in-person instruction, Detroit Public Schools ended their year.  For students without laptops or internet access, school closures aren't inconveniences; they are the death knell for learning.  Nine months later, middle-school and high-school students are once again barred from class.  While magnet institutions like Renaissance and Cass Tech High Schools may have the resources by now to offer remote learning, it is highly unlikely that Detroit's Mumford and Cody High Schools and their students are capable of handling such a thing.

High school athletes were sidelined again late last month as Whitmer's administration claimed that it was following the science in trying to stop the spread of COVID-19.  All of this has come after data from New York State have poured cold water on the notion that students transmit the disease in school.  The NFL's chief doctor said he hasn't seen any evidence that sports have led to new infections at any level.

A prep football player in Maine committed suicide last week.  In a note to his parents, he cited the isolation as a primary factor in his decision to take his life.  How long until that story plays out in Michigan?  All of these policies are being reinstituted after the state Supreme Court already deemed them unconstitutional.

Michigan businesses have been fed to the wolves.  Barbers, salons, and hardware stores have been sacrificed for Amazon and Home Depot.  Theaters have been slaughtered for the benefit of streaming services and social media.  Restaurants are gone, allowing fast food, groceries, and pizza chains to take their place.  At every opportunity, Whitmer has sided with Big Government and its unions, Big Tech, abd Big Corporations at the expense of the little guy and the disadvantaged.

Under normal circumstances, I would say let the voters decide her fate in 2022, but Whitmer's administration has destroyed elections, too.  In the process, she cost a black man a United States Senate seat he rightfully earned.  Even worse, the fraud was carried out in majority-black cities like Detroit.  John James's political future has been lynched to prop up an uninspiring incumbent.  It is hard to imagine that the Republican-run Legislature can fix that with her at the helm in Lansing.  Election integrity will be possible only after impeachment.

Perhaps never before in this country's history has a politician more justly earned removal.  Articles of impeachment have already been introduced in the Michigan State Assembly.  The Republican majority should follow through with the measure.  Those legislators will be surprised at how many Democrat constituencies would support them.

UPDATE: Hugh McDiarmid Jr., the Communications Manager for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE) has reached out to American Thinker to contest the claim that EGLE was “forcing a dam operator to keep lake levels dangerously high.” Mr. McDiarmid points to a local circuit court order (a copy of which you can see here), that mandated certain water levels.

In response, Mr. Dossetto has pointed to several contemporaneous articles showing that there was an ongoing dispute with the state regarding freshwater mussels, which led to the state insisting that the dam owner keep water levels high for their health:

Dam owner Boyce Hydro, state regulator EGLE spar over Midland flood blame

Emails: State, Boyce Hydro haggled over mussel lawsuit since January

EGLE points to Boyce Hydro for dam failures, despite state lawsuit over freshwater mussels

Image: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy University of Michigan via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0.