Looks can be deceiving but the latest numbers about population in Michigan sure look like liberal policies in the MiItten State are driving people to live somewhere else.
I can't blame them.
The latest from a site that leans left of center and is delivering Democrats some sobering news:
Michigan continued to lose residents to other states in 2022, with a net population loss of 9,900 people, adding urgency to efforts by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and others to grow the state’s population.
Despite the loss, the data could be a cause for optimism: The decline is less than 2021, when Michigan, a state of 10 million, had a net loss of 15,000 residents to other states, and 2019, when the net loss was 20,300.
As with other years, Michigan residents are leaving primarily for Florida, Texas and other Sun Belt states, according to Census migration data released in October.
Population is top of mind for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who formed a population commission this year to recommend policy changes to help attract new residents.
Since 1990, Michigan has had the 49th slowest rate of growth in the nation. All but seven of the state’s 83 counties have more deaths than births each year, and the state’s median age of 40.3 years is 16th highest in the nation.
As with most blue states, the population is fleeing and not sitting around to see how this all shakes out. After Whitmer won easily last year by nine points, and the current opposition party is mired in its own destruction, why would anyone who could leave now not?
The latest example of the idiocy of this progressive policy wasteland was covered just the other day right here at RedState, where I covered a law that just passed intending to take away your right to self-defense for nonviolent crimes, like robbing a coin vending machine.
Gov. Whitmer Signs Michigan Anti-2nd Amendment Bill That Defies Logic
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Monday that would crack down on gun possession by domestic violence offenders but would also result in gun ownership rights being revoked for Michiganians convicted of dozens of non-assaultive crimes.
The bills, spearheaded by state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, would block domestic violence offenders from owning or possessing a firearm for eight years after completing their sentence, a change that partially mirrors federal prohibitions on gun ownership after a domestic violence misdemeanor. A similar state-level waiting period for misdemeanors involving a firearm was needed to make it possible for state and local law enforcement officials to enforce it, advocates said.
“We need to give our state-level prosecutors and law enforcement the tools to enforce this kind of prohibition,” Chang said in a hearing earlier this fall.
Sounds scary, right? Domestic violence offenders.
This is part of the bill, though, and it is super scary.
Among the high court misdemeanors and felonies that legislative analysis indicate now will be potentially subject to a three- to five-year gun rights suspension: Certain lobbying and campaign finance violations, false statements on a veterans benefit application, certain gambling offenses, disorderly conduct at a funeral, possession of an aquatic prohibited species and knowingly allowing an MMA or boxing professional to compete against an amateur in an amateur contest.
Other crimes on the list include violation of a law prohibiting the alteration of a bottle return machine (a two-year felony) and breaking into a coin-operated vending machine with intent to steal its contents (a three-year felony), according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.
The House Fiscal Agency analysis indicates that since the changes aren't part of any given sentence, "they would apply to all those whose sentences have not been completed when the bill takes effect, in addition to those convicted or sentenced after that date."
Breaking into a coin-operated vending machine or owning an aquatic species could be considered domestic violence now.
Common sense, right?
Why wouldn't anybody want to live in a backward liberal haven where somebody who commits a non-violent offense can have the state try to bar them from their constitutional right to protect themselves and bear arms because the state will always be there to protect them?
I can totally see the logic here.
Except I can't.
Also, with the absolutely broken state the Michigan Republican Party is in currently, this means there are no choices to vote for other than progressive heavy or progressive light, which both fail. You can see why people are fleeing this state.
The Michigan Republican Party is considering how to deal with "imminent default" on its line of credit, according to a resignation letter from a member of the state GOP's budget committee.
The message, obtained Thursday by The Detroit News, reveals the seriousness of the financial problems facing a party in a battleground state a year before the 2024 presidential general election. Kristina Karamo, the Michigan GOP's chairwoman, has struggled to raise money after rising to power in February while railing against the party's "establishment," including past donors.
Jessica Barefield of Livingston County serves on the Michigan Republican Party's state committee, which features about 100 members. She also had been one of 13 Republicans on the influential budget committee, helping to oversee the finances. Barefield said in a resignation letter the budget committee had a Friday "emergency meeting" when the panel "was asked to weigh in on action steps regarding the imminent default on the line of credit," indicating the party is struggling to meet its obligations to pay back its past debts.
The argument has been made for a while here in Michigan that the state is actually red or more conservative, and that is clearly not the case.
The last time we had a conservative Republican governor elected here was in 1998 with John Engler. The last time we had a statewide election for a Republican Senator who WON and was sent to Washington DC, was in 1994 with Spencer Abraham. Oh sure, there are Republicans elected who are more moderate, and if there is strong leadership in the governor's mansion or in the Senate or the House, those moderates can be guided to do the right thing 80 to 85 percent of the time.
For now, those days look like they're way back in the rearview mirror.
Michigan, going forward, is going to continue to lose population while young men and women who are just about ready to start families have already decided to go to greener pastures in other states with an overall lower tax rate and higher quality of living. They are going to easily decide that the heavy-handed progressive Democratic approach of taking more of your money out of your paycheck and spending it on frivolous woke programs is not worth sticking around to see if it eventually works.
This is truly a shame, as Michigan is an absolutely gorgeous state that has a lot to offer for those who live here. Yet currently, the political mindset and leadership that the vast majority of the citizens here have chosen over the past 25 years have led to this decline where more people would rather live elsewhere even when born here.
The old saying that people vote with their feet is an absolute reality in the soon-to-be not-so-great state of Michigan
