Up North Progressive

Whether you live up north or down state in Michigan, one of the most interesting aspects of the 2014 election that barely anyone’s talking about is the split in the Republican big tent. And by split I mean yawning Hell’s Canyon-deep chasm (Hell’s Canyon is on the Idaho-Oregon border. I mention Idaho for a reason).

In the 107th state district, DeVos yes man Frank Foster was defeated by a young religious fundamentalist school teacher named Lee Chatfield in the August primary. Chatfield is openly hostile to gay people, Muslims, Obamacare and Common Core, which is programming our children to be gay Muslim Obamacare users if you follow the standard tea party rantings. Down state in the 98th district Gary Glenn beat Karl Ieuter in a very close race. Gary Glenn is openly hostile to gay people, Muslims, Obamacare and Common Core because that will program our children to be gay Muslim Obamacare users. Ask anyone in the tea party, they’ll tell you it’s true.

What else do these two have in common? They’ve both received donations from Michigan GOP chairman Dave Agema, who hates gays, Muslims, Common Core and anything having to do with President Obama. Agema made himself infamous for his rants about filthy homosexuals and no one should ever hire them because they don’t live very long. He demands Christian education be nationally mandated and that the US must address “weaponized” Ebola.

Lee Chatfield is new to politics. He’s executive director of an organization called Freedom’s Foundation, an Internet radio station and purveyor of power point presentations for the church he attends. The church also runs a school where Lee Chatfield teaches. He lives in a home with his extended family who all attend this same church. The only thing missing from this man’s story are church members picketing servicemens’ funerals with hate speech signs. Otherwise, you get a pretty good picture about Lee Chatfield and what he’s all about.

Gary Glenn however has been been around for some time. In 2012 he ran for US Senate against Clark Durant and Peter Hoeskstra for the Republican nomination. He dropped out of that race and endorsed Clark Durant, who lost to Peter Hoekstra, who then lost to Debbie Stabinow.

You remember Clark Durant, he’s the guy who runs private church schools in Detroit and a couple of charter schools that get taxpayer money to teach the same Christian curriculum his private schools teach. Clark Durant we found out in 2012 made the children attending his schools pay thousands of dollars in tuition so they would “appreciate it” while he and his daughter netted almost three quarters of a million dollars in salaries for running the schools, being CEO, and also participating in some shady non-profit organizations that raked in millions.

Clark Durant before his long political and education career worked at Hillsdale College as an assistant to the president of the college. Last year, the current president came under fire for referring to minorities as “dark ones.” Hillsdale College runs a network of charter schools that came under scrutiny for suspected lack of diversity.

Gary Glenn is president of the American Family Association. The purpose of the AFA is to support “traditional” marriage between one man and one woman, but some of Glenn’s quotes make it obvious there’s plenty of hate speech and desire to eliminate gay people completely. The tea party already considers the November 4 election a formality and the 98th district won. The LGBT community considers the 98th district race a must-win.

Two years ago the Republican Party in Michigan pushed for and passed Right-To-Work-For-Less. This was not something the Republican establishment or tea party could accomplish alone. It took Dick DeVos writing checks for services rendered by the Michigan legislature to both establishment and tea party Republicans. Gary Glenn at the time did not hold political office, but he was behind the scenes to help make it happen. He’s had plenty of experience. He was executive director of the Idaho Freedom To Work Committee when the push to make Idaho a right to work state took place in 1986. Glenn used Charlton Heston to help promote and push for right to work in that state. If elected, Gary Glenn promises keeping Michigan a right to work state will be a top priority.

Why two years later after the DeVos family, Rick Snyder and the tea party came together to get right to work for less in Michigan passed are they now at each other’s throats? Although both sides of the Michigan Republican Party have plenty of religious fundamentalists in their ranks, the DeVos family supports a network of people who do and say exactly everything they want. The tea party as far as they are concerned is a loose cannon. This is why DeVos mouthpiece Nolan Finley writes articles calling out Gary Glenn and other tea party candidates as being bad for Michigan. They are bad for Michigan, but so are the candidates Dick and Betsy DeVos throw thousands of dollars at. The Michigan tea party and establishment Republicans are in the same situation as a couple that went out on a date, had too much to drink and regret what happened afterward. It was fun at the time as Dick DeVos recently said, but now there’s awkwardness and embarrassment for what happened between them, and they’re getting hostile trying to avoid each other and forget about the whole thing.

The DeVos family, Gary Glenn, and Lee Chatfield are cut from the same cloth. They use religion to promote an ultra conservative agenda that prohibits all independent thought or expression. This is no different than the Islamic State, the Taliban or any other group of people who hold religiously charged ideology above everything else. They’re dangerous in any country they live in. The 2014 election is very important for this reason. The Michigan GOP is fractured, and they will bring their fight even further into Michigan politics if they win on November 4. Michigan has real problems that must be addressed now when the government opens for business in January of 2015. We can’t afford letting the Republicans turn Lansing into their personal battleground and causing gridlock. The answer is clear and it will take everyone – progressives, moderates and independent voters – to put a stop to this. Please get out and vote on November 4. We can stop the Republicans from bringing their bigotry and hatred to Lansing. It will take everyone’s vote to win.