Michigan’s four living former governors appeared together Wednesday to call for more civility in politics and elections as part of an effort to alter a turn toward coarseness and sometimes violence.
It was a highly unusual gathering of two Democrats and two Republicans whose gubernatorial service dates back to the 1980s.
Former Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican and the most recent addition to the retired governors group, said things have taken a turn for the worse since he stepped away from the job in January of 2019.
“The way you see behavior in politics, would it be acceptable in any other part of your life?” he said. “Would it be acceptable at the workplace? Would it be acceptable at your family dinner table?”
“The role model I’ve always had is I try to treat anyone in the political world just as if they’d been a family member sitting at my dining room table,” said Snyder.
The protests and violence happening in Minneapolis could easily be any city in Michigan, Snyder added. Federal immigration authorities there have responded with violence at times to largely peaceful demonstrators. Immigration agents fatally shot two protesters last month.
“It doesn’t have to be this way – it doesn’t be this way in American society. It doesn’t,” said former Governor Jim Blanchard, a Democrat. He obliquely laid a lot of the responsibility for the tone set in Washington on President Donald Trump.
Blanchard, who left office in 1991 and is the elder statesman in the group, served before everyone had email and social media accounts. He said the internet changed everything.
“Social media and the internet are real problems because people can lie, lie, lie and get away with it,” he said. “There’s no scrutiny on that, usually,” he said, and people easily buy into conspiracy theories that fit with their ideology.
Former Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat who also served as Energy Secretary in President Joe Biden’s cabinet, was not able to make it in person, but joined via a video feed.
She agreed that often-anonymous online platforms reward conflict.
“People aren’t swimming in the same pond at all. Their realities, their facts, are completely different because their sources are completely different,” she said. “Content creators who are extreme are rewarded because extremism is more interesting and gets a greater number of clicks.”
Granholm said a lot of the tensions in this moment can be traced to the vitriol coming from the White House.
Ex-Governor John Engler, who unseated Blanchard in 1990 and also came of age before the internet, argued the news media has abdicated some of its role. He said TV stations that earn millions of dollars from campaign advertising should combine efforts to host universally broadcast debates.
“Those networks have an obligation to the people of Michigan to get together now, pick a date for a debate in August right after the primary, pick another date, a second date for another date right after Labor Day before we start voting,” he said.
A broad coalition of groups of many political stripes organized the event as a launch for the Michigan Civility Coalition, a year-long civility campaign that coincides with high-stakes 2026 elections including open gubernatorial and U.S. Senate seats. They want people to trust and respect the results of those elections.
Oakland University political science professor David Dulio helped organize the event. Dulio said right now the goals are clearer than plans to achieve them.
“And we understand that,” he said. “You know, can this effort change American culture and society where the social media algorithms affect us all in so many different ways? Certainly not at the start and maybe never.”
Dulio said the coalition intends to sponsor more events to promote civility because counting on the political crisis to resolve itself is not an option.
This story was originally published on Michigan Public Radio.
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