“This week, I’m excited to join tens of thousands of conservatives across this great land, including Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; Ed Meese, former Attorney General under President Reagan; and Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, in reaffirming my commitment to the conservative principles upon which our nation was founded,” McManus said in a letter paid for by her campaign.

The statement reads in part:

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.

It goes on to state that in order for conservatives to be successful as a political movement they must agree on a “Constitutional conservatism” that:

Applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.

Honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.

Encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.

Supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.

Informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.

Though the Mount Vernon statement emphasizes the importance of individual liberty, McManus recently introduced divorce legislation that some say will interfere with personal freedom by making it harder to end a marriage.

Earlier this month McManus was the sole sponsor of SB 1127, a bill that would require couples to obtain judicial approval of their reasons for seeking a divorce.

Kyle Bristow burns McCain t-shirt

YAF members present themselves to voters as run-of-the-mill Republicans

Members of the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) have gotten a ton of publicity over the last two years for racist and homophobic antics on campus, earning the YAF a listing as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and as an “extremist group” by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

But now a slightly more scary trend is appearing — they’re running for elected office.

Kyle Bristow

Kyle Bristow, the former chair of MSU-YAF, ran for and achieved the post of precinct delegate of the 29th district in southeast Michigan’s Clinton Township.

This is not Bristow’s first time in an elective position. He served a short term as representative to Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU), the student governing body of MSU. He was recalled from that post, representing the James Madison College after students learned of his plans to eliminate all minority groups, create a white council and “hunt down illegal immigrants in the Lansing area.” In April, Bristow was involved in bringing Canadian Nazi Paul Fromm to Lansing.

Tyler Whitney

Tyler Whitney, a 20-year-old MSU student with links to the 2007-2008 presidential campaign of anti-immigration and anti-gay Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, as well as to the YAF MSU chapter, made a quiet, unnoticed bid for a slot as a Republican trustee for Bath Township in Clinton county north of Lansing.

He came in fourth in Tuesday’s primary in a five-way race. Whitney’s fourth-place finish places him on the general election ballot. There, he and the three other top vote-getters will face four Democrats for the four seats on the board.

Equally interesting is how Whitney presented himself to voters. That is, his time as the webmaster for Tom Tancredo for President as well as his participating in an anti-gay protest in Lansing with MSU YAF did not make it into either his campaign literature or any media coverage of the would-be trustee.

Nor did his time working with the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance to recall Republican State Rep. Richard Ball. The 2008 effort sponsored by the Howie Rich and Grover Norquist-funded Americans for Tax Reform was labeled a blackmail effort by the far right-wing, free-market extremists attempting to punish moderate Republicans who voted for tax increases.

Instead, Whitney, who trained at the Leadership Institute in Virginia — which trains conservative youth activists from across the country — ran a campaign with platforms that included encouraging new businesses and saving green space. No mention of his attendance at Nick Griffin’s speech about the British National Party at MSU. Griffin and his party are openly racist, running a platform to prevent all non-whites from immigrating to England. During the appearance at MSU, Griffin made claims that parts of the Holocaust were fabricated by the Allied powers. He claimed the chimneys at Auschwitz were added by the Allied troops who liberated the infamous death camp.

If Whitney were elected a trustee, he would be in charge of such decisions as zoning changes, ordinances and other related local government issues for the small township.

Dennis Lennox III

Whitney’s attempt at running for office follows that of Dennis Lennox III. Lennox was the chair of YAF’s chapter at Central Michigan University (CMU) back in April of 2007 when CMU’s student government considered ousting the group by labeling them as a hate group. The student government-led move was in response to an anti-gay graffiti incident on campus, combined with the close ties the CMU YAF chapter had with MSU’s more infamous YAF chapter. Lennox threw his hat in the ring to run as a Republican for the state House, but quickly backed out when the incumbent of the 105th, Kevin Elsenheimer, announced he planned to seek re-election.

Lennox is known nationally as the controversial student who followed Gary Peters, who is running for the 9th Congressional District as a Democrat, around CMU with a video camera. Lennox was on Peters for taking a position at the university and running for office. Lennox was recently punished by the school for passing out literature against Gary Peters in violation of university rules.

Lennox has since started a new group at CMU called The Conservatives that is funded in part by the aforementioned Leadership Institute.

Note: This story was amended to include the fact that Tyler Whitney’s fourth-place finish qualifies him for the November ballot in the race for trustee for Bath Township in Clinton county.

(Cross-posted at YAFWatch.)

The students have filed paperwork seeking recalls, the first stage in creating a recall campaign. One is Andrew Boyd, a 20-year-old from Muskegon; the other is Tyler Whitney, a 19-year-old from East Lansing.

Whitney filed to recall Republican State Representative Richard Ball (R-Shiawassee County), while Boyd filed recall paperwork against State Representative Mary Valentine (D-Muskegon). Whitney has said he was prepared to follow through with a recall effort if Ball voted for tax increases — which Ball did not.

But Boyd said he would go no further. “If I wanted to do one of the recall campaigns, I would have to take a semester off,” he said in an interview. “I don’t think I am willing to do that. The filing told Mary Valentine where I stand. What her constituents feel.” Whitney declined to be interviewed for this article. Neither Ball nor Valentine could be reached for comment.

Continued -Both students arrived in the Drolet camp by very different routes. Boyd was home schooled, then went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Whitney attended East Lansing High School, started at Western Michigan University and transferred this year to Michigan State University.

What the two have in common are ties to the Young Americans for Freedom, a national conservative youth organization founded in the 1960s, and which has long supported conservative causes and politicians like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

Last spring the Michigan State University chapter of YAF was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, widely considered the nation’s leading expert on hate groups and which compiles an annual listing of hate groups in the country. The listing is published in its quarterly magazine, Intelligence Report, which is distributed to over 50,000 law enforcement personnel worldwide.

The MSU chapter is the only one to be listed as a hate group. The Law Center cited the chapter for issuing a 13-point memo that advocated the elimination of minority student group representation on college campuses, elimination of funding for all non-heterosexual organizations, the creation of a straight club, a man’s council and the creation of a Caucasian council, as well as providing representation to the student government for those groups.

“I am involved with helping out college Republicans, YAFers and college libertarians,” Drolet said in an interview, “because I want young people at a time when they are asking a lot of questions to hear the free-market perspective I am trying to advance. Each group attracts young individualists for different reasons. The great thing about YAF is that it does not attract party hacks.”

But Bill Ballenger, a former Republican elected official and editor of Inside Michigan Politics, said any Michigan Taxpayer Alliance tie to YAF “would hurt” Drolet. “Any press that would happen if YAF were connected with Drolet would be, ‘Oh, he’s tied to a hate group,’ because the press is pretty much brain dead when it comes to coverage of these groups.”

While neither Boyd nor Whitney are members of MSU’s YAF chapter, Boyd has been at MSU YAF events, including a speech April 19 by Minutemen Civilian Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox, an opponent of immigration. And Whitney participated in a protest in Lansing sponsored by MSU’s YAF chapter against a proposed human rights ordinance.

Boyd, co-chair of YAF at U-M in Ann Arbor, also helped host a controversial “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event at the Ann Arbor campus, which some critics said demeaned Hispanics. But the campus paper, the Michigan Daily, reported that the “Illegal Immigrant” was supposed to be Christopher Columbus.

“My goal was to bring up legitimate debate about the issue,” Boyd said. “I wanted to ask why this insensitive game was getting attention, and put a twist on it-that being Christopher Columbus being caught by an American Indian. We are all immigrants.”

“I regret it in the sense in what the actual result ended up being,” Boyd continued. “In my mind, it played out in a different way.”

Boyd said he does not support much of what MSU YAF and its chairman, Kyle Bristow, do. “It makes me frustrated we have to deal with these mis-perceptions that we are a hate group because of Kyle,” Boyd said.

However, Boyd is still allowing his image to be used prominently in a recent recruitment video created by YAF MSU and featured on its blog and on YouTube. “I don’t know if I could stop him [Bristow] from using my image,” Boyd said.

Whitney, former chair of Western Michigan University’s YAF chapter, came to the attention of the blogosphere in June when Between the Lines reported the conservative activist was gay. He had been photographed at an anti-gay protest lead by Bristow and other MSU and Olivet College YAF members at Lansing City Hall last Nov. 18. Whitney stood in front of city hall with a sign reading “Go Back in the Closet.” Other signs included “End Faggotry” and “Straight Power.”

Whitney, who was webmaster for the long-shot presidential bid this year by Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, is now a student at Michigan State. He has since apologized for participating in the anti-gay protest in Lansing.

Calls and emails to the national YAF were not returned. Bristow would not answer questions about the YAF.
]]> http://michiganmessenger.com/199/budget-held-hostage-part-2/feed 1 http://michiganmessenger.com/125/budget-held-hostage-part-1-meet-mr-perks-the-pigs-handler http://michiganmessenger.com/125/budget-held-hostage-part-1-meet-mr-perks-the-pigs-handler#comments Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:09:24 +0000 Todd A. Heywood http://www.michiganmessenger.com.php5-9.websitetestlink.com/?p=125 LANSING — The state capitol has a new lawn ornament — and one state lawmakers wish would go away. Meet Mr. Perks the Pig, a publicity stunt on a Montana trailer.

Perks is part of a strategy to force lawmakers to cut government spending, and the strategy is implemented by a one- time lawmaker and current Macomb County Commissioner.

Enter Leon Drolet, 40, the man with the leash on the perk pig and recall threats that have hampered state budget negotiations. Drolet has laid claim to causing the current budget stalemate, which as the state spiraling towards an imminent shut down. That claim has been boosted in recent days by the Michigan Education Association in an editorial in the Detroit Free Press.

But Drolet’s budget impasse is merely the visible impact of his involvement with young people linked to a controversial student organization, and Grover Norquist, a libertarian money man. This series seeks to explore those relationships in depth through interviews and investigative tools. It is the result of weeks of investigation.

(Photo: Perks the Pig as parked in front of the capital building in Lansing; photo courtesy of Michigan Liberal.)
Continued -Drolet is a Michigan born and bred politician who has labeled himself a libertarian. But he is an active member of the Republican Party. He is also the head of the Michigan Taxpayer Alliance.

Drolet sat down with Michigan Messenger for a wide ranging interview on Sunday night as the state House sat in a time loop of frozen voting boards.

Drolet said his interest in politics started in high school, when he saw Ronald Reagan speak at Macomb Community College.

“He didn’t talk like the politicians I was used to seeing,” Drolet said. “He talked about fixing your own life, not waiting for the politicians to do it for you.”

Following high school Drolet discovered political philosophy and came to two overwhelming conclusions. “First, truth is objective,” Drolet said, taking on the tone of religious man bestowing deep spiritual secrets to a religious novice. “Two, each person should have as much liberty as possible without infringing on others. That is the best way to lead people to leading productive lives.”

And while Drolet makes his political abode in the Republican camp, he is not necessarily a welcome neighbor. While in the state house, he championed lower taxes and smaller government, but he also did something the social conservatives in the party hated a great deal.

He voted in way that made Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan accuse Drolet of promoting the homosexual lifestyle (http://www.afamichig…).

Glenn said Drolet’s vote against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman showed his penchant for the pushing the gay agenda. Drolet also authored and introduced legislation to remove the state’s felony sodomy law-before the US Supreme Court ruled all sodomy laws were unconstitutional. He was also a co-sponsor of legislation to allow second parent adoption in the state.

Glenn was so offended by Drolet’s support of the so-called gay agenda caused the religious leader to oppose Drolet’s appointment to the US Civil Rights Commission as chair for Michigan.

But Glenn is not Drolet’s only detractor. He was co-chair of the what many believed to be misnamed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative or Proposal 2 2006. That proposal banned affirmative action programs in all government hiring and school admissions. Under the Constitutional amendment, race and gender could no longer be considered as factors in admissions to universities.

His role in the passage of the controversial amendment lead the Michigan Department of Civil Rights to issue a press release that it was “disappointed” in the appointment of Drolet.

And while Drolet has a mixed bag hand in social issues, a pro-gay, anti-abortion, anti-affirmative action, small, government gun- loving libertarian in the Republican Party, he has gained more notoriety for his anti-tax campaign through the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance.

As the executive director of the organization, Drolet makes $39,000 a year. On top of this, as a County Commissioner in Macomb he makes $35,000 a year. The group is a non-profit entity under federal law, and its donation lists are not open to the public. Drolet refused to name his big donors (those donating over $10,000 each) unless the MichiganMessenger.com and its parent organization The Center for Independent Media named their top donors. “I will go donor for donor with you all,” he said in a phone interview.

But as executive director, Drolet built on a string of national connections to not only purchase Mr. Perks for a stunning $10 from the Sam Adams Alliance, but also to land Americans for Tax Reform executive director Grover Norquist as a board member for MTA.

Drolet said he met Norquist back in 2000 as he was considering a run for federal office.

“I sent an email or something down to Grover and his organization and when I was going down to DC when I was considering for a higher office,” Drolet said. “I went to DC and made  the rounds and one of them was Grover Norquist. I was surprised how some freshman rep would meet with him.”

Drolet called in Norquist to sit on his board so he would be “taken seriously,” and from all appearances lawmakers take his announcement last month that he would recall state representatives from vulnerable seats has worked. The group of 10 or 11, depending on which media outlet you talk to, were constantly yellow in their vote tallies throughout the weekend and week, as party leaders tried to find a budget resolution amenable to both Republicans and Democrats.

“People are right.There would be a tax increase already gone through if there was not opposition,” Drolet said, “organized, politically-relevant opposition to the specific interests who are in Lansing asking for bigger budgets.”

Drolet said the special interests in Lansing lobbying for bigger budgets represented the “government class,” but who is organizing the recall efforts and what special interests Drolet represents will be covered in the next posts in this series, Budget Held Hostage.
]]> http://michiganmessenger.com/125/budget-held-hostage-part-1-meet-mr-perks-the-pigs-handler/feed 4 http://michiganmessenger.com/89/opinion-todays-budget-impasse-began-in-1983 http://michiganmessenger.com/89/opinion-todays-budget-impasse-began-in-1983#comments Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:09:22 +0000 Celeste Whiting http://www.michiganmessenger.com.php5-9.websitetestlink.com/?p=89 If you thought this mess in Lansing had something to do with the 2008 budget, you would be wrong. In 1983, on the heels of a budget crisis worse than this one, two Democratic senators were recalled. This action flipped the Senate from Democratic control to Republican control.

Future governor John Engler became the Senate majority leader and ran the GOP as a sort of opposition party. Sound familiar? He then became governor running on a platform of budget cuts and tax cuts. He lived up to his word demanding cuts in spending and taxes for the 12 years he was in office. The legislature borrowed from the right hand to give to the left until there was no more money. In the meantime, the auto industry, our life blood, began to decline–but that’s another story.

The important thing is that obstruction and ideological resistance to any revenue increases resulted in GOP electoral success. And this is the point we must remember today.

Mr. Drolet remembers. “Recall 1983″ is the rallying cry of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, headed up by Mr. Drolet. It suggests there can be a glorious reliving of the sad triumph of 1983 and that it would be good and right to pursue recall actions against legislators who vote to increase revenues.

Continued -He and his organization categorically oppose tax increases. MTA’s board includes Grover Norquist, most frequently quoted as wanting to “drown government in a bathtub.” This is called ideology, not public policy.

Institutional memory is a casualty of term limits. No one in the legislature was present for the drama of 1983. But they need to review history to appreciate the drama they’re caught in and act intelligently on behalf of our state and our future. Good luck.
]]> http://michiganmessenger.com/89/opinion-todays-budget-impasse-began-in-1983/feed 0