PAUL RAHE: Michigan Seems Like A Dream To Me Now. “In November, Barack Obama won the state handily, and Debbie Stabenow was re-elected to the Senate without any difficulty at all. In the same election, two conservative justices on the Michigan Supreme Court were re-elected, and a third conservative very nearly won a seat on the court that was being vacated by a liberal Democrat. Moreover, the left made a valiant attempt to secure the passage of a series of referenda designed to entrench union privilege in the state constitution, and they lost on each and every measure. What is one to make of this? . . . The unions and the Democratic machine associated with them have also destroyed Detroit. it was once the fourth largest city in the United States; it was once the nation’s wealthiest city per capita. Now the median price of a house is $10,000, and, where there were once two million residents, there are now fewer than seven hundred thousand. The state is changing character. In the last decade, it has lost 10-15% of its population. . . . It could also be the case that — with Washington deadlocked — the real action over the next four years will be at the state level. In 2012, the Republicans lost the national election. But, at the same time, they garnered in 2010 and 2012 a strength at the state and local level that they have not seen as a party since the 1920s. The fact that the Republicans in Michigan have just passed right-to-work legislation is proof that the Tea-Party impulse is by no means dead. The year 2012 may be remembered not as the year in which the latest wave of Progressivism triumphed. It may be remembered as a year in which the Republican resurgence hit a minor bump in the road. Stay tuned.”