A conservative county in Michigan gives a glimpse of what it's like when ardent social conservatives try to govern

UPDATE, March 1: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has admonished the county board for its "lack of transparency and good governance," The Bulletin of the Michigan Press Association reports. Nessel said the state open-meetings law should be changed to require public bodies to set an agenda 48 hours before the meeting and allow them to modify it only in "exigent circumstances," and include in the definition of "public official" someone who has been elected but not sworn in.

Board meetings have drawn crowds and hours of
public comment. (Photo by David Siders, Politico)

When ardent conservatives took control of a county government in Western Michigan, its meetings were more heavily attended, but the focus strayed from management to ideologies, reports David Siders of Politico: "Ottawa County governing board’s most recent meeting addressed a roof repair and resurfacing contract . . . . but over the course of a meeting that ran over four hours, public speaker after speaker in three-minute increments were debating something else entirely, something far more spiritual — to what extent their government should, or should not, pursue Judeo-Christian values. . . . Lots of people spoke in favor. They warned of the 'tyranny' of mask mandates, the 'sexualization of our children.'"

Since January, the meetings have a new focus, "after an upstart band of far-right Republicans unseated seven more traditionalist Republican incumbents, seizing a majority on the 11-member board," Siders writes. "The hardliners, members of a group called 'Ottawa Impact,' had signed a 'Contract with Ottawa' promising to 'respect the values and faith of the people of Ottawa County.'. . . They’d pledged to 'recognize our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage.' . . . Roger Bergman, the sole incumbent Republican commissioner the group failed to oust, had attended one of those forums last year, and as he sat in the audience, he grew concerned. But even Bergman, who at 76 has decades in local politics, wasn’t sure what it would all mean when it came time for a new, far-right majority to actually govern."

Given the chance to govern, the new board made sweeping changes."They fired the county administrator and replaced him with John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official, Christian missionary, failed congressional candidate and election denier. They closed the county’s office of diversity, equity and inclusion. They picked for their new public health officer — pending state approval — a safety manager at an HVAC service company. . . And they rewrote the county motto from 'Where You Belong,' to 'Where Freedom Rings.'"

“Oh, my God,” Bergman said to Siders after a commission meeting where a young man in a hoodie, Caden Hembrough, thanked the board majority for standing against 'forces of darkness.' Bergman told Siders, “It’s becoming more and more evident that these people are Christian nationalists. . . .They have chosen to weaponize Christianity."

Ottawa County, Michigan (Wikipedia map)

County government "may not strike you as the likeliest place for a spiritual crusade. It wasn’t in Ottawa County, either, before Covid," Siders writes. "But public health mandates related to the pandemic infuriated a group of parents who complained — and litigated, unsuccessfully — about 'government overreach' in schools. . . . Sylvia Rhodea, a co-founder of Ottawa Impact and, now, vice chair of the county commission, described the election as one that “will decide whether we are going to save America, and that starts local.” America, she said, is a place of opportunity 'built on the Constitution, Christianity and capitalism.' The office of diversity, equity and inclusion, she said, was promoting 'woke ideology.'”

Not everyone agrees with the changes. "The fallout has seemingly come from everywhere. In an email to the board, the county’s outgoing attorney warned that firings of multiple senior county officials would jeopardize the county’s bond rating, saying, 'stable counties don’t fire their corporation counsel and administrator,' Siders reports. "In The Holland Sentinel, it’s been headline after headline, like 'Ottawa County’s prospective health officer has no experience. Here’s why that could be a problem.'. . . then there are the hourslong public comment sessions at the board’s regular meetings. There are supporters, and there are critics — people who call the board members 'fascist,' or 'troglodytic.''

Field Reichardt, a longtime observer of politics in the county, told Siders what he thought was going on: “This is a microcosm of what is happening nationally, the changes that are threatening American democracy. This Christian nationalist movement truly frightens me. . . . They think they are doing God’s work, and they truly believe it. They are beyond right-wing. They are Proud Boys-ian. Clearly, that’s what they are, when they refer to diversity, equity and inclusion as being ‘divisive.’”