In Michigan, so-called right to work legislation has been signed. As everyone knows, such legislation has nothing to do with finding and keeping a job, and everything to do with driving down the political power and membership density of unions. Just four short years ago, this measure would have been considered inconceivable in Michigan. Earlier this year, many union officials scoffed at its prospect. Now it has become law.

What has so sharply changed the balance of forces? Simply put: the Tea Party movement has radicalized a large swath of white people and made them immune to any calls for the common good.

Ben Stewart presents an on-the-ground look at anti-union events in Michigan

Almost three thousand union members and supporters streamed into the Michigan state capital in Lansing on Thursday, December 6.   Many arrived via the Walter Reuther Expressway from Detroit.  Protestors donned hard hats, scrubs and overalls, chanting “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Right to Work Has Got to Go!” As police lines held back the crowds of union members, and locked them out of the governors’ office building and the Capitol, the reality began to sink in. Michigan was going to be a “right to work” state.

A Response to David Welch in The New York Times.

It is IREHR’s policy to use this website for new data-driven research and analysis, not as a place to regurgitate newspaper headlines or use it as a debate-centered discussion forum.  Nevertheless, an opinion piece in the December 4, 2012 New York Times by David Welch, which called for William Buckley-like figures to marginalize the Tea Party movement and push it outside the bounds of conservative respectability, bears a thoughtful response. Indeed, Welch offers a well-considered, if ultimately wrong, strategy for reducing the Tea Parties to “pariah” status.

Not since Lincoln became president and the start of the Civil War has there been so much talk about tearing our country apart.

Since the November election, petitions have been created to "peacefully grant" states the right to "withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government." The petitions are housed on the White House's "We the People" website, and the signatures come from all 50 states.

Several of these petitions were started by Tea Party leaders angered by the re-election of President Obama (more on that later). Just three weeks after the election, the number of signatures of those secession petitions has grown to 825,554. Below you'll find a map visualizing the number of secession petition signatures in each state.

IREHR will continue keeping a close eye on efforts to rip the bonds of our union asunder.