Brief thread with context on the protests in Michigan:

Last Thursday, after weeks of reporting, I published a profile of @GovWhitmer. In my reporting, I'd spoke with dozens of people, including many Rs, about her handling of #COVID19. The overwhelming consensus was positive. 1/

As it happens, also last Thursday, @GovWhitmer expanded the scope of her emergency stay-at-home order. New restrictions included a ban on traveling between residences, buying certain items at stores (including garden equipment). Also, no exception made for landscaping work. 2/

Almost instantaneously, @GovWhitmer became the subject of fierce partisan criticism. My Facebook feed exploded. GOP leaders who'd backed her began publicly slamming the policy. Voters who'd been quietly complying began circulating petitions and organizing a protest in Lansing. 3/

The beef I'm hearing from lots of people here isn't w/ the continued quarantine itself, but rather that @GovWhitmer went too far. I can go to Home Depot and buy plumbing equipment... but not seeds to grow veggies? I can go to the grocery store... but not my brother's house? 4/

The liquor store is "essential," as are folks working at McDonalds or WalMart... but the lawn service guys who labor seasonally, outside, far removed from their customers, are not? (I have friends who mow in summer & plow in winter; half of their annual income is vanishing.) 5/

As @justinamash put it, the new guidelines "provide marginal benefits at best, while substantially heightening frustration and resentment." That sums up the feeling. And in talking w/ folks in Lansing, there's real surprise that @GovWhitmer hasn't listened and scaled it back. 6/

Having spent a day in her office, watching her take calls w/ Michiganders who are suffering & traumatized, I do think it's valuable to understand @GovWhitmer's mindset. Her state is being hammered--the 3rd most deaths in America--and there's no immediate hope on the horizon. 7/

When you've spent the last 3 weeks on the phone day & night hearing horror stories from your constituents -- nurses w/out masks, kids w/out food, doctors racing between rooms to make sure someone's with a patient as they die -- you're prone to taking dramatic measures. 8/

That's not to say these are the right measures. Or the wrong ones. (I'm super annoyed I can't buy paint at Home Depot; I'm also skeptical that these guys on my Facebook feed are into gardening. It's 33° right now!) Just some perspective as protesters gather in Lansing today. /end