The constituents’ solution is to focus on targeting the legislators in recall petitions to bring in new representation that shares their beliefs and the agenda of the Republican legislative leaders, Stu Sandler, a consultant for the Michigan Republican Party, told The State News in a previous interview.

More petitions have been submitted this year than in the past, according to Ingham County’s election commission. Thankfully, the commission has been critical of the recall petitions — denying all recall petitions filed against Meadows and Whitmer thus far for various reasons.

Recall petitions that work to remove politicians who have not committed egregious wrongs against their constituents or broken promises made to the public are petty and frivolous. It is not as if the senators are going against their original campaigns.

Simply because one’s favored party is no longer the majority in the legislature does not mean the solution is to file for a recall. The increased number of recall petitions is unsettling, especially when considering the reasons for the recalls.

Instead of focusing on petitions to recall politicians, the concerned citizens should be rallying people around the issues they feel are not accurately being addressed by their senators and representatives. The citizens also should encourage more people in the future to vote for the candidates who will support the public’s stance on issues.

Removing a few people or a party from the discussion does not lead to compromise through a discussion of varying opinion and therefore, effective lawmaking.

If constituents are concerned about the decisions their representatives are making, then there are other steps that can be taken before writing recall petitions.

The voters could submit their concerns to their senators directly.

Politicians usually want to be re-elected, and one way to make re-election more likely is to actively pursue issues in ways that please the citizens being represented. Although it might be a long shot to say liberal senators would change their entire stance on issues just because their conservative constituents speak up, it is reasonable to say the senators would consider the opinions of their constituents. This is especially true if enough people rally around the issues at hand.

It is important to consider a majority of voters were supportive of the liberal politicians at one point — if the voters had not supported them, they never would have been elected in the first place. The people who voted for the liberal senators were aware of their stances on many issues when they elected them.

Recalling politicians is not a valid response to a change in the majority party.