I have yet to see a recall mounted in the recent past where the character in office has done all kinds of shady, horrible things, like hiring all his indigent relatives to work in high paying, low-effort jobs or skimming money from the pension fund or using government cars for many personal trips. What we see instead are instances where the vocal recall movement doesn’t like a politician because he or she wants to stop ridiculous waste in government offices at the expense of another politician’s brother-in-law, or where a politician seeks to get people off the dole and into jobs that could provide income outside of the government expense.

Take, for instance, a recent recall that makes a mockery of all that is recallable. Here recall movers mounted a recall to remove township board members because they decided after numerous complaints to ban dogs on a township beach. After people complained about the dog droppings, the dogs running loose and attacking people and the dogs fighting amongst themselves, it became necessary to say, “Enough is enough!” and put forward the ban after numerous public forums. Now keep in mind that there is a leash law in Michigan, and it says that you can’t just let your dog run wild on public property. But did that stop the dog lovers complaining about the rights of dogs being violated? Did anyone in their group look at public beaches within 60 miles of the township beach and realize that none of them allow dogs to run wild or even on leashes? Did anyone question why many of the dogs on the beach belonged to people who did not live in the township? A hearty resounding, “No.” The important response for these recallers was, “I don’t care what anyone else wants! I want to let my dog run wild wherever I please, and if there is a politician in the way, I see the need to recall him or her as quickly as possible.” And sure enough, the recall went through and the current township officials were run out of office with the dogs unleashed, nipping at their feet.

So what does this have to do with anything important? I would speculate that I will receive a number of emails from those who love it when I open my mouth to say almost anything. They will complain that I am speaking against a right of citizens to get the government that they want, to get rid of oppressive tyrants and speak their minds. I am sure that if I were a politician, they would try to have me recalled because I said anything against a dog’s right to freedom. The problem is that what we are seeing in many of the recalls afoot in the land is a complete disregard for what is good for people in general.

Let’s get rid of the mayor because he said that he wouldn’t say something evil about gay marriage, or let’s run the senator out of office because he or she likes to go bowling on Sunday, or isn’t it necessary to pillory that representative who commented that the Mormon religion is just as good a religion as any other and shouldn’t be stigmatized by characters running for office. My goodness, aren’t all of these and a million others good reasons to force people out of office? I think not. The recall is a method to remove politicians who are really violating the public in a myriad of tangible, sensible ways. Let’s stop using the recall as means to just get my way because I believe my fellow voters are so lazy that a 10 percent voter turnout might be all I need to get someone thrown out of office.

Craig Gunn is a State News guest columnist. Reach him at gunn@egr.msu.edu.