Great Lakes Wire

Many American are anxious to return to work, or school, or prepare for summer vacations. Our social lives and the ordinary things we took for granted seem like a faraway dream during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Income losses continue to mount as nationwide unemployment claims have spiked creating an uncertain future as the stock market and oil prices fluctuate wildly.

Add to that sheltering in place for weeks on end and the likelihood of lengthy economic turmoil as the nation collectively recovers.

Protest groups are starting to spring up across the country. The argument is simple: We want to go back to work; we want to try to get back to some semblance of pre-COVID-19 normalcy.

One such group taking action in opposition to the lockdown is Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine.

There are more than 350,000 members of the Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine, a public Facebook group. The group's description gives the vibe and tone of the "movement," as they call it.

It is  “[a ]place for Michiganders to organize and work towards a reasonable solution to the covid-19 crisis. We desire to retain our liberty by organizing in large numbers and commanding the attention of our legislators and governor. Our mission is to set a nationwide example by proving the people of Michigan are resilient, courageous, intelligent, and our liberty is valuable. We can overcome covid-19 without putting Michiganders out of work and further damaging our economy.”

In the group's files section, they provide a template of a letter that organizers urge members to send to legislators, outlining their personal situation and how Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s actions have negatively impacted their lives.

Founder Garrett Soldano said in an April 14 Facebook Live that the point of the group is not to oppose the quarantine. 

“The reason we started this group wasn’t that we were against the quarantine. We’re not. We were against our very constitutional rights taken away from us,” he said.

The group is one of several protesting Whitmer’s stay-at-home order. On April 15, the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund—conservative groups supported by the DeVos family—organized and participated in a highly-publicized protest at the state capital in Lansing.

The event page for the protest said: “People always say ‘Conservatives never protest because they are too busy working.' Well, guess what? You’re not working, so it’s time to PROTEST.”