This article originally appeared in the Detroit News July 17, 2024. 

In January 2019, just weeks on the job, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faced a crisis.

A polar vortex hit Michigan, with subzero temperatures and icy conditions. Then an accident threatened the power company’s natural gas supply. Whitmer held a press conference, followed by an emergency text alert, asking people to turn down their thermostats to avoid overwhelming the grid.

The governor tells this story in her book, “True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between.” She says her main takeaway is to trust people to do the right thing. “[I]f you ask people to help, more often than not they’ll do it,” she writes.

This insight stands in sharp contrast to the most significant test of Whitmer’s leadership: the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s hard to tell whether Whitmer is proud of her pandemic performance. She says she had to move fast with incomplete information. She defends the lockdowns. She wanted to do the right thing and is bewildered that people disagreed with her efforts. (Some individuals made abhorrent threats against the governor and her family. Any wrongdoers deserve to be held accountable.) But her summation is tepid.

“Our response to Covid wasn’t perfect, but I believe that the steps we took saved lives,” she writes.

I see three lessons her book omits.

First, leaders empower people rather than relying on mandates or micromanagement. Though she highlights her “trust the people” approach with the polar vortex, Whitmer reacted to COVID-19 with strict mandates. She issued nearly 200 executive orders, which were so convoluted she needed about 1,000 FAQs to help people make sense of the rules. Whitmer ordered people to stay home. She ordered businesses to close or limit their activities. She closed schools and banned outdoor recreation. These were not suggestions; the police ticketed and jailed people. The state fined businesses for violations.

Strange inconsistencies riddled Whitmer’s orders. She kept marijuana and liquor stores open but restricted the sale of gardening supplies. She banned indoor dining but allowed outdoor dining inside inflated igloos. She let people walk, but not golf, on golf courses. Then she did a U-turn, opening courses but banning golf carts.

The result was massive confusion. People mocked the rules by sharing photos of seeds, child car seats and American flags that stores had cordoned off behind yellow tape.

Whitmer’s lockdowns carried immense costs to civil liberties, livelihoods, productivity, mental health, unemployment and education — consequences we are still dealing with today.

Lastly, leaders build consensus. Whitmer’s biggest error was to act unilaterally, sidelining the Michigan Legislature and deriding Michigan courts. She had an opportunity to secure widespread support by collaborating with lawmakers. Instead, she urged the Legislature not to meet and later ignored lawmakers when they declined to extend her emergency declarations.

A coalition of medical providers sued, arguing Whitmer could not unilaterally extend the state of emergency. In October 2020, in what The Detroit News called a “landmark ruling,” the Michigan Supreme Court agreed. The unanimous decision nullified the orders she had issued without legislative consensus.

Whitmer slammed the Supreme Court. Days later she pivoted by issuing administrative orders through her health department. “COVID-19 does not care about a court order. COVID-19 does not care about a legislative calendar,” she said.

Leadership is more than having a title or wielding authority. I once heard it put like this: “Are you a leader, or just the person in charge?”

Whitmer’s book would be stronger if she offered a compelling case that her actions mitigated COVID-19, or if she had examined the good faith concerns about her leadership.

She does neither.

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