By Bankole Thompson
The voices of conscience prevailed as Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed SB59, a bill that would have changed Michigan’s concealed weapons law to allow guns in schools, daycare centers, churches and stadiums. The gun bill came in the wake of the unfortunate horror that claimed the lives of 28 people including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.

Instantly the bill put Michigan on the culture war map of gun advocates and made many people to begin to wonder how the state can proceed with such a notorious bill.

Despite Michigan’s Senate Majority leader Randy Richardville’s comments that what happened in Connecticut should have nothing to do with the gun bill in Michigan, Gov. Snyder whose so-called moderate posture has taken a real hit in the wake of the right-to-work law departed ways with his conservative cabal in Lansing.

Next should be the extreme anti-abortion bills before Snyder’s desk that would make it nearly impossible for abortion clinics in Michigan to exist as well as allowing doctors to exercise their religious beliefs when it comes to abortion. That means a doctor can choose not to conduct an abortion procedure if it is against their religious conviction.

This kind of moral clause in the anti-abortion bill almost creates a theocracy because it becomes a government sanctioned religious edict when it comes to abortion. The anti-abortion bills represent yet another culture war issue that Gov. Snyder promised to avoid when he ran on a moderate platform.

The bill yet again places Michigan in the culture war column in the attack against reproductive rights, an issue that was part of the reason Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney lost the election to President Obama.

Haven’t majority women made their voices clear on reproductive rights in the last presidential election?

Is this bill another payback for Obama’s reelection?

Gov. Snyder should use the same veto pen that killed the gun bill for another culture war bill. The anti-abortion bills do nothing for Michigan’s budget crisis. The bills do not increase job growth in the state. They only serve the ideological fantasy of right wingers who are eager to make their culture mark at the expense of the unity that Snyder once said he intends to create with a moderate platform.

Bankole Thompson author of “Obama and Christian Loyalty,” is a distinguished journalist and presidential author. Since 2008 he has been a member of the weekly “Obama Watch” Sunday evening program on New York’s WLIB-1190AM. You can tune in every Sunday to hear his take on the Obama administration from 9-10:30pm and simulcast in New Jersey and Connecticut. You can listen to him every Thursday morning on WDET-101.9FM (Detroit NPR Affiliate) where he is a political analyst. Thompson is the editor of the Michigan Chronicle and author of the forthcoming book “Rising from the Ashes: Engaging Detroit’s Future with Courage.” No part of this blog must be republished without the appropriate designation or expressed permisison of the author http://www.bankolethompson.com