Everything you've just said about your state applies equally to western Michigan where I live. I had to take a fairly long drive to help a neighbor out yesterday, and I counted no less than three pickup trucks with Confederate flags waving from them, beside American flags, of course.

Everybody knows exactly what those Confederate flags stand for —racism, white supremacy. Then, when you see that cop flag waving on the same truck, you know something truly horrible is happening. Official, violent, gun-enforced racism.

I've pointed at many times that Michigan shares a border with Canada, that every rural graveyard around here contains a corner of Union soldier tombstones.

Yet people around here love to wave the Confederate flag these days. Because they are deplorable racists. It's open now. It's not even a secret. People wave their racism proudly. And many of them are cops.

I despair.