Liberal Policies Killing Michigan's Upper Peninsula

According to the AP story, Michigan's Upper Peninsula is 'dying.' The reason for its death is not competition from international companies that are driving businesses out of the region; the reason for its demise is not greedy industrialists who are seeking too many profits; the reason that the UP is on the decline in recent decades is not heartless executives who are married to capitalism- rather, the reason for the death of Michigan's Upper Peninsula communities and economy is liberalism.

Buried in the story there are two lines that jump out to me:

Some hope for a revival of the mining industry that created prosperity a century and more ago. A nickel mine is under construction in Marquette County but has drawn protests and lawsuits from environmentalists.

Logging remains a key employer but has suffered from mill closures and soaring business costs.

Democrats and liberals attack choice and freedom and property rights, instead putting 'government' and 'the environment' ahead of them, and when you put faceless empty entities ahead of people, people lose.

Environmentalists are attacking the building of a legitimate business- a nickel mine- and they are given power and authority and leverage by their friends and allies in government, Democrats. In addition, the 'soaring business costs' that is driving the logging business under is also environmentalists, who are filing lawsuits and protesting such that costs are skyrocketing in this industry as well.

Although these environmentalists think they are doing good- they believe they are protecting innocent trees and preserving wild areas and stopping pollution- the reality is that they are doing more harm than that, driving businesses under, depriving the good people of the UP of quality jobs or a quality standard of living, while driving businesses to seek out the lumber and nickel that they need in other nations that utilize far far far more environmentally harmful methods than we use. The result is a damaged society, a damaged economy, and a damaged environment, all thanks to these liberals who empower institutions so to damage individuals.

UPDATE: Readers Early Light hit one out of the ballpark with this comment:

Loggers have a vested interest in protecting and managing forests. Forests are their livelihood. The libs argue that drugs should be legalized, then taxed and regulated, because all we are now doing is driving the industry underground, where it goes unregulated and does more damage. Why don't they apply that logic to firearms, mining, logging?

It is because they don't think for themselves. They take their cue from leaders in their movement who are not about logic, or the environment, or anything other than destroying America. This hatred of Western culture has a history.