June 13, 2005
Voter Initiative
I was at the Gaspee Days parade over the weekend and was canvassed by a representative of Operation Clean Government who was looking for signatures supporting a Voter Initiative referendum question this November. I signed it, with some trepidation, but the proximate situation of the current state of Rhode Island politics won out over my more philosophic, long-term reservations. I took a look at OCGRI's logic and their specific, and I must add, limited version of the voter initiative (ie; OCGRI claims their's is not as broad as that of California) and I encourage you to do the same. I think it's worthy of the consideration of Rhode Island conservatives. A voter intitiative isn't a magic pill by any means, but any method that will allow Rhode Islanders to bypass the currently entrenched members of the status quo seems like a good thing. In the end, it seems to me that the willingness to support the initiative is derivative to how dire one views the current political situation here in the Ocean State.