August 7, 2011
What Hath RI Democrats Wrought
Hal Meyer, Citizen Critic and former Rhode Island resident, has compiled an excellent website, RI Democrats, outlining the all of the damage that seventy years of a Democrat super-majority has inflicted on the state. Below is a selection of the evidence that he presents.
My view is that, from now on, every voter should be required to carefully review this website before stepping into the voting booth and then quizzed as to motive if they still plan to vote (D) on the state or local level. If they respond, "Because George Bush said there were weapons of mass destruction" or "Because Dick Cheney got Halliburton a no-bid contract to drill for oil in Iraq" or any similar, fatuous, completely non-Rhode-Island-related answer, their ballot would be gently but firmly confiscated.
Additional screening for such answers as, "Because my cousin has a state job", "Because it's the party of the working man" (see Matt Allen for the proper intonation of this phrase) or "Yeah, most of them are bums but my guy is okay" would be phased in during the following election year.
• Rhode Island second-worst state in the U.S. for business and careers - October 14, 2010. From PBN.• There Really Is Something Rotten in the Justice Department - September 7, 2010. From The National Review. "Many counties in states such as Alabama and Rhode Island also show a similar miracle — no voters were removed from their voter rolls for having died."
• R.I.’s foreclosure rate is #1 in New England - August 31, 2010. From The Providence Journal.
• One in 7 now gets food stamps in RI - August 30, 2010. From WPRI TV.
• R.I. among the most financially distressed states in the nation - August 27, 2010. From Providence Business Journal.
This is what irritates me SO much about the state's Republicans. They're so busy worrying about fighting over Chafee and Laffey or Loughlin and Doherty, that they let the Democrats define themselves. STOP IT! Turn the tables! Start labeling the Democrats for what they are. Tell people who they are. This kind of information needs to get out. With the size of RI, it would be so relatively inexpensive to flip it from blue to red. Where is the national GOP? This state is so far down the crapper, the national GOP should be able to come in here and show what people like Cicilline, Reed, Langevin, Whitehouse, Fox, TPW and more have done to us. Stop the infighting and turn it toward the Democrats!
Posted by: Patrick at August 7, 2011 10:47 AMGood to hear from Hal. When he moved to Iowa, I assumed he would be little heard from.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at August 7, 2011 1:27 PM"In June, the number of Rhode Islanders getting help from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), the old food stamp program, soared to a record 163,608, from 87,235 in June 2008, a nearly 88 percent jump, according to new figures from the state Department of Human Services. That’s about 1 in 6 Rhode Islanders who rely on the federal program."
Projo 8/6/2011
Surprise! It ain't getting any better either.
Posted by: Max Diesel at August 7, 2011 8:20 PMThings can get worse...unfortunately. The liberal Dems demonize the "rich" while funding the poor...with the "rich" money. The cycle escalates whereby there is a "poor" industry catered to by the "working mans" party. The liberals disable the producer while enabling the non-producer. RI politics is based on this premise. Producers and small business will flee the state. The largest employer will be the state and it's bureaucrats. There is no mystery why RI fails economically year after year. The definition of insanity is the continual repeating of a mistake while expecting a different outcome. RI politics 101.
Posted by: ANTHONY at August 7, 2011 10:55 PM@Warrington:
Idaho --not Iowa.
;)
Posted by: Citizen Critic at August 8, 2011 4:22 AMHal was the original Travis Rowley, although H. does a lot more research. He still mixes up NEA and AFT, though.
Posted by: Bob at August 8, 2011 9:12 AMAs a Republican which one doesn't belong with the other?
Chafee-Laffey, Doherty-Loughlin
You win the prize!
Clearly Chafee was not a Republican and clearly Doherty is not a Republican. A Republican is someone who is defined as having conservative fiscal values and also by the way many have strong family values. The problem is that there is always someone coming over to muddy-up the waters. This is allowed by weak party leadership. For weeks the key democrats in Rhode Island were heard bragging that Brendan Doherty was running as a Democrat. Well surprise, surprise...he who loves the current debt ceiling bill embraced by Langevin and Cicilline is running as a Republican. Give me a break! Perhaps if there weren't a primary coming because of purely personal selfish reasons, we wouldn't have this mess. The only sound coming out of the Doherty camp are crickets.
From the 2010 census:
Providence, 178,042; Warwick, 82,672; Cranston, 80,387; Pawtucket, 71,148; and East Providence, 47,037
163,608 on food stamps, that's the entire population of Warwick AND Cranston, or almost 92% of the population of Providence.
Are these numbers right? HOLY COW
Posted by: stuckhereinri at August 8, 2011 2:29 PMPosted by Citizen Critic
@Warrington:
Idaho --not Iowa.
;)
Yeah, I mix them up. They all look the same to me.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at August 9, 2011 12:17 AM