A tweet from an apparent Matt Brown supporter shines an unmistakable light on two realities of progressive politics:

Matt Brown, a wealthy man, himself, is precisely the sort of politician observers warned us about at the founding of our country, a huckster willing to capitalize on the ability of people to vote themselves other people’s money in a democracy.  He gives no hint that he sees government as a shared institution to help us resolve our disputes peacefully and balance our interests.  To Brown and his fellow progressives, the purpose of government is to use its authority to tax and imprison in order to take money from some people and give it to supporters.  The policies on which he receives a nice green check all cater to narrow special interests; he would be the archetypal us-versus-them governor, and we should expect Rhode Island’s decline to accelerate.

Even apart from the ideological warfare, though, how cavalier about (or ignorant of) consequences must one be to support such a platform?

• Capping rent increases ignores the underlying causes of increased costs, ensuring greater shortages of housing and more upward pressure on rents.
• The tax-the-rich attitude will lead to less investment in our state, both in a business sense and in a civic sense.
• Forcing up the minimum wage will increase prices, reduce employment, and put businesses out of business.
• While LEOBOR definitely needs reform, the Left’s “defund the police” movement would increase crime and instability.
• And making Rhode Island an abortion hub would kill children, reduce respect for life generally, and contribute to our baby shortage.

That isn’t to say there aren’t arguments to be made across their platform, but modern progressives support lunacy.  That was tolerable when they were mainly a performative minority, but as they take office, they are doing real harm, and we should worry that our state’s lethargy and the enthusiasm of those bought off by the handouts will make it difficult or impossible to stop the excesses.

Featured image from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist from the British Library.