I mean, look at this:
The scores were abysmal to start; the goals were obviously fictitious when considered in the absence of a practical plan; and the final results are offensively bad. If these results aren’t causing outrage, it’s because nobody in the Democrat establishment or news media wants to address the underlying problems, which are entangled with labor union privilege and political power.
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On its surface, the controversy looks obvious. I mean, the guy winning the no-bid contract had a relative in the relevant office of the school department:
Astro of New England, a different moving company, first raised issues with the bidding process after Astro owner Chuck Lamendola said he noticed Jada had been awarded work in late June without him ever seeing the district advertising the work publicly.
He also highlighted that Jada owner David Oliver is cousins with the school district’s facility director, Kevin Oliver, whose name appeared on Jada contract paperwork submitted over the past couple of months to the School Committee.
On the other hand, consider that Jada doesn’t have the relevant licensing, which is probably just a matter of paperwork, but has already been doing such work as a subcontractor under Astro. That framing changes the coloring a little, to make Astro seem like an unnecessary middleman kept in the game through the state’s licensing regime. One might wonder whether there’s anything to find in Lamendola’s family and friend network, too.
Rhode Islanders have long joked about the need to “know a guy” to get things rolling in our state, given our institutionalized corruption. As different factions of people who know different “guys” compete in that sort of system, who gets pegged with corruption violations becomes like a game of musical chairs.
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I suggest the title of this post acknowledging I don’t know a whole lot about Johnston’s unique political scene. Locally, things can be very specific to the individuals involved and their disputes, but I have been a keen observer of factors that make it more difficult for Republicans to work through those disputes.
Apparently, Johnston has a single opponent candidate, an Independent, in its Town Council and School Committee races, and not a single Republican. Sandra Taylor, the president of the local Republican town committee, it’s a matter of her candidates’ having to focus on supporting their families. That’s a downstream indicator of other problems, in the absence of which, I suspect people would make the time for civic engagement.
Motivational Factors
First, Republicans are less inclined to engage in local politics as a step toward a political career. It genuinely requires sacrifice of their economic and other interests, whereas the Democrat machine can be a route to personal prosperity in the Ocean State.
Second, running (and especially winning) as a Republican means you will instantly become a representative villain for the news media. Holding office is not a route to positive attention for conservatives around here.
This is compounded by, third, the increasing nastiness of progressive activism. The legislature has written student activism into school curricula, which the teachers union will happily leverage. Progressives are happy to show up at your house and make a scene. Progressive activists will take to social media in a swarm of bullies.
Structural Factors
Fourth, statewide media doesn’t cover local government unless there’s a controversy, and people no longer get their news from local media. Thus, fewer people who aren’t political junkies will happen to come across stories that might get them interested in civic engagement. Relatedly, the arena of letters to the editor has disappeared, and those written debates used to draw people in.
Fifth, retirees may not be staying around, at least enough to hold public office, and perhaps younger retirees (the Boomers) may not be as civically engaged. In any event, they have now marinated in a lifetime of “Republicans are bad” propaganda, and so they are less likely to step forward to represent that party (see above).
Sixth, all of Rhode Island’s biggest problems are simply insurmountable. The labor unions have state government locked up, and any advancement made in local government will draw their attention at that higher level. While it makes local engagement even more important, this means repairing local government requires something more like a crusader than a friendly local seeking to give something back to the community because all of the negatives of running as a Republican will be exponentially heightened if an elected official actually intends to address real problems. Not only are crusaders harder to come by, but they can be harder to work with, come into conflict with each other, and, in their passion, are apt to branch apart when they disagree.
Solutions
I’ve got some ideas that I’ll be developing and testing in the near future, but there are no simple and easy fixes to this problem. Inasmuch as it’s a clear problem not just for the Republican Party, but for the entire state, it’d be helpful if well-meaning members of the political establishment, especially the news media, would recognize the challenges and consciously adjust how they cover news and treat people who step forward.
I wouldn’t count on that, though, which means the problems are likely to get worse before they can possibly get better.
Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 3 and Photoshop AI.
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Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee tweets yet another area in which Democrats manipulate language to insinuate ideology:
A grant from a government agency to another government agency is not “momentum.” Momentum suggests that the entity or project is moving on its own. Government subsidies are pushes… force. Democrats’ language is (deliberately) manipulative and always to make government the center of all of our lives, which it absolutely should not be.
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One can absolutely make the case that generous time-off policies have their benefits for employers and do right by employees, but we allow Democrats like Magaziner to throw around terms like “fundamental human right” far too easily:
You cannot have “an absolute human right” to be given things by other people, no matter how nice or just it might be if only for the reason that it grants either an absolute right to individually seize property or for sleazy politicians like Magaziner to do so as middlemen.
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Well, look, Electric Boat relies hugely on government funding in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.:
Radicals in the Democrat Party will hold a lack of such policies against Electric Boat, while even the most conservative Republicans who can possibly gain decisive power in government won’t hold it against them very strongly. Barring discrimination lawsuits in our judiciary, which is increasingly intellectually captured, the economic incentives all point in one direction.
Conservatives frequently note this disparity in incentives, and it’s a genuine problem. Imposing regulatory consequences on private companies for social policy we don’t like is not (and should not become) our thing. That brings us back to two courses of action.
First, we have to concentrate on gaining the ability to reduce government’s ability to create these incentives in the first place by limiting its power and budgets and reviving Americans’ understanding of its appropriate limits. Second, we can start laughing at people associated with companies like Electric Boat. I mean, imagine catering to the gender cult for a buck. Where is there integrity?
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On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- GOP primary Senate debate
- Walzing in Newport
- Washington Bridge suits and suitors
- McKee’s old gang
- Democrats say the darndest things
Featured image by Justin Katz using Firefly.
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Perusing Twitter or X (which I may henceforth call “TwiX”) often leaves me feeling panic at the state of our world and the hopelessness of recovering humanity’s footing. No doubt, this is at least partially the way it feels to have your attention manipulated, but stepping back, even that reality is just another contributor to our worrying state of affairs.
One way I see people responding (particularly the profiteers) is to assume the world always feels like it’s full of danger and risk, so the best response is to ignore all that and go about building your life and career, leveraging the reality of the moment toward those ends. After all, humanity has gone on, generally progressing, despite the ups and downs, and as the large timescale has life improving, some people suffer relatively little during the smaller-scale changes. It would be better to focus on being one of them, while waiting for the rising tide to lift all our boats, than to live with anxiety and missed opportunities worrying about things one person can hardly change.
In this frame, neither Harris nor Trump will destroy it all. Life will go on, so concentrate on what you can control.
On the other hand, most of our advancement has been relatively recent, and there was no reason it had to take as long as it did. Electricity, for example, didn’t change. Humans’ choices about how to perceive the world and organize themselves were the primary catalyst for the prosperity we’ve enjoyed, and we can go in the other direction, too.
Of course, my tendency toward these concerns is why I’ve made one of my daily reminders to “remember what world you live in.” Ultimately, it all pales in comparison with eternity with God. But I can’t help but conclude it has been preferable to be grappling with others’ personal demons on an individual scale than seeing those demons coalesce into an existential threat.
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On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- Red tape and the homeless village
- McKee uses the budget as an assault weapon
- Walz swings through Newport
- Young progressives look for parents in their politics
- Small town political controversy in Foster
Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 40.
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I was puzzled recently when I discovered that updated registration forms had somehow not made it into two of our cars. The technician inspecting one of them told me many Rhode Islanders are accidentally throwing their registration forms out. I chuckled along with him but wondered how that would be possible.
A couple days later, I was about to put new plates on my car, and I realized that I was about to do exactly that. The registration is printed on the folded inside of the piece of paper with your mailing address on it, which is stuck to the envelope.
At around $20 per online duplicate registration, that little error can add up quickly for the state (let alone tickets and fees for people who don’t have the current registration in their cars). If the state were a private company, it might find itself subject to a class action lawsuit. As it is, I guess the best we can do is alert each other about the scam.
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