One of the most
pernicious myths about Rhode Island politics is that the state house is
dominated by liberal, labor-backed, Democrats.
The Democrat part is certainly
true, but neither the liberal nor the labor-backed parts are. Rhode Island,
after all, enjoys the only voter-ID vote-suppression bill in the nation voted
in by Democrats.
We have endured 15 years of tax cuts for the rich that have
impoverished our schools and towns and allowed great profits for businesses
that turn around and betray our state.
We allow payday lenders to soak their
customers for 260% interest rates. We were utterly unable to enact any
meaningful gun control legislation in the aftermath of an appalling massacre in
the next state over last year. The list goes on in a long and embarrassing
fashion.
Labor gets a lot of
blame for this in certain circles, but it’s a sick joke. The labor movement in
Rhode Island is so disunited that pensions were “reformed” in 2005, 2007, 2008
and 2011, each time making pension coverage for state employee union members
weaker and smaller.
Whether it’s labor law, pensions, taxes, or municipal
funding, it is difficult to think of a high-profile controversy in the
legislature won by labor in the last 15 years.
The tragic part of
this is that Rhode Island’s electorate is not nearly so retrograde as its
legislature. Gun control polls well, as does reproductive justice and raising
taxes on rich people, and yet the legislature does not act that way.
This accounts for the
Machiavellian nature of legislative politics. The conservative Democrats who
have held power there for decades rely on strong-arm tactics to enforce
docility among the rank-and-file.
These are not a sign of power, but a sign of weakness. The
leadership has long been aware that their hold on power is precarious, and they
rely on the disunity of their opposition to maintain their hold.
Part of what maintains
that disunity is the selective granting of power to a few individuals, who are
allowed to sit as committee chairs or vice-chairs. These individuals imagine
they have some leverage worth protecting and that their position allows them
some access to the inner workings.
This makes them reliable votes to protect
the interests of the powerful. But a lot of it is illusion. I found myself once
talking to the vice chair of House Finance committee some years ago on the very
day that the Finance Committee issued its revision of the Governor’s budget.
I
was fascinated to notice that he knew as little about what was in it as I did.
In other words, his position allowed him to think he had access, but in reality
he had virtually none.
This is what is
happening today. People with some small measure of influence — who will never
get any more than what they have from Mattiello’s leadership — are unwilling to
risk what little they have by supporting a leadership that actually favors
their perspective. The tragic part, of course, is that if they could be united,
they could make a change.
Tomorrow will be a
test.
If Nick Mattiello
becomes Speaker, the most powerful position in the state Democratic Party, it
will be through the support of tea-party Republicans allied with
representatives who do not believe he supports any of their priorities, but are
willing to go along with him for the sake of small and ultimately meaningless
favors.
Do you want Republicans Doreen Costa and Joe Trillo to be kingmakers of
the Democratic Party?
The conservative path
of our recent history has brought us one bankrupt city and a couple more
flirting with it. We have given up tax revenue and gotten nothing for it in
return. Our schools, buses, streets, and virtually every other public service
you depend on, has gotten smaller, weaker, dirtier, and meaner.
The legislature
has thwarted Governor Chafee’s attempts to restore Carcieri’s school funding
cuts and any semblance of equity among the cities and towns, along with most of
the other useful reforms he has proposed.
You can be upset with him for not
fighting harder, but he is not the obstacle to reform in Rhode Island. This is
the status quo of our state, and if you are happy with it, then you have every
right to be happy with the status quo of the Assembly leadership.
If you are not happy
with it, though, please contact your state rep today and ask them to support
change at the state house tomorrow. And if you are a state rep reading this,
please remember that the bluff only works when no one stands up.
Tom Sgouros is a freelance
engineer, policy analyst, and writer. Check out his new book, "Checking the Banks: The
Nuts and Bolts of Banking for People Who Want to Fix It" from Light
Publications.