Chariho got MAGA’ed
By Will Collette
The May 7 referendum vote on the proposed $150 million Chariho school construction bond lost by around 75 votes or about 1.5% of the votes cast. These numbers are still unofficial and reflect the Board of Elections count as of mid-day today.
I’m proud to note that Charlestown voted overwhelmingly for the bond, 847 Yes to only 332 No. This was due to broad consensus spanning Charlestown’s usually yawning political divide.
I’d also like to think Charlestown was less susceptible to the MAGA bullshit that was hurled at the construction plan largely by Hopkinton and Richmond MAGA Republicans such as Scott Bill Hirst and Clay Johnson.
I’ve heard it said that party affiliation doesn’t matter much when it comes to local issues. I used to think that was true. But today, Trumpian politics has so pervaded our entire body politic that every issue involves a deathmatch between truth and “alternative facts.”
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Screen shot from "Forgotten Taxpayers" website |
It’s Hopkinton that was the spoiler, providing the margin for the bond’s defeat on a town vote of 1,007 No to 719 Yes. Hopkinton's vote alone was enough to kill the bond.
Scott Bill Hirst and his MAGA friends threw every possible objection at the wall and enough of it stuck to win over that town.
They said Hopkinton is taxed too much, as if taking advantage of a one-time bargain in state cost-sharing would cause them undue harm. They said there was no need to replace the three elementary schools in question because…something.
One of the schools is almost 100 years old and is slated for closure because it can’t meet building standards.
They said the bond was another giveaway to the building trades unions. They said it didn’t matter that the state would kick in $112 million because state money is the same as local money even though it obviously isn't.
The fact that just about all their objections were false, distorted or irrelevant didn’t matter – the idea was to create enough doubt to push voters to go their way. Just scroll through the Letters to the Editor column in the Westerly Sun to see how broad yet narrow-minded their attack was.
We need these new schools. Times have changed and we now know schools must be upgraded to provide security against school shooters, sanitation and ventilation to blunt the spread of air-borne diseases, fire protection and state-of-the-art wiring to take advantage of the technological tools for today’s learning.
The rise of Trumpism, fascism, White Christian Nationalism, intolerance and ignorance make our need for an educated public all the more crucial.
I see no possibility of any change in the election results. We lost and ignorance won. I don’t know what happens next and what the Chariho system will do about the structural problems this bond issue would have addressed.
One thing is sure: the cost to fix what is broken will cost Chariho taxpayers a lot more, thanks to the No-Nothings who engineered the bond’s defeat.