Sam Bell, director of the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats, told NBC10 News Conference this weekend that it’s because the Governor Gina Raimondo and the Rhode Island General Assembly are significantly more conservative than Hillary Clinton and national Democratic Party and are more ideologically aligned with traditional Republicans.
“I think one thing people don’t realize about how politics works in our state is that the people who dominate the Democratic caucuses in the General Assembly – both the House and the Senate, to a lesser degree – really seem to stand with the national Republican Party on the core issues that divide the two parties at the national level,” Bell to Bill Rappleye.
Bell said the recent top tier tax cuts were the among the largest ever and that car taxes, which hit lower income people harder, were increased to finance this tax break to Rhode Island’s richest residents.
“There’s just no evidence that Rhode Islanders stand with any of these extreme conservative policies that the leaders of the General Assembly are pushing,” he said. While local elected officials like to use the term “business friendly,” Bell said, the policies they push tend to hurt small businesses.
Afterwards, Jon Brien and I debated Bell’s assertion. Brien said the problem is “economic Robin Hoods” who want to take other people’s money while I countered that “economic sheriffs of Nottingham” who want to take other people’s money are the problem.
Tobin was in the news for a blog post he wrote calling on lawmakers to keep cannabis illegal in Rhode Island. “In opening the door to drug use even a little bit, we have so much to lose and absolutely nothing to gain,” he wrote. But as I responded on TV, “The Bishop is essentially siding with mass incarceration if he wants marijuana to stay illegal, and that’s a far greater sin than indulgence.”
I called him a “moral failure for our state and for the Catholic Church.”
In the online segment I made clear my harsh judgement is not for his position on drug policy. It’s also not for taking a strong position against abortion. It’s because he has been completely absent from the public discussion on poverty and war – issues that have been central to all Rhode Islanders lives during his tenure as bishop. “I want the Church to advocate for issues that matter to the people of Rhode Island,” I said.
In his interview with Bill Rappleye (about 3:10), Tobin expressed his views on war.
“Of course I’m against wars, I don’t know anyone who is in favor of wars,” Tobin said. “I think it was St. John Paul who said war is always a defeat for humanity. It’s never good.”
But, he added, “Sometimes there are prudential judgments.”
He continued, “The Catholic Church has a long tradition of talking about a ‘just war theory’. It is never to say someone is just in starting a war, but we certainly believe in the right of self defense. What would someone do to respond to the attacks of terrorism, of ISIS, the terrible persecution of Christians taking place in the Middle East, the attacks on our own country or in France or in Belgium? How do we respond to these violent terrorist attacks without having some means of self defense. That’s where I think someone providing legitimate armaments and self defense has a legitimate role to play. Again, no one is in favor of war.”
On transgender bathrooms, Tobin, a Republican who said he probably won’t vote for Donald Trump, showed some compassion before invoking a popular conservative talking point.
“I have no doubt there are some people for physiological or psychological reasons have to deal with being transgendered and those people deserve all the support and respect and cooperation and assistance we can offer them but I’m also concerned this seems to be becoming a politically-driven agenda. It does seem to me to be very sweeping and overarching and perhaps another intrusion of the federal government into areas that are best decided at the local level.”
]]>Bill Rappleye, Jon Brien and I discuss on NBC10 Wingmen:
]]>Correction on my part: Jon Brien isn’t a nativist for calling undocumented immigrants “illegals” – he’s committing a nativist act.
]]>Sheldon Whitehouse was Bill Rappleye’s guest, who said it would be wrong to say he supports the proposed fossil fuel power plant. More on this later, if I can get the video from NBC10.
]]>Brien was all over the place, and having a tough time coming to terms with his “small government except for abortion” views. Guess what John Brien? You sound pro-choice.
RI Future’s Bob Plain just had to let Brien talk to win the day.
Bob and Bill Rappleye spend most of the episode getting Brien back onto the subject.
]]>Plain says Donald Trump sounds like a fourth grader and that if everyone who likes Bernie Sanders‘ message but won’t vote for him because “he can’t win” just voted for Sanders, then Sanders would win, and by a “landslide” in the primary and the general.
John Brien feels that Trump suffers from a lack of nuance and that as a free market supporter he just can’t get past the socialist label and support Sanders.
Nobody talked about Hilary Clinton all that much.
]]>We also discussed tolling truckers to fix roads and bridges, the potential for a mass officer retirement at the Providence Police Department (about which I said, “Good riddance, old cops. Get out of there and let’s bring in some new blood!”), Twin River and, the topic Rhode Island may never tire of talking about, 38 Studios.
We also tackled a new idea for the Ocean State: Providence IWW member Andrew Stewart’s great RI Future scoop on local sex workers who are organizing a labor union. Watch to see what Dyana Koelsch, Bill Rappleye, Kate Nagle and Rob Horowitz think of the idea.
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Bill Rappleye, Jon Brien and I chose to discuss on NBC10 Wingmen the future of economic development in the wake of the worst investment the Ocean State will hopefully ever make.
I say state’s need to ween themselves off the practice of paying businesses to relocate or stay in place. To my mind, this is a legal form of extortion that businesses use to increase their profit margin at the expense of the rest of society. Jon and Bill both think the idea of ending tax breaks is inconceivable, but I counter that CVS’s decision to stop selling tobacco products is evidence that big business is starting to learn that social justice and a moral compass have value in the marketplace as well.
]]>I contend that at least some of that angst is the result of talking heads, operatives, politicians and – yes, Donald Trump – misleading the American people about the issues.
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