In what one attendee called an “unprecedented” press conference, three former US Attorneys and one expert in governmental ethics held a press conference today to educate the public about the rampant criminality of Buddy Cianci’s two previous turns as Mayor of Providence, with an eye towards preventing a third. Republicans Robert Corrente and Lincoln Almond (who also served as governor of Rhode Island) alongside Democrat and current United States Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, were united in their opinion that a third Cianci administration is, in the words of Corrente, an “alarming prospect.”

Corrente started the press conference by noting that the information being presented was for the undecided voters who will determine the mayoral race in Providence, not for those who have already decided. Cianci, says Corrente, has “minimized and even joked about the crimes he committed in office,” and these crimes include a “violent beating involving a fireplace log and an ashtray.” The head of the Providence City Council during Cianci’s first term told Corrente that, “Cianci is killing the city” through threats, bribery and extortion.

During his second administration, said Corrente, Cianci ran the Providence City Hall as an organized criminal enterprise for nearly a decade before being convicted on RICO charges, yet the former mayor characterized his conviction as “some guy down the hall who took a g-note.” Corrente called Cianci’s statement an “outrageous mischaracterization.”

Lincoln Almond, who joined the press conference by telephone, added, “You don’t get five years for a technical violation.”

Certainly Cianci has served his time for his crimes, but rehabilitation means taking responsibility for and owning up to your misdeeds. Cianci has shown no remorse, said Corrente, and there is every reason to believe that a third term will be exactly like the first two.

Senator Whitehouse concurred, adding that, “one should not believe that this type of criminal activity is harmless to taxpayers.” When the cost of doing business in Providence includes bribery and extortion, business stays away, says Whitehouse, noting that there was a “surge of [business] activity” after Cianci’s tenure as mayor, when business at City Hall could be conducted honestly.

Almond added, “The fiscal problems facing Providence [today] were created during the Cianci administration.”

Phil West, who formerly headed up Common Cause, says that, “the only way [Cianci] can run a city is pay-to-play.” Voters have to ask themselves, “Has Buddy Cianci’s character changed?”

“I find that hard to believe,” said West.

When asked why, despite his criminal record, Cianci is leading in the polls, the three US Attorneys seemed at a loss. Corrente suggested that there may be many who don’t remember the extent of Cianci’s crimes or who moved into the city after the fact. Whitehouse suggested that the public is confusing Cianci’s “entertainment value” for responsible leadership. It was also suggested that many have publicly supported Cianci do so because they are afraid of political retribution should he win.

I think Corrente got closer to the truth when he admitted that many, like the firefighter, police, teacher and taxicab unions, are simply voting in their own economic interest by supporting Cianci. I would add that in my talks with likely voters, many feel that the major party candidates, the Republican Harrop and the Democrat Elorza, do not have the interests of working people and the working poor at heart. The concerns of working people are not being addressed by the major party candidates, forcing voters to consider casting their ballots for a criminal who might help them over “honest” politicians who have flatly declared themselves opposed to their interests.

More and more Rhode Islanders are falling into poverty, and our major candidates for office offer little, save for the promise of making Rhode Island more business friendly in the hope of attracting more low paying jobs at poverty wages. In this light a voter’s ballot is not cast for Cianci, but against a system that doesn’t work for them.

As sympathetic as I am to this logic, voting for Cianci is a mistake. Cianci’s life of criminality and abuse of power is a stain on Providence, and I dare anyone to read Emma Sloan’s piece, “Why one rape victim won’t support Cianci” and still publicly support the man. At a certain point, it’s not about the character of the candidate, but the character of the voter.

It’s amazing some of the things we’re willing to believe … Jesus was born to a virgin, Thomas Jefferson thought all men were created equal, Reaganomics works and, the perhaps the biggest doozie of them all, that Rhode Island did its due diligence in assessing the 38 Studios deal.

For anyone still hanging onto that most recent bit of malarchy, Tim White and Ted Nesi have some news for you.

One of the most interesting aspects of their scoop is Linc Chafee’s letter to Keith Stokes about the impending deal, and Stokes’ reply – which was essentially that smarter business minds than Chafee’s had already vetted the deal … which goes to show, I think, that being successful in the free market doesn’t always – or even all that often – translate into having a flair for what works with regard to public policy.

Progressive Charlestown has been blogging about localvore recipes this week … a great idea, you guys!!

The banksters don’t want Elizabeth Warren on the Senate committee that oversees their industry. No surprise there … I wonder what the people want? And which constituency will get its way?

Dee DeQuattro lists her 12 biggest turkeys for 2012. Noticeably missing from her list is the guy she’s suing.

How small is Rhode Island? We would fit into Alaska more than 547 times! I once lived in a county in Oregon that was about four times the size of our state. And before that in an unincorporated hamlet in Northern California that only had about 200 full-time residents, but was at least twice the size of the Ocean State.

Bob Kerr reminds us of some of the Rhode Islanders we should be thankful for. And Elizabeth McNamara of EG Patch has a great piece on all the things a community journalist should be thankful for … including fast-talking editors!

Thanks to John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, local public officials will have to disclose more of the travel expenses comped to them because of their public positions. The new rule, Marion said, is a result of some shoe leather reporting by the local media.

Here’s how the ProJo reports it:

Marion said the rule request was prompted by Providence Journal reports concerning two legislators’ controversial trips.    One trip was taken by Senate Majority Leader Dominic J. Ruggerio, to a Buenos Aires, Argentina, luxury hotel last year, paid for by a New Jersey organization, the Senate President’s Forum. The other, Marion said, “was by soon-to-be former Senator Jon Brien’s travel to these conferences held by the American Legislative Exchange Council, otherwise known as ALEC.” Marion said, “In both instances, that travel wouldn’t have come to public light except for the reporting that had occurred about them.

One clarification: that was my shoe leather on the ALEC story. In an email to me this morning, Marion confirmed, “It was the Projo reporting on Ruggerio that first led us to this idea,  and RI Future’s reporting on ALEC that pushed us to make a request of the Commission.”

The number of Rhode Island families that have stayed in homeless shelters so far this year has increased by more than 30 percent, reports the Providence Journal this morning. If that isn’t startling enough, some 60 percent of the families staying in shelters aren’t even unemployed. That’s right, they have jobs but still can’t afford or can’t find housing.

As Crossroads President Anne Nolan told the ProJo, “It’s trickle-down economics. The people at the bottom have been pushed out and are continuing to be pushed out.” And Nolan is  not to be confused with a strict Keynesian.

Meanwhile, the AP reports this sad news: “Police believe a Warwick man barricaded himself in his home and then killed himself after being served with foreclosure papers.”

And as Rhode Island continues to crumble from the bottom up, the Middle East continues to tear itself apart. Let’s hope lame duck Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can inject some peace into the escalating crisis between Israel and the Palestinians.

I really don’t have a good sense of what Rhode Island, or the local progressive community, thinks of this situation. Is Hamas engaging in terrorism, or is Israel engaging in apartheid? Of course, these two loaded terms are in no way mutually exclusive of each other and we like our geopolitical strife to be much more black and white than this conflict is. Unfortunately, it seems it’s not something we debate on the local level. To that end, I’d like to invite a wide variety of voices to share their thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Joe Caramadre may have pleaded guilty to fraud, but I’m not convinced it’s entirely accurate to say he “preyed on terminally ill people.” ProPublica wrote in August that it can be argued he was a Robin Hood-like character, who stole from insurance companies and split the ill-gotten gains with those on or near their deathbeds. I certainly can’t fault him for taking a bigger slice of the take, as he bore a lot more of the risk than did his elderly clients, but they bore some and there’s no evidence he apprised anyone that what he was doing could be construed to be illegal. and given how clever Caramadre seems to be, I’m guessing that at least occurred to him…

I think it’s ridiculous to think that a judge can’t be impartial because a couple of her family members have financial stakes in the case. Though I should add I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the case be delayed until that question is reasonably flushed out. I should also add that it’s very reasonable for the state to delay the cuts until their legality is reasonably flushed out. Besides, won’t all judges have a direct financial stake in the case?

Gov. Chafee met yesterday with activists who say driver’s licenses should be given based on the ability to drive, not where one was born.

The Hollywood Reporter addresses its dark past in blacklisting communist sympathizers.

I second Ian Donnis’ call for more tweeting by elected officials … politicians, I promise your constituents will think better of you for doing this, whether they tweet themselves or not.

I also second Dan Lawlor’s call for mandatory press conferences by legislative leaders. Seriously, it’s comical what reporters sometimes have to do to get a quick quote from either the Senate President of Speaker of the House after the session. In fact, in addition to cars, they also each have security guards whose sole job sometimes is making sure I can’t ask them a question or two.

On this day in 1962, President Kennedy banned discrimination in federal housing programs … 50 years later we’re still trying to implement the spirit of this executive order

We’re now the number one state in New England for food insecurity, reports the ProJo this morning. 15 percent of households in the state can’t afford the food it needs. This is a crisis of epic proportions that goes largely unaddressed because the influential class doesn’t tend to know many people that are affected by it.

To that end, kudos to these Providence College students who helped deliver leftover cafeteria food to some of the most needy people in our community.

Scott MacKay, who knows how local politics works as well as any Rhode Islander, suggests its time for the state and labor unions to strike a deal on pension reform … letting the legal system work it out, he argues is potentially very expensive and at the least very risky for taxpayers. Plus, Providence and Mayor Taveras has shown that this is a far better option politically, as well.

Speaking of pension reform, not one of the 17 state legislators who voted against it lost in the election for doing so, reports GoLocal.

And back to RIPR for a moment … Ian Donnis seems irked that I’m still irked that WPRI kept Abel Collins out of a televised debate! Interestingly, I actually think WPRI did Collins an electoral favor by snubbing him – he got more earned media by not being included than he would have had he debated, which wasn’t his strong suit as a candidate in the first place. That said, I don’t think affect on outcome is the standard by which media organizations should determine who should and should not be included in debates. I think it should be based on what potential voters should know about their options … news coverage doesn’t exist for candidates to benefit from, it exists for consumers to learn from.

The Boston Globe reports America owes Thanksgiving to Rhode Island’s own Roger Williams, not the Puritans who are often giving the credit.

Whose at fault for Hostess filing for bankruptcy? Labor, which didn’t agree to an 8 percent pay cut, or the CEO who took a 80 percent pay increase before asking employees to make a sacrifice? Either way, that’s no way to come to the negotiating table.

Now, some may argue that making it easier to get high isn’t as important as dealing with our struggling economy, but there’s no shortage of economic benefits to legalization.

Rhode Island spends $40 million annually on marijuana prohibition – that’s more than it costs to have a state legislature! The public defenders office estimates legalization would save taxpayers $12 million a year (read this letter the office sent legislators last session for more info). Does anyone want to argue that Rhode Islanders needs to punish pot smokers more than we need $12 million?

John Loughlin tells RIPR that the local GOP needs to move left on the same day that party chairman Mark Zaccaria said he won’t seek another term. I speculated last night that he might make a good fit to replace Zaccaria. GoLocal adds some to it this morning.

Scott MacKay has more on why the Republican party is in such dire straights: because they don’t even seem to realize just how out of touch they have become with the American people. (Plus he throws in an awesome Catamount reference).

Dan McGowan also chimed in on the tales of woe for the local GOP. Some quick thoughts on his piece: Demographics were not the problem for the GOP, nor was it the national brand. To put it real simply, Rhode Islanders are on balance more liberal than Republicans.

ICYMI, you may also want to read Sam Howard’s thoughts on this topic that we ran earlier this week.

The lesson in the dispute between Providence and the labor union that represents municipal workers there: get it in writing.

Prudence Island is a really bad place for wildlife rabies, ecologically speaking.

NPR: “Want to help Sandy victims? Send cash not clothes.”

Thanks to my buddy Bill Felkner for sending along this article about the Westerly firewood dealer who charges more for a cord to Obama voters than Romney supporters. The lesson here for wood stove owners might be to get your supply in the spring, when both political and economic forces drive the price down…

If Obamacare’s survival was the biggest policy victory of the election, a close second has to be tax equity. In his first post-election presser, Obama said yesterday the nation needs to ask the richest 2 percent of the population to pony up a few more tax dollars if we’re to avoid a fiscal disaster. Congressional Democrats are in a great position to win this no-brainer before the new year, and we’ve got Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to thank for making this a kitchen sink issue with his Buffett Rule bill of last session.

Our state legislators would do well to follow this lead and pass their own tax equity bill in 2013. Speaker Gordon Fox told me on election night that the conversation has already begun.

Speaking of tax policy, the ProJo editorial board is incorrect when it asserts that state workers are to blame for Rhode Island’s relatively high cost of government. It’s got far more to do with our small size, high density and desire for top notch services and amenities.

But there’s also a larger takeaway from last Tuesday’s election on economic policy. Newsweek/Daily Beat correspondent Michael Tomasky writes:

Trickle-down economics died last Tuesday. The post-election chatter has been dominated by demographics, Latinos, women, and the culture war. But economics played a strong and even pivotal role in this election too, and Reaganomics came out a huge loser, while the Democrats have started to wrap their arms around a simple, winning alternative: the idea that government must invest in the middle class and not the rich. It’s middle-out economics instead of trickle-down, and it won last week and will keep on winning.

ProJo columnist makes a great point about Mike Riley’s sour grapes concession speech in which he blamed the media for the electoral drubbing he took from popular incumbent Jim Langevin.  He writes, “Riley did say something wise, but he somehow missed how it applies to his own campaign: ‘Hopefully someday many of you will do very well because of your own hard work. You will have succeeded and you will have failed, but ultimately it will be you — and not somebody else that did it to you.'”

Here’s one way the media mistakenly makes it seem like there is fraud and waste in the public sector: GoLocal reports that 52 percent of state education dollars makes its way into the classroom. “That seems small,” says an advocate for smaller government. But it’s not. Does anyone think Hasbro spends half its resources on manufacturing toys? Or your favorite restaurant spends half of its total revenue on your food? Not if the cost was calculated the way GoLocal looked at ed. funding. The reality is we hold the public sector to a ridiculously high standard, which we should, but we shouldn’t mistake our high standards with inefficiency.

I’m absolutely thrilled to be participating in Journalism Day at URI, my alma mater! I’ll be on a panel talking about news curation, or as the URI journalism department calls it, aggregation. Whatever you want to call it, it’s the art of finding, packaging and adding value to already existing content. It’s a super important component of advocacy journalism in general and media criticism in particular for pretty obvious reasons. It’s also a super important component of beat reporting for the most obvious reason of all: it’s a service to readers. We’ll be discussing whether or not it’s ethical, which I actually think is a question that long ago was settled in the affirmative, but as with most topics, I’m more than happy to have the debate…

Remember way back in the days when we feared Mitt Romney might become president and, if he did, he would cut public funding to PBS? Well Rhode Island already beat Romney to this nightmare scenario for liberals … WSBE Ch.36 is being transitioned off the state payroll beginning this month, reports Bill Rappleye of WJAR, and the local PBS affiliate now has about two years to become self-sustaining or else…

WSBE’s budget was dramatically cut in the 2012 state budget and both Gov. Chafee and the legislature should strongly consider reinstating the funding next year. Are there perhaps some potential synergies with Capitol TV? It’s easy to see why the mainstream media wouldn’t give much coverage to public broadcasting cuts, and WJAR deserves credit for reporting this story. It’s also easy to see why publicly financed television is important, in light of WPRI’s decision to keep Abel Collins out of its televised debate.

Speaking of WPRI, the other local TV station reports that state legislative leaders sometimes drive state vehicles to private events. It’s a well-reported story and plenty newsworthy but I often find myself wishing that Tim White would use his considerable investigative prowess to shed light on more meaningful issues than publicly-funded company cars and state workers who take long lunch breaks – like this one, for example. My guess is this type of red-meat-for-Republicans reporting is being driven by the same corporate forces and trickle down mentality that kept Collins out of the debate and thought Rhode Island needed a show catering to corporate executives…

And speaking of red meat for conservatives … Woonsocket voted to make school committee members appointed rather than elected officials. Town councilors and municipal officials across the state are no doubt jealous of the control the city just wrested away from the school department.

Look for financially-struggling West Warwick to be the next to consider this huge change in how local public education is managed.

Might Hurricane Sandy be the bellwether that gets Rhode Island to act on climate change? EcoRI runs a great piece that makes the case it should … meanwhile legislative heavyweights Sen Josh Miller and Rep. Chris Blazejewski are teaming up to study the effects of climate change on the Ocean State.

Here are some of the best overreactions to Obama being reelected. Though my favorite wing nut of the week is the Montana legislator who asked for his salary in gold and solver coin.

If you don’t think Republicans’ war on taxes is a part and parcel of class warfare, famed GOP strategist Lee Atwater might agree with you … but, then, he seemed to think it was part and parcel of a race war!

On this day in 1776, a British newspaper reports that former friend to England Ben Franklin has taken up with the revolutionaries in the American colonies…

There’s an interesting – and small – mix of conservatives, moderates and populists who seemingly aren’t supporting Gordon Fox’s effort to be re-elected speaker of the House. His detractors from the left – Reps Scott Guthrie of Coventry and Spencer Dickinson of South Kingstown – have a disdain for pension cuts in common.

Guthrie may seem like the smartest progressive at the State House if and when the pension reform lawsuit gets decided. The retired Coventry fire fighter has long contended that Rhode Island was breaking a contract with its employees by changing the deal. As for Dickinson, I like him a ton, but I won’t be calling him a progressive until he can better support civil liberties. Unlike Guthrie, Dickinson doesn’t support marriage equality.

There’s a similarly diverse coalition that nominated Fox, reports Ted Nesi. Rep. Edith Ajello is the most influential progressive legislator in the House and Rep. Doc Corvese is the single biggest detractor of the liberal agenda in the chamber. Lady MacBeth, what some progressives jokingly call the religiously anti-abortion Rep. from Cumberland, also seconded Fox’s bid.

By the way Scott MacKay chastised the ProJo for buying into the hype that Fox’s reelection as speaker was in any doubt. Sometimes in journalism it’s hard to separate a good narrative from actual real life events and consequences; doesn’t mean both aren’t newsworthy.

Rhode Island has the fourth most student loan debt in the nation … so let’s all focus on how our corporate tax rate is causing our economy to sputter…

Jack Reed is right: Liz Warren should be on the banking committee. There was an excellent quote by MIT prof Simon Johnson in an excellent piece in Sunday’s New York Times about the optics of not doing so for Democrats: ““Not putting her on banking would make the Democratic Party look like a creature of Wall Street, which, by the way, it is. But they don’t like to be too explicit about it.”

Here’s how Patch not-so-subtly shills for Walmart in a story posted to most sites in RI (emphasis mine): “Shoppers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island will have to wait until after Thanksgiving to take advantage of Black Friday sales at retail giant Walmart.”  (Or you can !)

Speaking of Patch, the company reports it cut costs by 30 percent in an effort to become profitable. Local editors have seem their freelance budgets literally disappear and some are being asked to take on second sites, like Joe Hutnak who now oversees both Johnston and Smithfield Patch. No wonder they gush about Walmart … they share the same business model!

Puerto Rico is moving closer to becoming our 51st state, says the ProJo editorial page. I’m sure the GOP would prefer the Bahamas or Bermuda…

Twin River is hiring! Reason enough to be glad that full casino gambling is coming to the Ocean State … though I wish Newport was getting table games too. The City-by-theSea could have had one of the classiest and coolest destination resort-style casinos in the country. Twin River, on the hand, might be able to compete with the other regional gambling parlors that will soon be sprouting up all over New England…

Speaking of Newport …. did you hear that Carolyn Rafaelian, Alex and Ani designer, owner and founder, bought Belcourt Castle. On one hand, it’s pretty cool that Rhode Island’s most successful businesswoman will own one of the state’s most well-known mansions. On the other hand, old Newport miss the Tinney family, who were kind like the Adams Family of Aquidneck Island! Trivia: Rafaelian won’t be the first jewelry designer to call Belcourt home!! In the late-1980’s it served as a sort of haunt (pun intended) for local artists…

On this day in 1974, Karen Silkwood dies in a mysterious one-car accident on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter and a union organizer about the nuclear plant where she worked and was poisoned with plutonium.

Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, most agree that Rhode Island’s biggest concern should be the failing finances of our urban communities. GoLocal reports this morning in a piece on which local communities have the highest tax rates: “Some of the most dramatic increases are in urban communities facing financial distress. They also happen to be the places where taxpayers can at least afford the hikes.” This point, as well as those making it in the GoLocal piece, should be very familiar to our readers.

When Don Carcieri and the General Assembly cut income taxes for the affluent and state aid to cities and towns, it was like pouring gasoline on the smoldering fire that is Rhode Island’s regressive reliance on property taxes to fund public services. Gov Chafee and the 2013 legislature would do very well to address this.

That is, if Chafee doesn’t take a job in the Obama administration, as I’m hoping happens. Chafee would be a great Obama appointment and it would give him a classy exit from his unpopular reign as governor … it would also give Rhode Island a progressive governor in Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts. This good idea came courtesy of Dee DeQuattro’s blog, which always has interesting stuff like this in it.

Much has been made about the legislature’s shift to the left, but one way the House will move right is with the promotion of Rep. Stephen Ucci, who is expected to replace Rep. Paddy O’Neil on Gordon Fox’s leadership team. Ucci is a nice enough guy, but he’s an anti-choice Democrat. This effect will hopefully be mitigated if Rep. Christopher Blazejewski moves up to be Deputy Majority Whip.

Is Gina Raimondo less confident in pension cuts prevailing in court than she once was? Seems like it…

Today’s hero: Nick Gibbs catches a 58-pound stripped bass from a Narragansett Bay beach and donates the giant catch to the Amos House in Providence “where it was made into fish chowder to feed hundreds of people in need.” I’m sure we’d all love to know where he caught it but the article doesn’t say…

Former PC hoops star God Shammgod deserves the award too!

Wow … what a great passage in this ProJo editorial about the insurance lobby, climate change and how hurricanes affect the affluent coastal land owners the most: “Contrary to the clichés about ‘welfare queens’ and so on, federal programs skew heavily in favor of middle- and upper-income people.”

So long Tea Party, don’t let the door hit you on your way out!!

Thanks to Dan McGowan for recognizing the RI future crystal ball … but we supported plenty of people who didn’t win, most notably Abel Collins.

On this day in 1862, General Ambrose Burnside, a Rhode Islander for whom the downtown Providence park is named, took command of the Union Army.

Let’s hope the David Cicilline fares better in the 1st District than Obama did in Dixville, though it could be as close. It’s really the only statewide campaign that is still in doubt. Dan McGowan says , which is a good point.

Let’s also hope it isn’t too close to call … the Ocean State might not be able to handle that.

Speaking of hope … remember four years ago when us progressives were filled with hope? It’s not quite the same feeling this year, is it?

But there is good news … forget what the pundits and the national polls are telling you – and the Dixville results, for that matter – the presidential race isn’t nearly as close as it may appear to the lay observer. Numbers guru Nate Silver says Mitt Romney has only an 8 percent chance of winning today … roughly the same odds as drawing an inside straight in poker.

Now, remember, people do pull inside straights in poker, so it’s not over yet. And even if Obama is very likely to win, it doesn’t mean he’ll win by a lot and it also doesn’t mean we’ll know particularly early. Consider the country, and yours truly, lucky if we know who our next president is by the time we all go to bed tonight. Assuming of course Romney doesn’t pull an inside straight of electoral politics.

ProJo columnist Ed Fitzpatrick looks into the controversy surrounding Silver’s projections ginned up by GOP talking heads who are understandably trying to stave off a self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, it’s worth pointing out that Republicans have resorted to ignoring the laws of science, economics and now math to push their agenda … how can this be good for America??

In case you are very much unlike me and are going to miss the 2012 campaign season, you can review the 10 best moments of it here.

I can’t add enough links to this post to capture all the great stuff Rhode Island Public Radio bloggers Ian Donnis and Scott MacKay have cranked out over the past couple days … if you, by chance, aren’t a regular reader of their stuff, it’s all right here.

The ProJo helps you figure out “how and where to cast your vote.”

Ted Nesi breaks down how many people vote in Rhode Island, and who they are … and how the number of people who show up today could swing the Cicilline/Doherty campaign.

I know many of you moderate Rhode Island Democrats have forgotten why the labor movement is your ally, so here’s a practical reason to stop crapping on unions: if and when Obama wins his second term, it will be organized labor most responsible for the win in Ohio.

I disagree with today’s ProJo editorial arguing that all the negative ads and smear campaigns we’ve had to endure are actually a sign of a healthy democracy … while they are a part of our Democracy, that doesn’t mean they are a good part of it. Fixes for this problem aren’t easy to come by, but that also doesn’t make it a good thing.

On this day in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president.