Progress Report: Working Class Missing from Electoral Politics; URI Prof. Critiques Brown Poll; Saturday Night Live

It’s little wonder that the United States and Rhode Island so often side with the wealthy when it comes to politics … after all, by and large that is who we elect to office, says .

About the Rhode Island State House, he writes, “The trend toward meager political representation by former blue-collar workers holds mostly true in Rhode Island – where the biggest General Assembly caucus is made of lawyers, not Democrats or Republicans.”

Donnis quotes a New York Times piece that says of this year’s presidential campaign, “If we want government for the people, we’ve got to start working toward government by the people. The 2012 election offers us a stark choice between two very different approaches to economic policy. But it’s still a choice between two Harvard-educated millionaires.”

Former Anthony Gemma spokesman Alex Morash says he’s supporting David Cicilline for Congress. So much for the nasty Democratic primary … amybe it was all just politics…

URI poly sci prof and pollster Victor Profughi has been taking issue with the methodology Brown’s Taubmann Center used in its recent poll. He took issue with another Brown Poll recently too … when we accused the Ivy League polling org with doing a push poll on pension politics. Here’s the comment he posted to RI Future.

Also in ProJo’s Political Scene column this morning, the Center for Free Market Anarchy and Punishing the Poor (or whatever it is Mike Stenhouse and Justin Katz call their kooky conservative “think” tank) said Rhode Island should do away with its sales tax and its still-being-created health care exchange as well as enact new laws to hurt organized labor … I don’t know Stenhouse but I know Katz and he is a good enough guy but he represents a kind of conservative that doesn’t really exist in this state to any significant degree, though he’d be in good company in southern Utah or northern Idaho. Stenhouse, for his part, is an ex-Red Sox … not really the best thing to have on your resume for why you can help RI’s economy…

But maybe I’m wrong … after all, another member of the Center pens a piece saying this state’s support for a voter ID law shows it’s not just for the ALEC crowd…

It’s worth watching Ted Nesi interview John Hazen-White Jr. … a local CEO who sticks up for the Occupy movement and holds a lot of other beliefs not always indicative of the 1 percent.

The scary future for charter schools: “Computer modules would replace the teacher in front of the classroom.”

On this day in Rhode Island history: Occupy Providence begins its occupation of Burnside Park.

We all know SNL does great (increasingly viral) political skits and you may have already seen its farce of the veep debate from Saturday night, which was super funny … but this one teasing spoiled American’s reliance on technology was my favorite: