Clifford: RI Political Leaders Still Do Not Get It, So Get Them Out!

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Guest MINDSETTER™ Joe Clifford

 

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Jack Reed

Street protests in RI by thousands, followed by Town Hall meetings held by Congressmen filled with angry people, and they still do not get it.  This past weekend the entire RI Congressional delegation, (they must find courage in numbers), had a Town Meeting, attended by over 800 people. I assume the lack of TV coverage by local TV stations was an effort to shield the delegation. The Congressional delegation was blasted by citizens for their unwillingness to stand up and be counted on a variety of issues. The prior week, Sheldon Whitehouse held his own Town Meeting, and the crowd was so large, Whitehouse had to take the meeting outside to accommodate the masses. Angry citizens criticized Whitehouse for his lack of courage, lack of leadership, and failure to stand up to the Trump administration. RI is a strong Democratic state, so this was RI  Democrats attacking Democrats, and well they should.

The Democratic party leaders brought us Donald Trump, and have yet to be held accountable. Every Democratic leader in RI, including Governor Raimondo, and the 4 members of the Congressional delegation, backed the corporatist neo liberal candidate, Hillary Clinton, who could not defeat the most hated candidate in presidential history. The party leaders in RI defied the will of the citizens who voted, very heavily, in support of Bernie Sanders. Voters liked Sanders for his message of “change”, and the willingness to fight for his beliefs. The corporatist candidate Clinton has no core beliefs, and was unwilling to fight for any issue important to the citizenry. The only thing she favored was war, and the citizens are tired of that. Hear that Jack Reed?? Voters hated their “choice” of the lesser of two evils, and to their credit RI Democratic voters rejected that choice, and overwhelmingly voted for Sanders in the primary. This scenario repeated itself in many states, with party “leaders” backing a losing candidate despite the voters, so the ultimate choice offered to US voters was the lesser of two evils. Leaders of the party used all kinds of immoral, illegal tactics to derail Sanders, and the party prevailed, but lost the election to Trump. Now we are stuck with this horrible and frightening situation, because of the role party leaders played in sabotaging Sanders, and by supporting a loser. They brought us this political disaster, and put us in this frightening situation. Every pre-election poll had Sanders winning against Trump, but that was ignored by party leaders who supported “the chosen one”, Hillary. Out of touch leaders must be held accountable by voters. Still, after a crushing defeat by Republicans, who now control Congress, the Whitehouse, as well as most state capitals, Democratic leaders show no signs of changing. 

They just do not get it! Party leaders backed good old Nancy Pelosi for minority house leader. Pelosi, after the election, was asked about voter’s demanding change, and she said she did not think that’s what voters wanted. Completely out of touch with reality, yet backed by the party in her leadership position. In the Senate, Democrats backed Chuck ‘Wall Street’ Schumer, a Hillary supporter, with extremely close ties to Wall Street, showing they are completely out of touch with reality. It also shows political arrogance.  So, informed voters have been watching this, and are outraged. Enter the Town Hall outbursts of group anger.

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Voters want two things from party leaders.  They want “leadership”, and they want “fighters”. The RI congressional delegation shows neither. They are afraid to be “leaders”, after spending millions to get into positions of leadership. They lack the courage to stand up to this administration.  RI voters are rightfully disgusted with the lack of leadership and the unwillingness to fight. When was the last time you heard a RI Congressional delegation member really ‘fight’, for anything? Sheldon Whitehouse will claim he fought for a clean environment. That’s pretty easy. Who will fight him and argue for a dirty environment? Have they fought for a living wage, have they fought for free education, single payer health care, or getting rid of campaign contributions, the root of all democratic evil, or an end to endless war?? We are the only industrialized nation that does not have free college and single payer health insurance for all. Why not? Their idea of “fighting” is reading a statement into the Congressional Record, a totally worthless gesture, but a politically correct thing to do.

H.R 676 calls for Medicare for All, which is single payer for the entire nation. There are 57 co-sponsors in the House.  Langevin and Cicilline are not among them!  Why not? All polls indicate the US and RI public wants this. There can only be one reason for their unwillingness to sign as co-sponsors. It has to do with money and influence.

Another bill, H.R. 608, calls for a ban on US funding of terrorist groups.  Who possibly would oppose that bill? Why would we be funding groups that brought down the WTC??? Neither Langevin nor Cicilline has signed onto that bill.  Why not????

None of the four have used the power of their position to fight for what RI voters want. Fighting means  using the “Bully Pulpit” they have as Congressman, which enables them to get the attention of media, and rally people to support things.  They have failed miserably in that regard. There is no excuse for their unwillingness to be all over media, fighting for issues voters want. They all show up at protests organized by the grass roots, give speeches, and try to steal a few votes. Why aren’t ‘they’ organizing and calling for protests? Why don’t they use their political clout, get access to media, and use it to really put up a “fight”? Unfortunately, the answer might be they lack the courage and the leadership; the two qualities RI voters are thirsting for. FDR promised and delivered “change”, and became the most popular president in history. Obama promised change, got elected, but failed to deliver. 

Hillary Clinton promised no change and got defeated. Learn from that Reed, Whitehouse, Langevin and Cicilline. But the Democratic Party still has not learned a thing!  What change are they calling for? None. They are ‘against’ Trump, but they put forward nothing to fight for. What are they for???? You cannot win by simply being against something; you need to be in favor of something. If you can’t lead and fight ‘for’ something, get out of the way of the grass roots moment that is willing to fight. The Democratic Party is controlled by out of touch corporatists, and it is too corrupt to bring effective change. We need a new party, and we need change!

 

Related Slideshow: Trump’s Win - What Does it Mean for Rhode Island?

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Jennifer Duffy

Cook Report

"We don't really know what a Trump presidency means for the nation, never mind the smallest state.  One of the unintended consequences of last night's results is that Sen. Jack Reed won't be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.  Chalk that up as a loss for RI."

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Pam Gencarella

Head of Ocean State Taxpayers' Association

"Trump’s win means that his signature issue, illegal immigration, could have a big impact on RI, hopefully reversing our course as a sanctuary state and saving the state taxpayer millions of dollars.  While we agree with his 'repeal and replace' Obamacare stance, we have no idea what that means to the RI debacle known as UHIP.  It is not a stretch to believe that federal funding for this kind of system will be off the table so, will RI be stuck with this massively expensive system that still doesn’t work and that is expected to cost another $124 million to fix?  

Trump's belief that there is significant fraud in the Food Stamp program and the policies that may come from that belief could have a negative impact on RI's local economy since there are businesses in certain cities that rely heavily on this program, fraud and all. On the upside, we may be able to ditch the UHIP program if there is significantly less need for processing welfare program requests (ie. Medicaid and food stamps) resulting from fewer illegal immigrants and less fraud.  While we are ambivalent about his touted child care policies, if enacted, it may force our legislators to revisit the ever growing state cost of subsidies in this area and possibly reduce the fraud and abuse in this system." 

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Kay Israel

Professor at Rhode Island College

"With a Republican President and Congress, Rhode Island will probably be excluded from the 'fruits of victory."  

The congressional delegation will be able to vocally make their presence felt, but in the long term it's more symbolic than substantive.  

For Rhode Island it's a matter of holding on and waiting until '18 or '20 and a surge in Democratic influence."

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Jennifer Lawless

Professor at American University

"The RI congressional delegation just became even less powerful than it was. With unified government, Trump doesn’t need to quell Democrats’ concerns or acquiesce because he’s worried about a Democratically-controlled Senate.

His appointments will reflect that. His executive orders will affect that. And the conservative policy agenda he puts forward will affect that."

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Len Lardaro

Professor at University of Rhode Island

"Well there's a few things -- because there's not going to be gridlock, that's a big difference if it had been Hillary and a GOP Congress, in which nothing would got done. We'll at least get a half a billion in infrastructure that's going to pass which will have an impact.

I think you'll see there will be reduced reliance on government nationally -- and that's where we'll stick out like sore thumb. We've relied way too much on government -- and our government is highly inefficient and ineffective.  Maybe, just maybe, in this who cycle of things we might be forced to be small and more efficient for once.

A couple of other things -- interest rates jumped. The one to follow is the ten year government bond rate -- which is tied to mortgages. It went from 1.7% to 2.05% in one day. The point is -- if the ten year stays high, mortgage rates will start going higher -- and in the short time people will run to re-finance. 

That's the short term impact -- but then if rates stay hight, that will make mortgages more out of reach. And we just passed a bond issue to limit open space -- housing has limited upside here.
The next thing -- the Fed Reserve will go ahead with tightening next month. A strong dollar will hurt manufacturing. When the dollar is strong our exports become more expensive overseas. 

Our goods production sector -- manufacturing and construction -- in the near term will do a little better, but as time goes on will be more limited. But something you won't hear, is there are lags in fiscal policy, of six months to year. So we won't really see the effects until the third our fourth quarter of 2017, going into 2018."
 

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Mike Stenhouse

RI Center for Freedon and Prosperity

"As the unbelievable turned into reality this morning, it struck me that the presidential election was not really all about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It was about a fed-up people, revolting against a corrupt system - the "beast" - that relentlessly favors insiders. Hillary personified the beast, while Donald personified the slayer.

Sadly, based on election results in our state, Rhode Island's version of the beast lives on. I fear our political class has not learned the lessons from the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump movements - and will continue with their government-centric, anti-family, anti-business status quo."

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Kristina Contreras Fox

VP of Young Democrats of America

"A Trump Presidency means the validation of the ugliest part of America. In RI, as with the rest of the country, the hammer of his hatred will fall hardest on minority communities. Being a blue state doesn't make us immune from this danger.

Trump won over 35% (39.5) of the vote here! We need to look in the mirror, and not lie about what the reflection shows us. No more hiding underneath a blue blanket. I expect those who claim Democratic values to be true to those values. The gulf between words and actions have turned into fertile ground for Trump's message to grow here in RI. If you call yourself a Democrat, if you claim to stand in opposition to Trump, now is the time to prove it. Show up and fight back."
 

 

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