Guest MINDSETTER ™ Joe Clifford: RI Congressional Delegation - Profiles in Courage or Empty Suits?

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Guest MINDSETTER ™ Joe Clifford

 

View Larger +

A pet political peeve is the Rhode Island Congressional delegation¹s inability or unwillingness to show leadership on anything of substance. Recently former President Jimmy Carter dropped a verbal nuclear bombshell with his shocking analysis of the state of the US government when he said:

"Now it¹s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.

And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we¹ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the elections over. Š The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves." This shocking, brutally honest assessment of the state of affairs garnered predictably little media attention as mainstream media was focused on the diversionary issues of the day such as Cecil the Lion, the Kardashians, and Caitlyn Jenner. One might have thought that a media outlet worth its salt would do a follow-up interview, or even heaven forbid, an investigation to determine if the former President¹s assessment was correct.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

My concern is the silence that emanates from the RI congressional delegation, especially considering the former President also slapped Congress in the face.  I guess the RI Congressional delegation feels they deserve the slap, or they cannot defend themselves from such attacks, or they are just four empty suits afraid to take a stand on any major issue, even when they are attacked.

True leaders would have come out swinging, to either refute the accusation or to jump on the former Presidents¹ bandwagon and begin the fight to dramatically change the corrupt system. So much for true leadership within the RI Congressional delegation.  What does our Congressional delegation say about the former President¹s accusation?? Absolutely nothing. Instead, like political cowards they run for cover with their finger high in the air feeling for the direction of political winds, and find a hole large enough to bury their heads in. True profiles in courage?  So once again I fault Representatives Langevin and Cicilline and our two Senators, Reed and Whitehouse. Sadly it appears we have four ³empty suits² representing Rhode Island in Congress, but then again they seem to fit in with the rest of the Congress remarkably well.

Are GoLocalProv readers satisfied with the delegations silence on all major issues? Is being a ³nice guy² your only voting criteria?

Joe Clifford lives in Jamestown and writes a regular column for two online progressive newspapers.

 

Related Articles

 

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

 
 

Sign Up for the Daily Eblast

I want to follow on Twitter

I want to Like on Facebook