Guest MINDSETTER™ Robert J. Healey, Jr.: Candidate for Governor of Rhode Island
Saturday, September 20, 2014
I want to lead Rhode Island in a cerebral revolution, a non-violent movement to alter the way Rhode Islanders think.
I want to bridge the divide that keeps Rhode Island from reaching its potential. I want Rhode Island to be true to its original constitutional provisions. I want people to live and prosper within a context that embraces their individual rights and liberties, under an effective and efficient government. I want to remove the chains of governmental enslavement that created the financial crisis threatening our very existence of the State.
Lofty objectives, I agree, but not impossible ones.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTI want to demonstrate that one need not accept campaign contributions to get elected. I want to help in the restoration of power to the people through their power to vote. Undoubtedly, politicians will vehemently deny it campaign donations foster an unhealthy relationship. No one donates without expectation, whether it is the pure motivation of truly supporting a candidate or the evil motivation of having political access greater than a non-contributor.
Rhode Islanders rail against insiders and backroom politicians, yet they participate in laying the very groundwork needed to make such a dismal system possible. As such, the current system not only disenfranchises the poor and middle classes, but also creates a fractionalized society, pitting rich interests against poor interests instead of working as a society for the benefit of the whole.
Our Rhode Island Constitution, Article I Section 2 clearly states: All laws, therefore, should be made for the good of the whole; and the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among citizens.
How far we have ventured from this principle. We offer corporations tax breaks. We provide special funding for projects such as 38 Studios. We do not approach our social issues with the mindset of compromise for the benefit of all. We do not recognize that we all have a burden to ensure the survival of our state.
Campaigns of the major parties have devolved into taking sides on issues to facilitate their fundraising potential, in doing so, destroying the much needed sense of one community. As long as our people are provoked into battle over social issues, we will not achieve success as a unified whole.
Much like a household or a business facing ruin, there must be a full examination of the budget. Most likely such an examination will demonstrate waste and areas for efficiencies. This, coupled with a program of austerity and watchful spending, will force us all to work together, as a whole, to put our house in order.
By deregulating and minimizing government, we can encourage growth. By overly taxing we merely create an environment where business will be limited to the small service companies started by idled worker who have no other means to earn a living.
Austerity need not be cold and uncompassionate. Compassion and agreement must be a part of any solution. We cannot be overly compassionate, just as we cannot be stone cold. Good government, limited in size and scope to that which is prescribed in the Rhode Island Constitution, has the potential to create this much desired middle ground.
Our founders were extremely astute in drafting a Constitution, the very rules that govern all activity of State. They provided for freedoms that today are being limited or distorted. They called for self-governance, subject only to the powers ceded to the State, and even then, such powers were only on loan. The power resides in the citizens. We have bastardized their vision, much to our detriment.
Our Constitution demands that burdens and benefits be distributed equally, yet we rely on special interest tax breaks. Our Constitution demands equality and freedom in worship and thought, yet we are continually divided by political interests. Our Constitution demands state sovereignty, yet that sovereignty has been relegated by contract to the federal government to escape the provisions demanded in the Ninth and Tenth Amendment found in the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.
My vision for Rhode Island is a state where people freely exercise the full panoply of rights, those inalienable rights, those rights not ceded to a government.
By concentrating of the fundamentals of limited government, we, as a whole, can create the society that encourages prosperity. By inventing more spending programs, we are only funding our own demise by economically burdening our children and their children.
If we love our children as we proclaim, then we should not burden their future. Instead, we must all work to educate them in the best manner to create productive citizens. I have long supported public education in that it is a guarantee in the Rhode Island Constitution. The method of funding it is where I have my difficulties.
The purpose of public education is to create a more productive member of society. We need to place more emphasis on this facet. We need to see education as providing the tools for the betterment of all. While I have had my battles within education, I have never lost respect for teachers. I have bruised their egos and have waged battles with their unions, but I do feel they are doing a great social service. It is my vision to make this all work more efficiently and effectively. I truly wish to empower teachers to allow them to perform to the best of their abilities, unhindered by contractual matters.
In a depressed economy people are not happy. While it may seem simplistic, happiness provides a positive outlook that has a multiplier effect. Depression fosters contempt. Much like rats in a depressed state, people will turn on their own, greedily becoming self absorbed, and even drop to a level where they will devour their young.
Rhode Island, being long under the cloud of depression has lost the basic qualities that make society civil. In such a depressed state, we have grown into a culture of demanding ‘what is mine’ and ‘what’s in it for me’. This creates the atmosphere that spawns corruption and public distrust.
As a result, we have little concern of the burden we are placing on our future generations. We can see no light at the end of the tunnel. In short, we are eating our young. We can do better, but we all must work to a recognized social goal. We must embrace the concept of benefit and burden being shared equally.
Our social engineering presupposes a population that has its freedoms, a sense of self worth and fraternity, and a population that is working to a common end. Without these prerequisites, we will never reach that end and will eternally suffer the pains of a divided society.
My vision of Rhode Island is that we all take a step back, renew our civic commitments, bring ourselves to the basics and try to move forward. Sometimes it is more productive to return to where you erred and start over. Now is just such a time for Rhode Island. We have an opportunity to right ourselves and restore Rhode Island. I am running for Governor to implement such a vision and I ask that we all join together to reach this goal of restoring power in the people.
Related Slideshow: PAC Spending in the 2014 Rhode Island Governor’s Race
With Election Day now just months away, GoLocal took a look at PAC spending in the Rhode Island gubernatorial campaigns.
Who is giving to who -- and how much? And what's worth more, the money or the grassroots support?
Below is look at recorded PAC giving by the candidates in their campaign finance reports for the 2013 calendar year, by quarter. Candidate Todd Giroux has an affadavit for an annual filing exemption.
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