The Stupidest Column on RI Politics Yet

Russell Moore has become GoLocalProv’s biggest peddler of anti-Democratic Party rhetoric since Don Roach and Travis Rowley went mostly silent and his most recent column, comparing General Treasurer Gina Raimondo to Governor Lincoln Chafee, doesn’t break that model. Moore’s column is terrible, ascribing pretty standard Democratic positions to “progressives” and thus the “far-left” and thus proving that Gina Raimondo would absolutely Lincoln Chafee’s second term.

For instance, both support gun control, including bans on assault weapons. It could be because they’re both freedom-hating communists, or it might be because that position is supported by 68% of Democrats, making it a highly popular position. Both also support policies that would make it easier for undocumented immigrants to reside here, possibly because they’re courting immigrant voters, but maybe also because such polices are popular with a Democratic electorate.

And that’s not all the highly-popular policy positions Raimondo and Chafee both support. There’s abortion and reproductive rights. Then there’s the Affordable Care Act and HealthSource RI, which are popular with Democrats. And Chafee signed marriage equality into law, and Raimondo supported it, even though it was very popular among Rhode Islanders. Just that last issue definitively proves that this state is led by far-left radicals like Chafee, Raimondo, and Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello.

Either the vast majority of Rhode Island’s political leaders are far-left, or it’s almost like both Chafee and Raimondo are Democrats. Though, I personally find that highly ludicrous.

And then, to close it out, Moore finishes it off with two facts he doesn’t even bother to check. First, he claims Raimondo has made redeveloping the I-195 land “the hallmark of her economic plan” in an attempt to show how similar it’s been to Rhode Island’s failure under Chafee to begin development on the land. Of course, if you actually bother to read (or even just use the find function on) Raimondo’s jobs plan, you will find that “195” appears only once, on page 18, in this sentence (emphasis mine): “First, we’ll identify parcels of attractive, government-owned land (the unoccupied I-195 parcels would be a great place to start).” Whoa, what a hallmark, putting it in there in a broad context.

Then there’s the following gem. Before you read it, remember that earlier in the year Moore suggested that “the most stalwart followers of Rhode Island politics” had no idea Jorge Elorza had been arrested for shoplifting despite Elorza mentioning it in speeches and mailing a letter out to 7,000 Providence voters. So what does GoLocalProv’s most stalwart follower of Rhode Island politics say?

Voters will be presented a question this November as to whether or not the state should elect and convene a Constitutional Convention that could literally reform the government in the state of Rhode Island. Raimondo has come out in opposition to the convention. Chafee, who was a delegate the last time the state convened a convention, has been notably silent on the issue, which is akin to opposition.

Yeah, he has been notably silent… if you only started paying attention in the last few months. Despite the omission by many reporters, when Chafee announced his resignation, he spent much of the press conference laying out the case for a constitutional convention. In fact, he went on WPRI’s Newsmakers last year and further made the case; he specifically advocated for the line-item veto, reduced need for legislative confirmation, and term-limits for legislatures. Yeah, it’s not stirring rhetoric, but the man said it.

Maybe this is what passes for quality at a “news” organization that ran the same idiotic column decrying the quality of single men in all of its markets.