ELECTIONS

Elections, if fair, provide a sense of direction. Like communication, there are two components. In communication there is speaking and listening that are both required to convey the actual message. Similarly, in elections there is a need for a fair election system and an electorate.

A fair election with an ignorant electorate is unlikely to produce a positive result, although a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut. An informed electorate with an unfair system will also produce a less than positive result. The difference is that an informed electorate would never tolerate an unfair election system. This calls into question the various outcomes of Rhode Island elections over the years.

Popularity contests are more appropriate names for Rhode Island elections. The electorate, lacking any political acumen, chooses candidates by long standing family names or because of a party affiliation. This is an outcome predictable in a third world nation, but should be rare in an educated population.

The problem with the stupid voter concept is that they elections result in long standing allegiance to an established political machine. The people, having voted, feel content in their determinations, but the reality is that they are merely blindly effectuating the status quo. As such, government lacks honest debate of ideas and is allowed to wallow in a cesspool entrenched special interests. Sound familiar Rhode Islanders?

Whether or not it is the role of social leaders to encourage an educated electorate is worth of debate, however few political figures make a valid attempt lest they risk their power base. The ability to keep the power out of the unwashed masses has many advantages for operating a government. If unanswerable to the people, the government, and more importantly, the political figures running the government, can act as it chooses, left unchecked by the stupid electorate. Even dictators hold elections, they just employ a different method maintianing political loyalty.

Historical records of election results that rarely move beyond the same old same old are indicative of the fact that the electorate is either satisfied with its choices or that it has no real choices, or both. Why domesticate a swine so as to live in a house when it is happy in the mud?

As I grow old I look back over the last 25 years of attempting to reform elections. I have advocated for several legislative bills that would have made the system more equitable and more responsive to the electorate. I advocated for instant run-off voting. I advocated for the elimination of the primary system and allowing a blanket race for the seat. I advocated for state funding of election campaigns. All for naught. For all that talking, I realized that there was no listening.

After my last run for Lt. Governor it became readily apparent that it may not be the system that is deficient. It is the voter. By not being able to get out of his or her electoral way, these people are targets for governmental charlatans.

It can be no surprise that Rhode Island’s malaise and its governmental atrophy is what it is. The people voted for this.

When you exist with an ill informed electorate, you can only expect the standard result regardless of whether or not you have the best system of voting in place. I don’t know whether to express sorrow or contempt, but I know that it is this very ignorance in the people that is Rhode Island’s Achilles heel. The winds of change must reach hurricane force to bring about a sustainable positive change. During a hurricane we will see just how many Rhode Islanders will get out of the rain.

While I will attempt to address various election issues in the future blogs, it is unlikely that any of the proposed reform will replace the blame that is at the voter's door as the culprit behind the downfall of Rhode Island.