Why RI Needs a Constitutional Convention (and Why RI ACLU and Mike Stenhouse Are Wrong)

Why RI Needs a Constitutional Convention (and Why RI ACLU and Mike Stenhouse Are Wrong)

 

If you, like me, live in Rhode Island, you live in a beautiful but politically dysfunctional state. Our government has failed to keep a critical bridge from decaying to the point of failure, worked hard to avoid assigning blame for the failure, and proved itself inept at procuring a replacement bridge.

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You have watched our state budget balloon from a bloated $10 billion to a monumental $14 billion—our state budget now clocks in at around $14,000 per person. Our state budget process can charitably be called opaque. The governor proposes a budget, and then the General Assembly does whatever they want to it. The public and legislature get a week or two to digest it before the vote comes to approve the budget. There is no altering the legislature's budget and no checks and balances on the process.

 

These are bread-and-butter issues. Our government is misfiring and needs to be reined in. The General Assembly will not solve either of these problems. 44 other states have a governor’s line-item veto, but whoever sits in the RI Speaker’s chair will not make RI the 45th state because that would reduce the General Assembly’s power. The special interests behind everything that the RI DOT does have a death grip on pretty much all of our elected leaders and DOT management.

 

These are the things that matter. These things (a governor’s line-item veto and an Inspector General) can only occur if RI citizens take matters into their own hands and make it so via a constitutional convention.

 

Mike Stenhouse is delusionally wrong. He wants a constitutional convention to delve into culture war issues. Be it transgender issues, abortion, or anti-woke stuff, Mike's priorities could not be further from what is vitally important to our state.

 

The ACLU is comically wrong to worry about the Mike Stenhouses of the world. Out of 113 seats, the General Assembly has 14 Republicans. Not all of those Republicans are culture warriors. Rhode Island’s demographics all but ensure that whatever fever dreams Mike Stenhouse is having won’t come out of a convention, let alone pass in a statewide election.

 

If you want more transparency in our government and insist that our Department of Transportation be held accountable for its mess, you won’t get it with how our government currently works. The voters need to put in place the checks and balances that our elected leaders most definitely do not want.

 

It pains me that a constitutional convention - something so obvious and critical to setting our state on a better path - can be so easily taken off course by ideas that, in reality, stand no chance of ever passing in our state. Shame on Mike Stenhouse and shame on the RI ACLU for engaging in ideological posturing instead of getting serious about reforming how our government works.