Tea Bags, the Dorr Rebellion & Rhode Island's Future

Tea Bags, the Dorr Rebellion & Rhode Island's Future

The Tea Party and its affiliated tea-baggers are fringe elements--extremists-- from the right wing who want to blame everything on the people who are different: the immigrant, the single mother, the union member, the environmentalist.  The tea-baggers are more akin to the Charterites in the Dorr Rebellion than anything.

Charterites, you ask?  

You see, Rhode Island is no stranger to rebellion.  From being the first to declare independence from the British to the burning of the Gaspee to the infamous Dorr Rebellion which ended in a famous Supreme Court opinion, Rhode Islanders have always been a little precocious, to say the least.  And, the Charterites were those who sought to squelch the Dorr Rebellion.

Indeed, in the Dorr Rebellion, a state legislator from Providence, Thomas Dorr, organized a revolt against the Rhode Island state government because it was still being elected through a Charter from the British.  Put simply, only landowning white men could vote.  Thus, in 1841, Dorr organized a "People's Convention" and drafted a new state constitution and then held elections based on the new voting requirements which led to an armed confrontation and Dorr's arrest.   

And it was the Charterites who defended the British, who defended the status quo, who defended the notion that only landowning white men could vote, who wanted things to go back to "normal."  Sounds pretty similar to Tea Party rhetoric, no?

Fast forward to the present. 

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

Here's my question. 

Against this backdrop of those who want to defend the status quo, I ask you: where are the change-makers?  We still ahve the Charterites, but where are the 21st century Thomas Dorrs of Rhode Island?

Poll after poll shows that Rhode Islanders view the state as being on the wrong track.  Most all politicians, including our sitting (duck) Republican Governor Don Carcieri, have plunging poll numbers.  We have some of the highest rates of unemployment and foreclosure in the nation.  Our public education systems are failing and important art, sports, music, and computer programs are getting cut.  The ACI and the Training School are overcrowded and draining taxpayer dollars while creating a cycle of recidivism. College tuition is becoming more unaffordable while, at the same time, our young people are even questioning whether that expensive college tuition will even get them a job.  Did I mention our state budget problems or that very special Rhode Island tax known as corruption?

Liberals, progressives, democrats, libertarians, moderates, independents and people of conscience need to join together in a new rebellion in Rhode Island.  We need elected officials--on every level--listening to the people of this state.  We need new people bringing new ideas in order to make a new Rhode Island.   We need new voices running for office in Rhode Island.

Let's throw that tea and its Charterite teabag overboard yet again and start a new rebellion.  Let's get new people activated in the democratic process--young and old (but, especially young), women and men (but, especially women) and black, white, Asian, Native American and Latino (but, especially people of color)--to break this staggering status quo which is strangling the lifeblood out of a state which used to pride itself on its fierce independence.

So, Rhode Island.  Are you ready?