To the editor:

To refresh readers’ memories—Dave Scarpino previously reminded us that there are, even in bluest Rhode Island, candidates “with an I or R after their name” whom we should vote for this November because “[q]uite honestly, they cannot do any worse” than the current crop of moonbats in charge.

Mike Proto, in turn, disclosed his puzzlement that “people who complain about the Democrats controlling [this state] continue to reside here,” and added these spoilsports could always move away to “where the balance of political power was more to their liking.”

I extend the same travel tip to our local progressives who clap guilt medallions on our historic properties, or raise monuments to human trafficking in our public parks, because Bristol isn’t left-wing enough for their liking. Might I recommend the tent cities of San Francisco, the drug dens of Portland, or the lawless streets of New York, places where current Democrat policies—unchecked by opposition—have achieved their fullest flowering?

These cities are shades of Rhode Island’s own one-party future if the complainers and their children do leave; that is, once only addicts, illegals, and retirees can afford to live here.

Perhaps Mr. Proto thinks his party has only fine-tuned its approach in the 45 years he’s failed to be curious about the other side. However, other voters ought to consider the yawning chasm between the Democrat Party for which their parents and grandparents pulled the master lever and what exists by that same name today.

This Democrat Party, which granted illegals in-state tuition rates to compete with native collegebound hopefuls, which snuffed out both fledgling and established small businesses in a fit of hypochondria, and which can’t maintain a bridge, has nothing in common with the interests of working- and middle-class citizens and cannot be trusted to support their aspirations.

And yet, despite this venal party’s chokehold on state politics, we “the obstreperous few” still hang around complaining full-throatedly!
Whereas Mr. Proto offered the same party line available anywhere blue votes congeal as his reason for living in Rhode Island, others of us are attached to the unique beauty of our glittering coastline, the mouth-watering fare of our food scene, or the ways of life our forefathers built up here as farmers and fishermen. We complain because our state politics are not yet the equal of these blessings and others.

Of those of us lucky enough to call this place home, all but a partisan flunky sees Rhode Island deserves better from its supposed protectors and improvers since 1959. Fortunately, as Mr. Scarpino pointed out, alternatives to Democrat control are available on the ballot this November.

Although changing our political tack may be experimental and uncertain, the courage to take such risks is truer to the fighting spirit of our scrappy little state than accepting a comfortable (for now) decline.

Democrat voters, kick the habit. You have nothing to lose, and a new life for you, your children, and your neighbors to gain.

Zachary Cooper
48A Sherman Avenue