Politics is a game of persuasion… if we’re putting it nicely.  “Deception” would probably be more accurate.

But even within that jaded paradigm, I have to marvel at how uninformative state General Treasurer Seth Magaziner’s op-ed in yesterday’s Providence Journal is.  Even putting aside questions about the green theology, the op-ed doesn’t really explain what the treasurer wants to do.

We’ve got a name change of the RI Clean Water Finance Agency, and we’ve got a couple of green-industry ideas, but shouldn’t the treasurer of the state focus on explaining what the bank would mean, functionally, and how much it would cost?  Presumably, an op-ed is meant to be the policy folks’ medium for explaining their proposal to the broader public.  If the treasurer of the state is offering mainly assertions about the wonders of his idea, who’s going to translate the nuts and bolts for the masses?

Our civic culture is really much-deteriorated around here.