There’s a Larger Lesson to Be Learned from the Soviet-Style Pension-Settlement Election

Patrick highlighted, earlier, the peculiar ballot and rules of the voting by which retirees can approve or (by some miracle) reject the negotiated settlement of a pension-reform lawsuit (which has come about by peculiar rules, as well):

… if you’re sent a ballot but never get it, you voted yes. If you forget to return your ballot with a “no” vote, you voted yes. If you have no idea what this is about and you don’t return the ballot, you voted yes. If you moved and the ballot doesn’t make it to you in time, you voted yes.

This may be the most stark example in recent years (which tells you something about how important the settlement is to political insiders), but the only thing that’s really new about this “election” is that the local media is actually adopting a mild tone of incredulity, this time.  It was only a few months ago, after all, that the SEIU held a successful election to unionize independent child care workers whose clients receive government subsidies.  Amidst unjustified threats of arresting observers and other peculiarities, most of the coverage and incredulity came from, well, us.

That election achieved a pro-union vote just shy of the Crimea’s “Soviet-style, 97-percent vote to secede from Ukraine.”

And yet, a small, private free-market think tank — the people raising questions about these and other harmful and suspect Rhode Island realities — is the organization that sparks the most skepticism in local political reporting.

Of course, this is exactly the sort of thing that a villain would say, but with Rhode Island’s economy falling apart and with Rhode Islanders giving up hope, it just might be time for certain folks to readjust their understanding of whom the good guys and the bad guys are.

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