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Bartholomewtown
Bartholomewtown is an independent news and interview podcast exploring Rhode Island through conversations with the people driving politics, culture, business, and public life. Hosted by journalist Bill Bartholomew, the show delivers insightful interviews, original reporting, and clear-eyed analysis from New England's smallest state—with stories that often resonate far beyond it.
Bartholomewtown
Bill Gilbert (RI Moderate Party gubernatorial candidate)
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Ahead of his first statewide gubernatorial debate appearance, Moderate Party candidate and chair Bill Gilbert joins Bill Bartholomew at the loft for an in-depth conversation about the Moderate's positions, his own viewpoints, and how he was able to secure a spot in the next two gubernatorial debates despite low polling numbers.
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Speaker 2Solomontown. Welcome. To another edition of the Bartholomew town podcast. I'm your host Phil Bartholomew from our Providence Rhode Island Studios. I sit down with Rhode Island moderate party gubernatorial candidate Bill Gilbert.
Speaker 1Bill Gilbert is the chairman of the Rhode Island moderate party and also the party's gubernatorial candidate in the 2018 election the Moderate Party achieved statewide ballot recognition following the 2014 gubernatorial run of Bob Healey who received 22 percent of the vote. Running as the moderate party's candidate despite having ballot placement Mr. Gilbert has consistently polled around 1 percent and was not invited to the first televised gubernatorial debate presented by WPRO. And Roger Williams University. However he has been invited to tonight's Providence Journal the public radio ATC 6 debate to be held at the University of Rhode Island. If you haven't already. Be sure to subscribe to the Bartholomew town podcast on Aval podcasts Spotify or wherever you consume content you may find everything on Bartholomew town dot com or our podcast dot com and go ahead and follow me on Twitter at Bill Bartholomew. We have daily episodes coming for you this week and we'll have plenty of content heading your way all the way through the general election and beyond. By the way there's life after the election here in Bartholomew town. Lots of it but let's stay focused. The second statewide gubernatorial debate being held tonight over at the University of Rhode Island one of the biggest differences between tonight's debate and the one that was held just a few weeks ago. Over at Roger Williams University presented by WPRO television will be that instead of 30 participants there will be four the fourth will be moderate party candidate Bill Gilbert. And so the first thing I asked Mr. Gilbert was Hey how did you get onto this you or I debate. With the under the format you are I think. This. Channel 10 in Providence Journal and you know when I went public radio I think they just took. A different look at.
Speaker 3My candidacy. You know I am a legitimate candidate.
Speaker 4You know I meet the tests of most legitimate candidates. I'm also chairman of a legitimate party. You know we actually have three three parties than Rhode Island. There's only a handful of states that actually have legitimate ballot access parties. And you know we're one of them. But I also think more than that I think that actually you know look at my positions my platforms I'm a candidate that wants to talk about issues. And that's been seriously lacking in the gubernatorial race today. You know a matter of fact that last I was I was pretty shocked at Channel Twelve's debate with the governor. You know the governor candidates after excluding me nothing new came out. They didn't ask a new question. You know the panel themselves Channel 12 asked topics on you hip. You know they didn't get into the educational crisis that we had. We didn't get into pension liabilities Ed. Just strangling the state. They didn't get into the terrorism. They didn't get it. Yeah. We've added maybe 23 new jobs but they're all part time and they don't have any benefits. They pay like 12 dollars an hour not enough to live on it touch any of those issues. They did touch the D.C. issue and we're having a crisis. They did touch the training school. You know what they what they talked about was really nothing. There was nothing new it came at a debate. And I think we're now a public radio channel 10 and the Providence Journal. Look at my candidacy is something different. You know Will I be successful if I can catch on fire. I think I'm absolutely capable of being successful. The question is did the to the voters really want to talk about issues. I think we need to.
Speaker 5Yeah. One thing that that came up just a few hours ago in the last hours another poll came out this week which now shows Independent candidate Joe Trillo at 17 percent. This contrasted with the ABC six round Public Radio procul poll that had him at 5 percent earlier in the week. So it is kind of confusing where voters stand if they're looking for an alternative voice. If they are is are they only aware of Joe Trillo. Do they know about your candidacy or Dr. Munoz or for that matter really Ann Armstrong's as well. Do they are they aware of everyone who's in this race.
Speaker 6I don't believe they are. I I take some responsibility for that. But for my name recognition but it's also part of the moderate party's platform we're actually trying to remove money from politics. I do think that you know I've had a discussion with other people I believe that the news outlets especially the ones that hold FCC licenses like the radio stations and the television stations they hold sacred license that not everybody has not everybody can go out there and just turn the transmitter on and start broadcast. That's right. Right. And so I think you know they try to say they're fair and balanced. But you know how many times have they said you know Joe Trillo Gina and Allan Fung and they haven't mentioned not even mentioned the other candidates. I don't think that's fair to the voters or their audience. You know when they take a poll you know what they're basically doing is are sticking their you know sticking their finger up in the air and they're trying to you know test the wind. But I think you know trump is a great person. It shows you that you know up until the night before the election Hillary was going to win. You know these Faida completes are just absolutely wrong. You know you know if you chase the poll and you believe the poll and the poll is you know the prophecy you can look at the last three elections here in Rhode Island the polls did not tell the truth. You know Bob Healey our candidate got 22 percent of the vote. He was predicted to get less than eight. The previous election before that the independent candidate Chafee won. So the polls are the polls driving the news or the news driving the polls. But I am absolutely positive that the third party candidate. You know Daniel Mr. Moon is smart guy smart guy why isn't he getting any type of love is Daniel Munoz CIA director.
Speaker 5Yeah he's he is a legitimate candidate in this race and I agree that you know it is. I'm not sure why he's not on the stage the next to the upcoming debates. I really am unsure that there is a valid reason. We have heard Alan Rosenberg kind of in a forum said well it's the Senate's position papers I'm not sure. But it is an interesting thing. He has a following I've seen in person people come up to him and say hey look we support your campaign we're out here advocating for you.
Speaker 6I agree and you know I'm part of the moderate party's position in my position one of the reasons why I'm running is I'm trying to smash the two party system. I would really I really believe that in today's age of technology and how much memory cost on a computer memory it's cheap today and today I don't know why we don't have one spot that's made by the government that created by the government where all candidates that are legitimate that have made ballot access have received their signatures I don't know why there's not one depository where people can't go up and post videos post their positions where the voters can go to one central spot. They shouldn't have to go to all over the place. They shouldn't have to go to this website and that website that would take money out of it. It also I think if everything was one centralized location which we could do on the state server today that I think more people might be involved because it would be easier to go to access that information. If you make something hard people don't do it. If you make it easy people will do it a lot.
Speaker 5And I think we can make getting that information a lot easier for us part of the block chain economy of the future is well you know elections govern not only in how they're conducted but also how they're I guess publicized stuff.
Speaker 6It's it's it's part of that. It's also a commercial aspect to it. You know there is not you know when I'm talking about issues such as the you know the pension liabilities in the city of Providence and the one of the problems with the pension liabilities is how they calculate the rate of return. You know the cities right now are just able to pull out a number out of thin air or what they believe their fund performance is going to be 8 9 10 percent. And that allows them to not fund it properly. So what happens is if I say I think I'm going to earn 15 percent I don't need to fund as much money into that plan for the pension years as I should if I really got the real 2 3 or 4 percent return. So that's an esoteric argument that doesn't make headlines people kind of turn off the news because unfortunately it is a deep argument and it doesn't. You know it's not good table talk at dinner talk about pensions. We want to talk about did just see. You know Patricia Morgan and the guy in that chickens al the debate. Let's talk about the debate. That's really fun but this is serious it's important. I think people forgot how important politics is everything that everything we do in life is politics. Every time every time we build a road that takes money away from another project and if we do another project it takes money away from roads. Right. You know I I'm really at a loss that the federal government just came down and said D.C. way is woefully underfunded. We've had you know some significant actually deaths of small children that are in state care because of underfunding but we don't have funding to protect the most innocent these are three month old six months old don't you have parents to take care of them. It's our job to do that. But we want to give 38 Studios money. We want to give the Patuxent Redsox money know billionaires but we don't have money for small children. You know this is why I can't really be part of the Republican Party the Democrat Party.
Speaker 5I think both parties need to live in the middle so now we've got real problems that we need to really address what sort of coalition has the Moderate Party built besides just the obvious people who are dissatisfied disaffected members of the Democratic or Republican parties that live in the middle. Do you find you've made allies with progressives or with hard right people who also are looking to sort of break the system.
Speaker 7Yeah I we are. I think we're stronger than ever at this point. We've actually sat down with some of the elected officials currently. You know we've actually have toyed around somewhat with some of the top Democrats and top Republicans have actually toyed around with the idea of switching parties but you can imagine how hard that is. Right. But I've had broken bread with many of the top leaders in the state talking.
Speaker 6You know the future of the state office level the state office at the highest levels. OK. And you know that's ongoing. You know we've had let's say you know Bob playing a very progressive journalist here you know Bob and I while we don't see eye to eye we have a pretty interesting relationship. You know we have each other cell phone number. We talk a lot. OK. And at the same time some of the very hardcore right wing people. We had that dialogue and relationship with because I think what the Moderate Party is trying to do is are certain universals that I think we all hold as humans on Earth. You know I think of myself as just a human on earth I'm going around the sun with everybody else on this planet right. And we all want to wake up you know 30 days from now 60 days from now to a better life and a better planet. You know we don't want to pollute our waters. We don't want to have bad drinking water we don't want you know global warming. The question is how do we get there. But then there are those issues that do divide us. There are those issues that are you know those social issues. Should people be allowed to smoke pot or not smoke pot. No. You know the abortion question the old litmus tests but the Moderate Party has tried to do what we are trying to create is a safe place where we all have universals. And for when it comes to those litmus test those personal issues we allow people that have difference of opinion. You don't have to be not a moderate. You don't have to get drummed out of the party. Why can't we believe the debate itself is what brings people to a righteous answer. It's you know we have to have the debate we get to be able to talk about politics over dinner in the water cooler. So our party really believes that you know those social causes those social issues and those litmus tests are we leave those to the individual where if you're in the Republican Party they actually have three factions themselves. They have the Republicans that are pro-choice republics that are pro-life. They have the big government Republicans they have all the Democrats are on the safe side there's a lot of Democrats or let's say those people on the left. I know a lot of them that believe we should have a balanced budget. You know that's not an exclusive thing to be a conservative. I think most people would even find it hard. Mostly the two parties are pretty well blurred except on the litmus tests. And so wouldn't it be nice where there's that spot. We actually toy around with the idea. This is you know if I could start over again and if I could create a party and name it anything I wanted just just kind of facetious but kind of true I would like to name it. Well it depends partly because things really do depend. You know should people smoke pot. Well it depends how are they. Are they 9 or are they 75. Are they sick or are they not sick right. You know personal liberties everything really depends everything is kind of situational appropriate age appropriate time appropriate place appropriate. And I think for each one of those different situations people would say well I don't know if you put it that way if I may have a different answer. And I think if we don't talk and if we keep yelling We're never going to get to those answers because I really do believe most things it depends. You know everything situational everything is situational. Do what I love to have all roads with no potholes. Sure. My kids died at DCL have the resources that we have are finite. They're not infinite time is finite. The amount of resources that people that they have for the time to just volunteer is finite. The amount of employees that we have is a finite amount of taxes. No there is a point in society where the taxes will tip the economy one direction or the other. You know they actually ask one of our economic controls that we use as one of those levers that we use that economics is high taxes or low taxes and cool economy or heat in the economy. So I really believe that we all have the best intentions. I really think but we're not talking to each other anymore. And now it's almost because because we only have two parties this or that choice and that has to stop because of that this or that choice I think is causing people to be obstinate on purpose so the other party can fail. Then you can blame their fellow you can get in power they drag their feet. They become the donkey hoping you fail so they can get back in power. So we're in this downward spiral spiral. I like the Anaconda the death grip of Detroit. You look at the Detroit of the world you know the people the taxes went up the people moved out the more the people moved out the more the taxes went up the more the people moved out the businesses moved out you strangled the city. You didn't take care of the pipes and the roads and so they had bad water they have bad roads and nobody wants to come and educate the kids and then the guns came in and there was just that death spiral and five of our cities here in Rhode Island doing that you know which five would you say. I think Pawtucket Central Falls. Believe it or not Warwick is extremely you know if you look after me at the left the finances that turned out were in trouble I think Woonsocket. You know I think Woonsocket is very hurting their tax rate their residential tax rate is so high that they can't attract anybody. You know the average that even the average house the median price house in Central Falls is 100 75000 dollars. It's not expensive but the tax bill on that house is six thousand dollars. So you're talking 500 hours a month before you even turn on a light. Yet another 300 dollars a month for the surcharge that they had there in the water charge and your homeowner's insurance rate. Nine hundred dollars a month before you turn on the light and before even paid your mortgage. And so when you talk about affordable housing problems at some point the government is causing the problem and if we don't support Woonsocket it's it's going to go by the way of Central Falls but it's going to be ten times the scale.
Speaker 5So it's very interesting take just backing up. So basically on all wedge issues if you will the moderate party's position is everything situational Second Amendment rights that's always subject to a situation whether it's well a second amendment issue because that's actually an amendment.
Speaker 6I don't know if that's a it's a wedge issue but there is a second amendment. The Supreme Court has spoken several times on that. I think a lot of people confuse the right to bear arms with you know self-defence. They do it with the right to go hunting you know we hear a lot about you know the anti gun people don't need to go hunting. We don't need to go hunting at all. The second amendment has nothing to do with that. The second amendment. I believe the founding fathers always meant that the power that the government derives comes from the people. And at some point in time just like when we shook off Great Britain that governments tend to grow in power and they tend to become oppressive and at some point in time that people will need to shake that government off and that Second Amendment that what we have and what the Supreme Court recognized in the Heller decision in Washington D.C. said that the people should be as powerful. I believe that's what it says that people should be as at least as powerful as the government. And so the right to bear arms is not about self-defence it's not about going hunting this building to protect myself from the government and my my personal belief that the not the party's belief but when you talk about the wedge issue you know is that important because a lot of people would say we don't have to worry about the government today. So therefore they we can suspend the Second Amendment right. But I would just ask you know a year and a half ago. Well guys where are the police officers in New York choked out a guy for selling loose cigarettes. You know that's just incredible. The guy didn't have a permit to sell cigarettes so it's OK to choke him to death. To me that's not OK. Right now in Rhode Island we just and Armstrong and Allen her longtime partner are just arrested for marijuana and the government did that at the same time the government sanctioning the convergence festival for the cannabis festival at the convention center. So on one hand we can hand out marijuana we can even teach people how to grow it as long as you have the right governmental license. But if you don't get the laces we're going to lock you up for life. So and Armstrong is right now facing life in prison for cannabis charge that if you're a doctor or if you're some chiropractor and you get the right license and matter of fact Jean this is actually one of the people applying to grow a growth center. But in Armstrong's Armstrong will go to jail for life.
Speaker 5It's also if you push the wrong buttons right. I mean that may be part of it too.
Speaker 6That's right and that's why one of the things that when Allan Fung They talk about his problem with the police department and Cranston in the ticket gate I really believe he's one of the most dangerous people in Rhode Island because when people really look at it wasn't it wasn't the Oh you had a low ticket gate. The the mayor of Cranston in 2014 in the middle of ticket gate allowed his police department to get involved in politics and ticket their enemies is the worst kind of governmental thuggery ever. You cannot we cannot empower a government to use guns against us and then allow them to use them for political purposes. That that is the most Heeney is believe in the American culture only it's up there with a doctor raping a patient that you know it's up there with a judge taking a payoff. When we trust these people with this type of power to control a police department and then when confronted with it when confronted with his police department handing out tickets just being thugs he parks it he parks the police chief the state police comes in and then the day before the police the town was supposed retire. He brings it back so we can reward him with a retirement. You know both of those people should be thrown from office because of the way they used the abuse the governmental authority. That's my opinion and not the moderate party's position. And I think of the voters of America would go back to holding people accountable I don't think these things will happen I think. I'm surprised sometimes we haven't had a revolution that people haven't lit torches and gotten their pitchforks because some of these things are unconscionable.
Speaker 5Yeah I was out on Saturday at the Statehouse. There was this rally to resist Marxism that took place and it was startling to see the wall. First of all there was a lot of idiots on stage delivering just hateful century Nazi propaganda. Right. But the police force was enormous. The state police display was was by design intimidating and definitely you know reminded you of the actual scenario here. I've often wondered you know with Occupy Wall Street with these types of protests you know is it really a level playing field anyway when you when you break it down.
Speaker 6I don't think it is and that's one of my other tenets is access to justice. We've gone so far away from you know we're really government government by permission today. You need permission to do anything. And the other thing is you have no access to justice. You really don't. Again we're seeing it not to pick on the police but I I'm always appalled that the good police officers they say only 2 percent of police are bad. Well I can't figure out why the other 98 percent can't take care of that 2 percent. I really can't. I can understand why we haven't fired a police officer in the state of Rhode Island in like three years. I don't understand that. Because I believe they're committing crime probably the same other human beings commit crimes. It's just my belief. But access to justice is huge. What do you do when you've been wronged. What do you do when the zoning board just doesn't approve your building permit because you're dating the guy's ex-wife now married you use their electricity like this.
Speaker 8You know 7-Eleven.
Speaker 6There is a story down in North King's 7-Eleven. You know they had to remodel their building every 10 years as part of their franchise agreement. So the old building wasn't worth Romalis so they decided to build a new building. Took about three years to get through the permitting process because North Kingstown wanted to control what their what their roof looked like. You know the franchise agreement they have they're building is part of their trademark 7-Eleven their logo they have a sign right North Kingstown doesn't like the flat roof. They wanted more of a hip proof that's more in line with in keeping with like a New England type of you know architectural red there on Post Road or whatever it was.
Speaker 8Yeah. That gentleman took three years to.
Speaker 6Know he was stuck between fighting his franchise and fighting the government. And the problem when you're fighting your government is you're not even fighting with your own money. One of the tenants I've been pushing for the last 10 years is what they call the indemnification a lot of people don't realize our elected officials are indemnified what that means is the elected official like a zoning board can deny you your building permit for whatever reason he wants even if he's totally wrong. Like I said there are examples where you're dating the guy's ex-wife. And so he's mad at you. He has no liability. If if if the court even if you were to assume that you'd spent your twenty or thirty thousand dollars a year four years of time and you found that the zoning board official was culpable or a town council member was culpable there indemnified by state law where the town will pay for his legal bills not him and that indemnification I believes breeds corruption they have indemnified public officials in the state of Rhode Island under the guise that nobody would be a public official if they were always sued all the time. Can you imagine a school committee member and then you get sued all the time. I disagree with that. I don't know any doctors. We don't indemnify doctors if they come off the wrong. They pay for it. They don't not become a doctor because they might be held liable for something they do wrong. Professional Engineer that builds a skyscraper not builds guides scrapers because he's indemnified. He takes out insurance. He takes responsibility. I think that non endemic non indemnification actually hold people accountable. They actually make sure they do a good job so the building doesn't collapse because they might be sued. I don't so again this is like the insiders we're going to give ourselves a pass. It's like we're not we don't have to make our town buildings handicap accessible. We're going to have a different health insurance plan then we're going to give our employees that it just doesn't sit well and it just a surprise. But again these are esoteric arguments. When you talk indemnification it's a pretty deep concept for most people right.
Speaker 5In a state that I'm not sure if you know you could even bet that one in five people know who Nick Maggiolo is simple.
Speaker 6You know there is a perfect example you know the arguably the most powerful at least position. So therefore the most powerful guy in the state. I've always been I've always been wondering why. Let's say you take our wonderful governor Gina. She's not inept. A lot of people think she's inept. She's raised more money as a governor than anybody probably in history right. So she's capable of doing ever she sets her mind to. This is why I know she's wrong for the job she's run for the job because she spent her time fundraising and taking care of.
Speaker 9What do you think would be a better way to get reelected. Do a good job or seven million dollars. So. This is her best behavior. Gina's best behavior is what you see. She knows she's up for re-election. So she's on her best behavior. This is the best genie you got. If we re-elect her she doesn't have to worry about re-election. So she's not. This is her best behavior. Her behavior will fall off as she won't need to pay all the attention of Rhode Island. I think she's going to focus more on California more on fundraising. Nick Masiello too. Could you imagine if they actually wanted to work in Rhode Island's best interests Gina and Maddie L.O. could have went to dinner they could have got the Senate president Regio they could have sat down and they could come up with a plan for an island and just kicked ass.
Speaker 10But they don't. Why don't they still run for office.
Speaker 11Just do a good job. We'll let you stay there forever. We don't have term limits in Rhode Island except to the governor's level. So I don't know why a guy as powerful as Nick is in all the trouble isn't it. That's just what he's made of it's personal ethos and a personal ethics that they don't have. They can't help themselves.
Speaker 5It does seem like something happens when you go into that chamber you know if you if you look at someone I've I've gone back and looked at some interviews with Speaker Madie yellow or other freshmen representatives and then to see how they change in pay and so on there's something that goes on a lot that goes on behind the scenes obviously. But you know it is what it is. You know what are you going to do other than run for governor and try to change your right.
Speaker 4Well I think you run for governor I think we you know we try and convince people that you can make a change. I think term limits are something that we can look at. I didn't used to be for those points have changed as I age. You know I you know you start out with your ideal idealism of youth you know how things should be. Then you realize how things are. And then you get to a point where you even come up with the idea of how things could be. And that's where I'm at today things how they could be. And I recognize they take a little bit of work and effort. I think what happens right now is the apathy of the voter. And I think it goes back to you know as on Dan York the other day and we talked a little bit about it.
Speaker 11Why. Why is the voter apathetic why do we not talk about politics at dinner or at work anymore. Matter of fact you get fired up places talk politics at work. Moira Walsh Yeah. So. So what happens is I think what happens is I think half the people that aren't involved in politics let's say some people are involved.
Speaker 10But I think the half that aren't. Let's look at those. I think half of them just are disgusted they don't they don't think it matters anyway. Who cares. Nothing's going to change. So they just have this apathetic attitude that nothing's going to change. Nothing ever does.
Speaker 6They don't realize their own contribution feeds into that if they would actually contribute they could actually help it's kind of like if you don't pick up your own house it's going to be dirty. So you got some effort you have to put in being a citizen on Earth. You know if you want to be a citizen in society you've got a responsibility to help also. I think the other half is our jaded because of the lack of morals that they don't trust. If they don't trust the government anymore and I think that's where we're at in this election they don't trust Gina and they don't trust that one. How can you. You work for your whole life for a state and then we're going to balance the state on your coal is after we've already had a deal with you know that her Reginas pension reform you know because you do that to somebody that's worked for you for 38 40 years and you just changed the game at the end of the day.
Speaker 11They don't trust you. And you think the new employees are going to trust you. You talk about we we talk about the new millennial generation not have any allegiance to employers or to companies. Well I think that allegiance left the employees hung.
Speaker 5I completely agree. I mean that's that is a definite trend and I mind you know the I guess the back end of the millennial segment of the population. So I went through all of this kind of the beginnings of the economic crisis the 2008 2009 period. And it's true why have loyalty to an employer that probably isn't paying you well enough for where you can really have freedom anyway. And in the end of the day you can't bank on the fact that they're going to take care of your every day and are going to take care of you.
Speaker 9Exactly. So I really believe that you know almost goes back to Darwinian ism you know survival of the fittest. But there again that's very right wing but the same time a survival of the fittest just means the strongest guy wins. And then I look at my mother right. Do I want. She's not very strong. So you know people could just go take advantage of her so I recognize you know these issues. You know I look at this everyday car issues everyday issues that get pretty esoteric. Let's just look at car dealerships. You know I had a friend the other day went bought a new car. So I hate that experience. You get to go in and you haggle. And this is it really I get stuck between my Republican self and my Democratic on car dealerships. Let's look at what a car dealership is. You can go into a car dealership and you can haggle really well. Come out let's say that Toyota Camry for 20 grand and if you really suck at haggling you'll pay 25 grand. Right. So it really depends on your ability to negotiate the sophistication of the shopper the sophistication of your ability to Googoosh your personality where you might feel intimidated because I might just need a car so bad. And I think this is the only place I could buy one where I can be held hostage. Right now let's take that same thing and let's apply it to a 65 year old woman that goes to Wal-Mart to buy a new TV. Could you imagine if she said to the store clerk at Wal-Mart it says hey how much is the TV. And he says I don't know how much you give me. And we start the negotiation process and we so we could have some 65 year old lady pay three 3000 dollars for a TV that's only 399 where some young sophisticated person could pay you know the 399. So I recognize my Republican selves as hey people should be allowed to negotiate and able to be fair. But at some point an automotive transaction is your second largest purchase in most people's life. And we know that there are people that are unsophisticated untalented and we know car dealers are ripping them off with interest rate you know the old three legged stool because they got up they can they get the time how long that note you're going to pay what your interest is going to pay and what your actual price of the car is going to be and they'll manipulate those numbers and they'll be they'll play the shenanigans game Republican or conservative would really say buyer beware but free market the free market the free market but don't I go but I like to think of my mother. Wouldn't it be nice if everybody would just pay the same name because why should one person pay twenty five thousand one percent pay 21000. Right. So I struggle I struggle everyday with these things so I go back to it really depends. It could be a cool party. Well it depends. I don't know. Yeah right.
Speaker 4You know maybe we don't allow 7-Eleven to charge a person different prices for bubble bubblegum you know we don't allow it but we do it we don't allow Cedar's to do it. We would call the Equal Rights office we would say oh because I'm black. Because I mean can experience speak the language but we do it at a car dealership. So there's a lot of cool things if we would stop. And we're able to have this conversation like we're doing now without yelling and screaming at each other. I don't know what your viewpoints are and I'd be interested to learn yours also. And I know everybody on earth has a different opinion. How do we come together and then should we make a law or not. Sometimes we don't know. So we don't do nothing.
Speaker 5Right. And instead of doing nothing yeah having that legitimate to be and that's the problem when you have extremes on either side that aren't willing to come together. And it's the danger that the progressive movement faces now as they enter the general assembly even if he's reelected in District 15 and if he's reinstalled as Speaker will the progressive's be able to work in any way and coalition be able to work with Nick mad yellow you know or they become ineffective because of their extreme position. Right. So it's a danger. You know what are the mechanics to get the result I suppose. And you know in terms of how do you marry those two sides I guess it's morality as well. I mean an anarcho syndicalism that's sort of know in a perfect utopian version of bartering and just making things work based on a higher understanding of moral you know self awareness and group awareness but at the same time you see people you know I saw some somebody slap a you know the rally at the marches I saw somebody slap a girl in the face you know. So yeah I mean it's a kind of world is this you know that's the danger of it I suppose.
Speaker 4You know there's that I had somebody text me once you know what they see what they call the social contract. What do I think about the social contract and they were talking about their the right or the justification of intolerance as long as it's against other intolerance like we're supposed to be intolerant of intolerance type of thing. Yeah. And I don't know if the answer to intolerance is intolerance. I think it's I think it's more speech more speech. You know again as a team builder and also because I recognize I'm just human I'm a human I'm an I have human urges I'm going to make a mistake. Tamar I know that for a fact and I wake up tomorrow and to make a mistake somebody will be mad at me. Right. I get it. But why did my focusing on all my differences. Let's focus on the things we can change.
Speaker 9I think we all agree that DCF needs it fixed. You know we have panhandlers. I don't I get people don't want panhandlers on the street but they're not all drug addicts or a lot of them have some mental illnesses and we need to help them. There are people that are panhandling on the street.
Speaker 4They're living in the woods and they will never be productive in society. You know we don't see broken brains. That's another thing that happens in our society. The the Democrat the let's say the Socialists and me I recognize if you have a group of 100 people you can have some really kick ass rock stars at one end of the spectrum and then have some people that really need some care and help at the other end of the spectrum. And we don't talk about that. We've hit away specially when it comes to mental health and I think it boils down after all the years I've been thinking about it. Somebody with a physical disability you can see you can empathize. Other guy doesn't have a leg always in a wheelchair. Oh you know look at whatever the infirmary is and if you saw him at stop and shop at the supermarket you'd help them get their groceries or put in their cart for. You know open the door for him because you see the infirmary. But with with mental illness it's the broken brain. You know it's not a broken arm it's not a broken leg it's a broken brain. So they look normal to act weird. So they're just weird people and I don't want to deal with weird people. What's wrong with you. Why don't you just go to work. Which is they're broken. And there are also criminally insane people that shouldn't be on the street at all. Right. And so we're not doing a good job there. We want to just turn a blind eye. We don't want them out you know you saw Alan Phung and you know the Cranston city council were you know trying to ban Pantex suing the ACLU now.
Speaker 11Yeah. And they have that question. It's a real mistake. It's been answered over and over again by the Supreme Court over and over again. I don't know what the answer is because it's bigger than all of us. So some people say you define your society by how well you take care of your sick people.
Speaker 4Yep. Right now this is I guess the problem I guess with the progressives and the right wing versus the progressives progressives want to help everybody.
Speaker 9And you know just say everybody gets a free ride the right wingers they almost don't want to help anybody. And I think one of their problems is they can't tell which ones need help and which ones don't. Yeah and they don't want us to. Who am I to decide. Well somebody has to write somebody who happened to decide this one needs some help and you know what we might end up helping people that don't deserve it.
Speaker 4But I've always believed in our society where I love the American concept that better a thousand guilty people go free than one innocent person gets convicted. I believe in that. You know you should be able to be free to walk around on Earth without my government intervention. And you know so I don't want to convict innocent people. And on the flip side of that I would rather help a bunch of people that don't deserve it. So this sick one that does need it isn't live in under a tree and it's frost bite or lose and toes. And they're not getting their diabetes shots do not get medicine we can take care of them. And I know that's not a popular position to. And sometimes the positions I take are almost contrarians so therein lies the rub. When you try and take a middle position like a moderate party because if if people are a one issue candidate you can lose them just because you're not pro gun. You can lose some people because you're not pro-life. So what I like to ask people when they ask me what your position on that litmus test here's a litmus test. I ask them is that the only thing that you're concerned with is the only thing you're concerned with I might have some trouble I only got a 50/50 shot. But if you if you have other issues like what are those do you care about health care. Do you care about employment. You care about the economy to you about the environment. Because I got a little better than a 50/50 shot so I don't have to win you on everything. So again I think it really goes back to having these conversations that we're not having. You know I'm not going to I'm not going to put a chicken suit on to get media attention.
Speaker 5Yeah let's hope there's only one Mascott this year. Right. Here we go Maska totally our last area. Quickly just getting ready for the debate. Do you feel the upcoming debate in your eye which I hope to be at on Monday night we'll see you'll be dealing with Ian Donnison Patrick Anderson and Ed student journalists. They'll get they'll be providing the questions. Have you been prepping for this or are you going to shoot straight from the hip. How is it going to be also being on stage with Joe Trillo when he'll try to clearly steal some of the air from. You know you can do Sumi just try to steal some of your airtime.
Speaker 7You know Mr. Trilla as a style that works for him and you know my biggest thing is I'm gonna try and keep it to the issues. You know I don't have enough media attention. I don't have enough. You know this is pretty valuable real estate here. And I'm hoping that people want to talk about the issues. You know the every opportunity I get to speak I'm hope I'm going to be talking about vocational education and hopefully be talking about reducing the sales tax and hopefully be talking about my tourism plan that I want to talk about start bringing jobs to Rhode Island. I want to talk about the issues that we have at the training school I want to talk about access to justice. I want to go into this. My list of peppering my issues. But you know if they want to get down in the mud you know I can do that too. I can roll around with Joe Trillo. You know if Joe if Joe Jodrell wants to roll around and act like a Trump guy I don't think it's serving him to be verbose and loud. I think it's part of his personality. I think he's sincere but I know I know when I sit down at the dinner every night with my girlfriend. That's one of the things that turns her off in politics. She doesn't want that yelling screaming the name calling. You know. If Allan Fung you know he wants to be his squeaky little self which is you know I do I think Allan Fung is the most dangerous person in Rhode Island. I think anybody that uses the police department against their citizens is just absolutely unfit for office this just to me is just absolutely an American.
Speaker 6And I will run that home 9000 ways to Sunday. You know if you're pro second amendment if you're pro Constitution what the hell would you even think about voting for it if you're only going to vote for Alan Phung because it's anybody but Gina. Doesn't that tell you how much Jenas loved in the state that you know that's even a rallying cry. That's something to be proud of. Gina oh she's gonna to win with 48 percent. I mean a rallying cry is anybody but Gina it's pretty embarrassing. And you hip you know she says she's taking ownership of it. I don't care she's not taking ownership of that. That's not a small problem either. It's not a simple problem. I'll be asking Gina if she knows what the next three major key events are coming up and you hope because when you're doing an I.T. program you're going to have all your major events you're going to have your key events you're going to have a budget you're going to have a timeframe that those key events are going to be met. And if she doesn't know what those are. She does not have not taken ownership of that program that as far as the Electrical Engineering Society of America is concerned is probably the second largest failure in electronics history.
Speaker 5Now what the book is called Road bridge.
Speaker 11This is the program for you. She's all for universal health care. She was all about health care. But her system is broken. How much does she care. Like I said we know she is a rock solid manager. What she wants to do something she does she raise seven million bucks but what she was supposed to be doing she wasn't the type of things that I fire employees for. You know they can be really great. You know how many people have been fired because they're at work but they're doing something on their computer for their own company and not the company that they're looking for. This is what she's been doing. No I don't think that she's not capable. I think she's just was a miserable her I wasn't on the ball. You look at the you look at her cooler or warmer again that's not a little promise like oh it's you know she comes off you know very warm she's a warm person. She's a woman that she comes off she takes her responsibility but you can't just simply say I take responsibility. You know you had a building of Iceland in your Rhode Island you know advertisement. And let's look how did that even happen. You had a one hundred sixty five thousand dollar a year director the P.R. director they hired a company that had two hundred fifty thousand dollars worth of billing that they did. Who then hired a subcontractor. How many mistakes had to happen for Iceland to be in the video. How many years. Right. It's just a nice little issue. It's not like oh my gosh it's not like your kid was at home and ended up using a picture off the Internet that was trademarked. This is a professional organization symptomatic. You add up all the problems she had a lawyer that didn't file the paperwork on time that cost us a million and a half dollars. And it turns out he wasn't even a lawyer. She doesn't even know who's working for her.
Speaker 9These are all symptomatic of an absentee manager and I could tell you and this is what this is a person is actually trying to get reelected. Like I said this is her best behavior. She's on her best behavior to try to get reelected and this is what you get. What do you think is going to happen when she's term limited out.
Speaker 4She's going to be in Washington. She's going to be in New York. She is not going to have her eye on the ball she won't even care about Rhode Island. She's already told everybody what she thinks about Rhode Island. She raised seven million dollars and didn't run the state so yeah I'm ready for the debate will happen.
Speaker 7Well I really want to appreciate you know guys like yourself out there I think this is the new cutting edge media. Again I want to thank you I think this is this is the start. Not only are you out there on the cutting edge of media but you're also part of that breaking the power brokers are there. You know this is how politics and third parties and alternate candidates alternate ideas so that they ended the day.
Speaker 9I think we're all just trying to present to the voters another story we're just trying to present them another flavor. And. I want to thank you for the opportunity to be able to reach out to the people that listen to you and have an opportunity that they get to listen to me and I want to thank you for giving me. And.
Speaker 1As always thank you for listening to the Bartholomew town podcast. If you enjoy what you're hearing we share it on social media or by word of mouth.
Speaker 2It's how we're building this community around Rhode Island politics and so much more. And stay tuned. All week long. All the way through the general election and beyond. We've got you covered. Till next time. I'm Bill Bartholomew. We'll talk soon.
