Like most people, I love the idea of a new year. Symbolically, it reminds us of the fact that we made it through another year and that we have a future where we can change things, well, mostly about ourselves. It’s like a new lease on life.

So, as 2019 rolled into town I read with anticipation the comments of the newly installed state officers and legislators. I looked to see if the president had ended his temper tantrum which has resulted in a shutdown of government. If push came to shove would the United States republican senators approve a budget which it exactly passed and sent to the House or would they turn tail?

So, we know the answer to all these questions by now. There is only one conclusion. There is a slow-motion crisis in America and in Rhode Island.

Take the State of Rhode Island. Nothing much has changed. The same elected officials are repeating the same mantra. In fact, they sound delusional. How far from the truth can it be that Rhode Island has been transformed into a role model for the rest of the country? The sorry results of the educational performances of students should create a gag reflex to such a claim. Banning the media initially from the inaugural “ball” so the public wouldn’t know who the insiders were who picked up the tab was a harbinger of continued contempt for transparency.

The legislative leaders’ respective hands must still be pounding as they patted themselves on the back. A partial coup in the House of Representatives sputtered to a halt as the Speaker peremptorily rejected reasonable proposals of reform. Like Donald Trump, he punished those who wouldn’t toe the party line by dumping Rep. Katherine Kazarian (D-East Providence) from her role on a committee or dissing the so-called Reform Caucus proposals which correctly included 48 hours’ notice before action on the budget.

The national scene is also pockmarked by the antics of an immature president. This is a time when truths that seemed self-evident in the Constitution are no more. Truth is a fiction when the president has told a documented 7000 or so lies at the rate of 5 falsehoods a day since in office. Federal workers are toy pieces in a game of chicken. Anyone who disagrees with the president, like General Mattis or former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, are vilified after their service. The President acts like the bully know-it-all we have met too many times in our lives.

Lest the reader think that I blame Mr. Trump as the cause of our democratic deterioration, let me say I do not. He is a symptom. In his war on U.S. institutions and tenets which govern this country’s democracy, he is emboldened by his party in Congress, particularly, Senator Mitch McConnell, and his many supporters throughout the country and here in Rhode Island.

I dislike that I am not more optimistic in 2019. The rule of law seems to have gone out the window. Without it the capricious, the authoritarian, and the tyrannical rule supreme. Rhode Island democrats might like to take stock of their credentials lest the democrats defeat democracy in this state. Similarly, self-evaluation is a must for Trump supporters. Before party, we are all Americans.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.