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Lincoln Chafee and Don Quixote: two dreamers tilting at windmills

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The former governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Davenport Chafee, announced this past week he had formed an exploratory committee in order to seek the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

This audacious move is predicated upon Chafee’s sincere belief that not only could he win the nomination and the general election, but also that he could right wrongs, seek truths and restore his brand of decency in American society. Throughout his political career, Chafee has consistently exhibited unpredictable ideas and actions driven by a self-orchestrated sense of righteousness.

In this way, Lincoln Chafee is not dissimilar to Miguel de Cervantes’ character Don Quixote from the 17th-century literary work “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.” In the story, the protagonist of the novel is a delusional member of Spanish nobility whose actual name is Alonso Quixano. Yet he refers to himself as the daring and chivalrous Don Quixote, which is a glorified identity created in a delusional mind.

Although he holds a generational title and a certain station in life, Quixano has accomplished nothing on his own. Instead, he lives within a world that he has read about in stories of chivalry. In his daily encounters, he views others through a lens of a blurred reality.

Quixano imagines his idiosyncratic actions to be true examples of bravery. In his mind,windmills are giants, prostitutes are damsels in distress, and traders are potential attackers who must be punished. He believes himself to be the alter ego of Don Quixote who is a righter of wrongs, seeker of truths, and a restorer of decency.

The parallel delusions of Lincoln Chafee and Don Quixote are equally inexplicable and inescapable at the same time. They both believe they should be perceived as moral compasses for society. They both erroneously believe they have achieved many great victories in life. They both believe they can defeat any foe through chivalrous action. They both believe they should be followed by others.

In actuality, like Quixano, Chafee was born into wealth and station and never had faced struggles in life that he had to overcome. Also like Quixano, Chafee has accumulated titles and claimed great accomplishments when in reality he has achieved little. Thus, if Chafee truly believes he can wrestle the Democrat nomination for president from someone who has been the former first lady, the former United States senator from New York, and the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and then ascend to the presidency, he is truly tilting at windmills.

Taken with the same degree of seriousness as announcements from the late perennial presidential candidate, comedian Pat Paulsen, Lincoln Chafee announced his forming of an exploratory committee this past week. To Rhode Islanders, this move rendered most of us agog in disbelief. Many thought his announcement might be a parody of some kind. Perhaps it might be a late April Fools’ joke. Unbelievably, the announcement was genuine and genuinely shocking in its presumption. Chafee left the governor’s office as an innocuous placeholder who had not succeeded. His baffling and impetuous style of governing confounded Rhode Islanders. Oblivious to the sentiment of his fellow citizens, Chafee said in an exit interview with Channel 12 that he was confident he had done a superlative job.

However, according to a Brown University poll in February of 2013, Chafee’s approval rating as governor was only 25 percent, and as a result he decided not to run for re-election. Originally, he had won the governor’s chair by only a slight plurality, with 36 percent of the vote in a four-way race.

In that governor’s race against the self-destructing and president-taunting Democrat Frank Caprio, Moderate businessman Ken Block, and “Carceri Light” candidate Republican John Robitaille, he won by the narrowest of margins. Prior, he was a Warwick councilman and Warwick mayor, when he was sympathetically appointed to a U.S. Senate seat by Gov. Lincoln Almond after the death of his father. He did win that seat in his own right in 2000, with the Chafee name conspicuously displayed as a spotlighted aristocratic moniker against a poorly run campaign by Congressman Bob Weygand.

Besides Chafee’s name-driven election history, his time in office as senator had often been deemed offbeat and out of step with his party affiliation at the time. In the Senate, Chafee acted as a far left liberal Republican – in other words, he was a RINO, or a “Republican in name only.” Chafee defied GOP leadership. He was in favor of higher income tax rates and as a result voted against the 2001 and 2003 congressional budget bills. He consistently supported increases in the minimum wage, contrary to the majority of fellow Republicans at the time. He strongly opposed the law permitting America’s involvement in Iraq, when most legislators were more malleable in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. He voted against Medicare Part D prescription drug expansion. He opposed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act and was an early supporter of unfettered gay marriage. Simply, his voting record was more akin to a far-left liberal Democrat than it ever was to the mainstream Republican thinking. Yet, Lincoln continued to identify himself as a Republican, much to the amazement of his Senate brethren. Like Don Quixote, Lincoln Chafee has always gone his own way in pursuit of his perception of what is right for society, despite party affiliation and despite all sense of normality and expectation.

During his tenure as governor, Chafee was even more absurd in his actions. Finally shedding his ill-placed party affiliation, Chafee proclaimed himself to be an independent. Again, he used his aristocratic name as political currency when he implored voters to “Trust Chafee.” Apparently, some voters did, at least enough to provide a slight plurality to secure him the governor’s office in the aforementioned 2010 race. Fantastically, Chafee perceived his ascension to office as a mandate, and his various inclinations as righteous directions for Rhode Island.

Chafee’s term in office was filled with precarious policies, odd ideas, and ill-founded theories. In the worst economy since the Great Depression, his first budget proposed a great many new taxes, which were counterintuitive to boosting a downtrodden economy. He became a staunch defender of his standpoint that the state Christmas tree in the State House Rotunda should be referred to as a holiday tree. He felt our almost 72-percent Christian population of observing citizens should not possibly insult other faiths by mentioning Christmas. He defied the federal government and refused to extradite a brutal murderer who was possibly facing the death penalty. He suggested passing gay marriage into law would be a substantial economic engine for the state. He was against the “Race to the Top” educational reform program because he dismissed charter schools, even though Rhode Island would receive much needed federal money.

In all these standpoints, Chafee believed he knew better than the mainstream of Rhode Island society. He felt he was a sagacious moral compass that we Ocean State citizens should follow. Like Don Quixote, he believed he was fighting for what was truly righteous, when in reality he was only indulging his own illusionary ego.

That same ego has now propelled him to think he could be the nominee of his current political party, and eventually the president of the United States of America. The presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, leads in all polls, has an abundance of financial support, deep connections within the Democratic Party, and a universally recognizable name. Chafee had only declared he was a Democrat two years ago, and thus he could hardly be considered to be a future leader of the party.

Indeed, outside the Ocean State, only a few people within the Washington Beltway know who Lincoln Chafee is. Nor would anyone analyzing his ponderous record necessarily deem it successful. Perhaps some far left-leaning organizations might support him from the fringes of our society, but certainly not enough to propel him into becoming a viable national candidate.

Adding to those shortcomings, Lincoln Chafee is hopelessly inarticulate. He is severely lacking as an orator. For that matter, in simple question-and-answer sessions with the press, his responses are often quizzical and opaque. Thus, his ability to even explain his political message on a national scale would be next to impossible.

In conclusion, Alonso Quixano – a.k.a. Don Quixote – and Lincoln Chafee are both dreamers who choose to see the world as they wish it to be. Alonso saw himself as Don Quixote, the chivalrous defender of all that is good. Chafee sees himself as presidential timber and as a man who could set America on the right path. Both are delusional!

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  • ronruggieri

    I have no idea what political party might be the natural habitat of a guy described as a " left liberal Republican " . I am an openly Socialist citizen. I can respect Lincoln Chafee's candidacy for president of the United States. There was nothing CLUELESS about his rejection of the death penalty, his opposition to the criminal war in Iraq, his candid support for separation of church and state, his support for gay marriage, his support for higher taxes on the rich. Beware the man with his own moral compass ? Is that your message ?

    The real joke is not Lincoln Chafee. It is the same old political circus in America .Even naive idealism ( Don Quixote ? ) is refreshing. I can't imagine a sensitive Don Quixote type starting World War III .

    Thursday, April 16, 2015 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    Amen. People Piss and moan about politics as usual and then go and vote for the same gang of idiots with the same ideas.

    Friday, April 17, 2015 Report this