Matthew Richer gives an interesting overview of patriotic Americans’ efforts to keep Rhode Island American. Richer notes the deleterious effect current mass immigration is having on the Ocean State . He also notes the “incestuous political culture” and “political corruption” that pervades Rhode Island.

Richer does not link that culture of political corruption to immigration, but reading between the lines I wonder if we don’t get a hint that the mass immigration of the Great Wave was not an unmixed blessing and has a whole lot to do with Rhode Island’s corrupt politics. Was political corruption so rampant among Colonial and Federal Rhode Islanders, before immigration on a large scale into the state? A look at the names Richer links with Rhode Island corruption (Edward DiPrete, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, David Cicilline) and illegal alien-abetting (Bishop Thomas Tobin) makes me think, probably not.

On the other hand, immigration seems to have given Rhode Island at least one loyal patriot: Governor Don Carcieri.