Kristi Noem ‘Needs to Go’? Maybe Rhode Island Should Talk About Its Own Leaders First.
When politicians in shaky standing call for someone else’s resignation, Rhode Islanders are right to ask who’s really being held accountable.
Governor Dan McKee’s viral post about Kristi Noem probably hit your feed the same way it hit mine: loud, righteous, and perfectly timed for maximum outrage. “It’s time for Kristi Noem to go,” he declared, warning about oaths of office, enemies foreign and domestic, and the dangers of treating peaceful protesters like combatants.
On its face, it sounds like what many Rhode Islanders say they want—leaders standing up for the Constitution and calling out abuses of power.
But there’s something almost surreal about watching a deeply unpopular governor, with some of the weakest approval numbers in the country, plant his flag on the high ground of accountability. When a politician whose own neighbors have lost faith in his performance starts demanding resignations in other states, it raises a fair question: are we talking about principles, or about optics?
If you step away from social media and into real conversations, you hear a different kind of anger. You hear from the nurse who works overtime and still worries about rent going up again this year. From the retiree who times grocery trips around which store has the least painful prices that week. From the small‑business owner staring at yet another stack of permits, fees, and regulations while empty storefronts collect dust downtown. These people don’t feel “protected” by their government. They feel squeezed, talked down to, and taken for granted.
So when Governor McKee points at Kristi Noem and says, in effect, “That kind of leadership is unacceptable,” Rhode Islanders have every right to flip the mirror around. If a leader who treats her own citizens like enemies should pack her bags, what do we say about leaders who let costs spiral, schools fall behind, and basic services stumble year after year? At what point does neglect, spin, and failure to fix obvious problems become its own kind of breach of trust?
This isn’t about defending Noem. The stories coming out of her Department of Homeland Security have been disturbing, and there are serious questions about how ICE and other agencies under her watch are treating people. But that’s exactly the point. If we’re going to talk about power being abused, then the standard can’t stop at the state line. It has to apply here, too—to governors, agency heads, mayors, school boards, and everyone else who exercises power over regular people’s daily lives.
Rhode Island’s political class is very good at aiming outrage outward. It’s easy to rage‑post about what’s happening in another state or in Washington, D.C. It’s easy to demand someone else’s resignation, someone else’s accountability, someone else’s investigation. What’s harder is looking in the mirror and admitting that a lot of Rhode Islanders feel like their own leaders have failed them on costs, housing, schools, public safety, and basic competence.
That’s where the double standard shows up. When a Republican governor or cabinet official crosses the line, Democrats rush to the microphones. When a Democratic governor’s approval sinks and voters feel ignored, the conversation suddenly becomes a lot quieter. The jerseys change, but the instinct to protect your own team is the same.
Rhode Island deserves better than that. We deserve one standard for everybody.
If it’s wrong for federal officials to treat citizens like enemies, it’s wrong when state agencies here do the same, whether it’s through indifference, bureaucracy, or heavy‑handed enforcement. If it’s unacceptable for leaders elsewhere to ignore the real‑world impact of their decisions on working families, it’s unacceptable when our own budgets, regulations, and priorities do the exact same thing.
That’s the conversation Rhode Island needs now: not just “Should Kristi Noem go?” but “Who, exactly, is being held accountable here at home?” Because until our leaders start answering that question honestly, all the viral posts about other states’ problems are just noise.
Accountability shouldn’t be a weapon we point across state lines. It should be the minimum standard we demand from every official who cashes a paycheck with Rhode Island taxpayers’ money.