RHODE ISLAND is facing massive deficits. Rather than slash spending, large numbers of legislators last week proposed $340 million in new and increased taxes, under a bill that critics have aptly dubbed the 2008 Economic Death and Dismemberment Act. These pols want to keep money gushing into state coffers at the expense of those working families who have the miserable misfortune to be part of the private sector.

Since higher taxes tend to depress economic activity, it is (or should be) obvious that this would be a particularly disastrous time to impose them. Rhode Island is already among America’s leaders in home foreclosures. Businesses and taxpayers are fleeing the state in droves. Financial experts are advising their clients to abandon Rhode Island, and to cease paying taxes here. Jobs are disappearing at an alarming clip (1,200 left in February alone, and payrolls shrank to their lowest level in nearly four years).

In addition to the massive tax hikes proposed, families are confronting a national recession and skyrocketing costs to drive their cars, heat their homes, put food on the table and educate their kids (who must move out of state after graduation to find work). Meanwhile, property taxes keep soaring, as politicians give away the store to public-employee unions — even though roads are bad, bridges are falling apart and public schools are, by national standards, generally mediocre.

But even all of the state and local tax hikes confronting working people will never be enough. The politicians have promised special interests unsustainable pension and health benefits that are starting to come due at a crushing cost to taxpayers.

And, oh yes: The government is honeycombed with political corruption.

In many states, this apocalyptic, Hieronymus Bosch landscape might be all the invitation voters needed to throw the bums out and try a different approach.

In Rhode Island, it will probably earn the General Assembly’s incumbents another two years. Keep it up! Job well done, guys! More of the same, please!

Part of that is innate to the state’s culture. Though Rhode Islanders are independent-minded enough to vote for people from both parties for governor, the public-employee unions and welfare industry now control large voting blocks, and have the money and storm troopers to swing legislative elections fairly reliably to their hand-picked candidates.

Part of it, though, is because the opposition party is, in a word, pathetic. The state GOP could not be in worse shape if Mr. Bean had run it for the last 20 years. It has little money, is riven by infighting, and seems unclear of what message, if any, it intends to carry into the November elections.

Without a flag around which to rally, the working middle class seems headed for slaughter on the battlefield.

Yet Donna Perry, executive director of the Rhode Island GOP, has high hopes for November. She says as many as 50 to 60 people have expressed an interest in running for legislative seats now held by Democrats. (I’ll believe it when I see it.)

“Fear is the greatest motivating factor to get people to run. Fear for their families, their households and their future,” she said.

In this case, fear is a well-justified emotion. Anyone who has a stake in Rhode Island and does not feel afraid is either not paying attention or a member of a very pampered special interest group. It is hard to quantify this right now, but I suspect that Rhode Islanders, watching their dreams collapse around them, are going to be much less apathetic this year — and, perhaps, more willing to seek change.

Ms. Perry also believes that her party will do a much better job in this election honing its message to the kitchen-table concerns of Rhode Islanders struggling to get by. (I’ll believe that one, too, when I see it.)

Needless to say, competitive elections would be great news. One-party dominance in any system is bad for the public. Nothing sharpens a politician’s focus on the common good, and diverts his gaze from the blandishments of special interests, more than a tough re-election battle. Real elections, with a real chance of shifting power, are the ultimate ethics reform.

But Rhode Island will never get healthier unless good people run for office, from both parties. There is no better time than now to give it a try. Operation Clean Government (ocgri.com) is planning a nonpartisan candidates’ school for April 12 in North Kingstown, to help citizens master all the details of running for public office. Candidates must file papers by the third week in June to get on the ballot.

A challenge even by a political unknown with little chance of winning does much good. It means an incumbent no longer has the luxury of running unopposed.

And the defeat of even a handful of the most arrogant incumbents might have a profound effect, sending tremors through the entire General Assembly, forcing politicians to start caring about the working taxpayers who provide all the goodies that government dispenses.

Edward Achorn is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor.