The privileges of power reach high and low. Consider Rhode Island state Sen. Juan Pichardo, of Providence, who tried to compel the owner of an Olneyville hot-dog restaurant to open up after it had closed for the day.

“I’m a state senator!” emphasized the statesman. The old line about academic politics would seem to apply to regular politics, too: “The thing that makes it so vicious is that there’s so little at stake.”