In Rhode Island on Wednesday, Democratic voters ended Dan McKee's five-year governorship not through scandal or defeat in a general election, but through the quiet verdict of a primary — choosing instead a political newcomer named Helena Foulkes, a former CVS executive whose family carries deep Democratic roots. McKee's fall, the first of a sitting governor in eight years, speaks to an enduring truth in democratic life: that proximity to failure — a bridge broken, a budget swollen, a promise delayed — can erode even the most stable political ground. Foulkes, who lost to McKee in 2022 and retur