Posted on 06/17/2018 3:20:07 PM PDT by RightGeek
Don’t believe the hype that “Amazon killed the Seattle head tax,” the new levy that the city recently passed on businesses to fund an affordable-housing initiative. The truth behind the city council’s stunning reversal—repealing the tax by a 7-2 vote, just four weeks after passing it 9-0—is that Seattle citizens have erupted in frustration against the city’s tax-and-spend political class that has failed to address the homelessness crisis, despite record new revenues.
As recently as a few years ago, it seemed as if Seattle voters largely viewed our hyper-progressive city council as a harmless oddity in an otherwise tolerant, thriving, liberal city. But times have changed. Now, according to recent public polling, 83 percent of Seattle voters are dissatisfied with how the council has addressed homelessness, 65 percent believe that the local government hasn’t used new tax revenues effectively, and 63 percent believe that the city has enough money to solve the problem but isn’t pursuing the right policies.
Progressives have tried to paint the anti-head tax campaign as corporate astroturfing, but beneath the surface, it’s being driven by this broader shift in public opinion.
...
Fortunately, the head tax fight has revealed that some of the core constituencies of the progressive coalition—affluent liberal neighbors, labor unions, and blue-collar workers—are starting to turn against the politics of the far Left. Over the past few months, members of the Iron Workers Local 86 shouted down Socialist Alternative councilwoman Kshama Sawant at a political rally in front of the Amazon Spheres, fed-up neighbors in the wealthy Green Lake neighborhood exploded against four councilmembers at a public town hall, and dockworkers in the Ballard neighborhood physically collared councilman Mike O’Brien and threw him out of a party at the Pacific Fishermen Shipyard.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
Evergreen college suddenly has a bunch of empty dorm space they could use for the homeless. Plus they would come in handy to use for rent a mobs.
Just overheard some guy in the supermarket talking on the phone saying that if they raise the minimum wage here again he is going to have to start laying off a lot of his workers. He said, what is happening in California and Seattle is going to spread here.
One amusing video I saw was the avowed socialist city councilwoman trying to talk at a press conference, and the union workmen in construction uniforms were lined up next to the cameras and around.
Every time she tried to speak, they shouted “No head tax, no head tax!”
She tried to yell them down, and they yelled her down. When she was silent, they were silent. No matter how short the sound bite, their message got through.
Seattle liberals are being shocked to reality by liberalism itself. Delicious.
| Click the Pics & Text
|
“He said, what is happening in California and Seattle is going to spread here.”
—
And where on earth is “here”?
.
Believe it not, the same sentiments are emerging in San Francisco and Portland.
Loved this comment after the article:
“Seattle’s people like to dabble in Marxism as a luxury, but dump it when it threatens their bourgeois life.”
That's a very key starting point. All the analysis of how ultra-liberal city councils will be brought back under control is pure unadulterated fantasy. Ten years from now, every socialist can be tossed on the council, and not one thing will change in Seattle. Money will still be wasted on programs which are ineffective (or worse, even counterproductive to the stated goals.)
This is how liberals operate on the national level, state level, county level and even city level. Zero accountability for any failures with ‘successes’ which could have been duplicated for a tenth of the cost just handing out cash.
There's only one way to fix a city which has gone down in the liberal spiral, that is for aggressive campaigns by actual conservatives who repudiate every single failed program and make it their first target when they get into office.
This is the problem Republicans across the country are facing. Because Republican leadership has this fixation that they can be not quite as liberal as Democrats and win. That maybe they just need to tweak programs that don't work and they'll magically work again. That they can just cut the budgets a little and everything will turn into rainbows and fairy dust.
How did Trump win the White House? Well, first and foremost, he ran against all the liberals in the race IN HIS OWN PARTY. Then once the field was clear, he went against the remaining liberals who were running in other parties. Ultimately, I like to tell the fiction that he won the White House because who in their right mind would vote for Hillary? The truth is that he took conservative stances on issue after issue and he followed through with them.
Perhaps Freepers on the ground out there in Seattle know of conservatives who are running as conservatives and targeting all these insane ideas promising to toss those failed programs out with the trash. If there is, great, there's still hope up there. In California, we have little of that hope. What few conservatives there are are termed out of office far too quickly, beat each other up going for diminishing space in higher offices, and ultimately have to ‘retire’ from California politics.
Why? Are there no conservatives in the state? Of course there are. But they're undercut over and over again by surrender monkeys in the state party who run from every single controversy that comes along and then come up with ‘brilliant’ ideas for others to ‘save’ California.
Seattle, I wish you the best of luck ejecting the liberals. California has them infesting everything. But trust me on this; there's only one way to do so - target the stupidity that EVERYONE can agree doesn't work. Hold firm to the promise of dismantling completely those programs. That's the only path that leads to a solution and not simply watching business after business flee the area, sucking away billions in jobs.
I am not surprised about the Ironworkers, they are a pretty scrappy bunch.
Hawaii
Mahalo nui loa !!!!!!!!!!
.
.
Mugged by Marxism.
Respectfully, won’t happen. I was playing catch on the sidewalk in my brother’s middle-class Seattle neighborhood, with his two boys. One of their pals asked me how much approval I had of Obama. When my nephew informed the kids that I was a registered Republican, they looked at me like an escaped zoo animal. Not rude, not mean, just something they had never encountered, except on TV.
Bump!
Holy mackerel.
I seem to remember it was just a few upstart colonials who rejected the King’s rule and everyone around the world was sure that the little rebellion would be put down quickly.
I understand how easy it is to surrender. I live in California. A registered Republican here is rarer than in Washington, and in liberal enclaves, almost unheard of. Surprising what you can do when you’re the only one speaking with a rational voice in pointing out the liberal emperor is in fact wearing no clothes.
And some empty school buildings - but these bums/vagrants personal hygiene leaves a lot to be desired; then too their bathroom habits are worse.
I have family there.
No they haven’t.
Nice scenery, but unless you make well north of six figures it is impossible to have a normal life there.
And the homeless camps all over the city are something to behold.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
