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Meanwhile, Out West …
In Washington, Republicans lost a State Senate seat. And with that loss, control of the State Senate will fall into Democrat hands. Consequently, come January, Democrats will control the Senate, the Legislature, and the Governorship. We’re toast.
Governor Jay Inslee is the most liberal governor in America according to non-profit, non-partisan research. He has consistently touted his big plans for implementing the entire Progressive agenda. Until now, wary Washingtonian voters have managed to deploy a balance of legislators sufficient to block the most extreme policy proposals of our string of Progressive governors. Now we’re facing one-party rule. Governor Inslee is unchained. And he wasted no time in announcing that his ambition extends even beyond the state he governs:
Gov. Jay Inslee has said that one of his first orders of business, should Dhingra win, would be to enact a robust plan for carbon pricing along with Oregon and California, as well as other joint policies to fight climate change.
You could joke that he wants to join California’s secession. But no, his ambitions are far greater than merely transforming the west coast. Mark my words. He will certainly be on the 2020 presidential short list. He is a Democrat’s dream — every bit as progressive as the more talked about candidates, but he also brings Blue State governing experience to the table (not to mention extensive legislative experience in that other Washington). Inslee is temperamentally fit to go toe-to-toe with our current president. He is Barack Obama without the good manners. Yes, Inslee may be unleashed on all of you, but that misfortune is still a few years off.
In the meantime, he has some destruction to do. Thanks to a few thousand voters in Redmond and Woodinville, Gov. Inslee is now unfettered — free to burnish his Progressive credentials to the detriment of the entire state.
I find myself questioning that old “50 laboratories of democracy” theory. It doesn’t sound so good when your lab is run by a mad scientist, unsupervised by elected officials.
Published in General
Yeah, saw the news. Things should get interesting in Oregon what with being squeezed between two Progressive Paradises. Methinks that parts of eastern Washington, Oregon and California will be dusting off the State of Jefferson documents.
Perhaps we should start a fund at Ricochet to provide housing and food for members fleeing Washington. Are the borders still open?
The Seattle Supreme Court is open for business, ready to approve an income tax that is currently unconstitutional. I wonder if that would make Amazon and Boeing think twice about continuing to reside in Washington State.
Oh, and what passes for a Republican party here is less than useless. Sigh…
We WA Ricochet members have to stick together. Chili Party invite posted on the Pacific Northwest Ricochetti group.
One more thing, Rico. There were three Snohomish County Council races (not in my district), and two of them were won by Republicans! It’s a small miracle!
He’s 66. He’ll be 69 in 2020. That’s sort of young and inexperienced for a Democrat.
It is absolutely gorgeous part of the country and I truly enjoyed my time living there but very glad I came back to the Midwest. The GOP in WI has done wonders! Support Scott Walker, was aggravated that he went ‘squishy’ during his run but what’s happened here could be a model for coming out of a national Liberal/Progressive hangover.
Look on the bright side, you still have a Fivebucks on every corner.
It’s a bi-coatal race to the bottom.
NJ elected Liberal Democrat Phil Murphy who promised to increase taxes 5 billion dollars over a 4 year term and to make NJ a sanctuary state. Dems already enjoy large majorities in both Houses and the NJ Supreme Court is one of the most liberal in the country.
I’m really worried about the Colorado governor’s race next year. Hickenlooper (D) is term limited, so it’s open season. I think there’s something like 15-16 declared candidates so far, but the dems will probably run Jared Polis, who has been in congress representing the People’s Republic of Boulder and is waaaay far left, is reeeeallllly rich, so can self fund; meanwhile the CO Repubs will probably do their usual circular firing squad and blow it. The Republicans have Tom Tancredo who has run twice before and lost, and is seen as very anti-immigration, but the party seems to think it’s Tancredo and everybody else. Colorado is very liberal Denver and Boulder and then the rest of the state which tends more conservative, with lots of energy interests, which Polis is very anti. I dunno. I live in one of the most conservative counties in the state. We had a school board election on Tuesday in which a pro-school-choice slate ran and lost by a substantial margin. Hard to be optimistic.
Citizens and business have options and States can’t print their own currency like the Federal government, so Washington may learn the lesson all socialist states learn. Of course progressives won’t learn, because that’s one of the things they don’t do, but normal citizens and businesses can.
WA is being supported by Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing, all run by Liberals. If even one of those companies left the state, Seattle would be in a world of hurt. If the state institutes an income tax on top of the 10% sales tax, I wonder what would happen.
Yes, I’v’e had my eye on Jefferson for awhile, but there is another solution. Scoop out all the people living within five miles of Puget Sound and dump them in California. Voila! Washington is instantly as red as Idaho.
I’m still working on the details of implementation.
…not to mention the push for a capital gains tax. As I approach retirement. And start cashing out my life savings. So I can help fund the Progressive utopia.
I greatly appreciate the sentiment, but they already have control of the airports and seaports. All they’ll have to do to contain the remnant conservatives is monitor a few mountain passes.
They might learn. But first, they’ve got to fail. Carbon offsets aren’t exactly currency, but they are a competing good. When Inslee speaks of joining hands with socialist giant California to regulate the economy under the guise of climate change there is the potential of taking considerable control from both businesses and the people.
Better yet, send them to Vancouver and then build a wall.
I wonder how they would view Boeing. You’ll use a fair amount of carbon making the plane itself, but then it becomes an awful, evil, carbon producing monster that will fly for decades. Surely, Boeing needs to be held responsible for at least some of that.
I’m curious when it was that you lived here. There may have been a time when the “Scott Walker” model may have worked, but I think that time has passed. The California model is where we’re headed, although I don’t believe a majority of Washingtonians are aware of that. Many voters find certain of the Left’s issues (e.g. be nice to gay people) appealing without realizing that the politicians they support have much greater plans.
Seattle wants to be socialist-they went heavily for Bernie. Seattle never saw a levy they didn’t like. They vote for housing, transportation, homelessness, and “families” levies continually, adding and adding to their property taxes. They are the ones who lament the lack of funding for schools, when they spend bags of money and the schools are still a big failure. They will never learn. They voted for HUGE tax increases (car tabs, property, sales taxes) to support (un)Sound Transit “light rail” that no one will ride.
This reminds me of the
beauty(sorry, I just can’t use that word here) utility of Sen. Patty Murray’s ability to switch hats so deftly. Boeing is about working class jobs. Criticize any social policy and its about defending veterans. Oppressive taxes are about saving the environment. Besides, the tax burden will be just as invisible as the carbon dioxide.All true! Sing it sista’! Seattle is rapidly expelling it’s working class citizens. It is focused on building Utopia funded by a growing, wealthy tech aristocracy that is willing and able to sustain a growing, dependent “peasant” underclass.
“Sound Trains” is a project designed to re-establish Seattle’s influence over the “suburbs” and exurbs who have driven Metropolitan Seattle’s growth since the birth of Microsoft decades ago.
Those taxes that RushBabe mentioned were imposed on residents of King County (where Seattle is) as well as adjacent counties to the north and south. And you, dear federal taxpayer, are providing generous support as well.
If it is so bad, move to Idaho. Same weather, same scenery, better politics. I understand wanting to stay in your home state, but at some point you have to decide what is more important. It’s like I love Texas but I can’t change how hot that state gets.
We’ll just tax ourselves to prosperity. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Your conclusion, of course, is correct. But walking away from the place where you were raised and where you built a home and raised a family is not something one does so easily. We may leave Washington someday, but being driven to that decision because of cultural shifts (Progressive culture was not dominant here until relatively recently) and punitive taxation (which may be just around the corner) is not easy to deal with in such a transactional manner.
Yeah, Washington is already a de facto sanctuary state (proof of U.S. residency or citizenship not required for a drivers license); and eight decades of legal precedent preventing an income tax in Washington is imperiled by the current Progressive push for a new test case to place in front of our pretty-far-Left State Supreme Court.
So I guess contingency plans should be drawn up before the bi-coastal empires consolidate control. See ya in the Neutral Zone.
There are two in our household. I’d move in a heartbeat, but Hubby must approve too. Not going to happen any time soon.
This is why Mrs. Hoplite and I bought land in North Carolina, and will be moving there as soon as we can (regretfully, maybe as long as five years out. Hopefully sooner.)
The California I grew up in doesn’t exist anymore. I still shed tears for the loss. Although I have lived in Western Washington for decades, it has never felt like home, and I won’t miss it when we leave. If I thought the Progressives would be happy with their wretched little colonies, I’d wish them happiness and never think of them again. However, they always want more. Once they have soiled and spoiled one place, they move on to new states and then ruin them with their toxic politics.
W
Yup, come on over. We’ve still got plenty of room, and we could use more sane people to balance out the PRC refugees who don’t seem to have figured out why their former abode turned into a fiasco.
Eastern Washington needs to secede and form its own state. I heard quite a bit of grumbling about that when I lived there last year.
Oh no no no no no! There are some of us who live in Seattle proper (I have a 981_ _ ZIP code) who are not blueberry blue. I can see the hospital where I was born from my dining room window: I love the city where I was born but I do not love what it has become. Why should I be dumped into CA?