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Washington State Voters Double Down on Democrat Destruction
May I add my disgust at the results of Tuesday’s election. I am ashamed to be a resident of the state where the voters vote themselves higher taxes, boondoggle projects that waste their dollars (choo-choo train that 1 percent of the population will ride), essentially disarm their police (after I 940 passes with 60 percent support, police will be regulated to death and almost have to ask the criminal’s permission to respond with deadly force — the initiative curbs police violence!); disarm themselves with gun regulations (I 1639 adds more onerous regulation of legal firearms owned by law-abiding citizens, thus reducing every citizen’s ability to defend himself from the increasing crime, especially in cities); and make all the more certain that more ineffective social programs are coming.
The voters of WA sent an abortion-supporting Pediatrician (!) to Congress, turning Blue a district that has been Red for many years; voted down their loudest voice in the State House against the predations of un-Sound Transit (I wish Mark Harmsworth much luck and prosperity in the rest of his life, and mourn that I do not live in his district), and sent even more D’s to the state legislature. [And the Board of un-Sound Transit is about to give the Capo di Tutti Capi a big raise — on my dime]. I always knew my own district was a lost cause (the ass with the perpetual sneer who is not my “representative” in Congress received 72 percent of the vote) and the entire state is even a bigger lost cause now. Of the ten WA congressional districts, seven are now represented by Democrats.
As expected, the citizens of Seattle voted themselves another huge “families and education levy” that will not improve either families or education (throwing money at problems never solves them). But then, the liberals who tax themselves to death do not care whether they have any effect whatsoever; they just feel so good that they are helping (which they are not).
State voters did do a couple of good things. They emphatically rejected yet another “carbon fee,” which we recognize is really a Carbon Tax, and they made illegal the banning or taxing of particular food products by local jurisdictions (here’s looking at you, Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax).
Well, the citizens of the State of Washington get exactly the government they elect. I just wish I didn’t have to live with what the Democrats vote for.
Originally posted at RushBabe49.com
Published in Elections
I live in Massachusetts; I feel your pain.
Isn’t there a nice mountain range that you can use to divide your state? You can have the wet,socialist side and the dry,freedom side.
Here’s my crazy John Galt idea. We get all the people in Puerto Rico (3.3M) to move to Florida, then we have all the Libertarians move to Puerto Rico! It will be an island paradise. I know it is a bit of a fixer upper after Marie, but that’s why now is the time. Libertarians will get all the benefits of US citizenship without any federal taxes.
I expect to be building a house in WA this year. Can you give me the conservative heads-up and thumbs-down on the political and legislative scene there? On the freedoms and impediments to freedom (and, you know, breathing free) there?
I moved to Seattle in 1985 to attend grad school. At the time it still had some of the feel of a “big little town”. During the 5 years I lived in the city a new phenomenon blew in in a big way. It was ungenerously called “Californication” by the townies.
The idea was that people from the Bay Area and LA were cashing out their homes for big money and moving up to Seattle where they reckoned (correctly) that the quality of life was better, but the cost of living including housing was way lower. Unfortunately, many brought their leftist tendencies with them. They also threw their money at housing which resulted in a boom that bid up housing prices beyond the means of the “old timers” who then found it difficult or undesirable to stay.
By the time I left in 1990 Seattle’s trajectory had veered decidedly leftward, and rather than moderating was still gaining steam. We returned to Western Washington in 1995 and have been here since. The state has only gotten bluer and bluer; I don’t see any end to it. The coup de grace was in 2004 when Christine Gregoire (D) stole the election for governor from Republican Dino Rossi. If you don’t know the story, it’s a hell of a tale of perfidy which I will not recount here. Suffice it to say that King County (Seattle) kept finding new ballots during recounts until the Democrat won, then they stopped counting.
Since then the Democrats have increased in power, and the Republicans have diminished. I am now of the opinion that there will never be another Republican governor or senator from Washington, and there will be fewer and fewer in any office. But what to do? This is our home, and there are many good things about living here; it’s just a good thing we can afford it.
People living in Seattle and paying the high property taxes are being told by their financial advisers that once they retire they will not be able to afford to live there any longer. The conservatives who stay in Seattle/Western Washington do so in spite of the socialist rules they have to live under, for the same reason that people who live in California don’t move. The climate, and the geography. We have, within a two-hour drive, the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound, Lake Washington, and the Cascade Mountains. You can go hiking, biking, bird-watching, or skiing with very little preparation. We get very little in the way of extreme temperatures, and even though the winters are pretty gray, we get little snow and we have lots of evergreen trees to add color year-round. We have few dangerous species of wildlife, either large or small.
I was born and raised in Seattle, but I try to stay out of there as much as possible now. Over at my personal blog, I have done numerous posts extolling the beauty of our surroundings, and others bemoaning how horrible “my” city has become. I agree with @poindexter about the politics. However, we do have a lively group of Ricochetti in the Pacific Northwest, and we get together whenever we can. There is also a Ricochet Group Pacific Northwest Ricochetti, which anyone is invited to join. My husband, @raykujawa, and I have a holiday open house and chili party most years, and everyone who is in the area is invited (I post the invitation here). This year, we will be postponing our party until January, as my company had the gall to schedule our holiday party on the day we would have had ours. And we have to go since my company has been sold so this is our last one.
The roads in PR suck. And the power wasn’t reliable before Marie. I wouldn’t move there.
Hi, RushBabe49 and Poindexter,
I’m basically a Bill of Rights Republican. What I really want is to, without raising the bureaucratic ire of the state or town government, lightly farm and hunt, and for example, sing out loud, very likely the Battle Hymn of the Republic, without undue stress.
We bought a good piece of land 20 years ago near but just outside of an small retirement ocean town, and we now are ready to build. I have a construction company in mind but I have no idea of the regulations and permit processes, or frankly whether I’ll be welcome as a crazy agricultural retiree.
What I want to ask is, where the rubber meets the road, is it possible to do what I have in mind in SW Washington, or do you fully expect WA to be legislating such a life out of existence in the foreseeable future?
Thanks.
Sad. The conservatives in southwestern, central, and eastern Washington will continue to suffer the oppressive rule of the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia corridor.
SEPARATE. SEPARATE. SEPARATE.
But continue posting those cheerleader pics.
Eastern Washington and Oregon need to unite and secede from their current states. Conservatives need to engage in large scale civil disobedience, and the gun grabbing needs to be challenged in federal court, with the new friendly SCOTUS majority.
Yeah, that’s what I said. :)
@flicker, Ocean Shores is a big retirement area. You shouldn’t have too much trouble with permitting, but make sure you are well back from the actual shore, since the threat of earthquakes bringing tsunamis is always present. Port Angeles is a nice small city on the North Olympic Peninsula, just across the Strait of Juan De Fuca from Victoria, BC (where we will be this weekend). I’d find out the contact number for the town you are near and give them a call about permits and other regulations. You shouldn’t have much trouble with the “natives”, since a goodly number are in your same situation. We look forward to having you as a member of our group!
Gee you have ten Congressional reps in DC?
My state of Maryland has eight, and they cannot even stand the one Republican that we can manage to elect with continual gerrymandering to try and eliminate even his seat.
@flicker, @rushbabe49 is correct. Outside of the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia I-5 corridor, things are mostly pretty normal as long as you can stand being in the political minority statewide. Local regulatory conditions vary but since much is controlled by the Democratic state government, land use is highly regulated everywhere. Beware buying properties containing designated wetlands or “critical habitat” for protected species such as the Mazama Pocket Gopher (that little pest is probably not a problem where you’re going). Thinking of using a trap to kill moles or gophers? Think again. Drilling a domestic water well is not as easy as it once was.
I can’t say much about the business climate except it’s tough. We have the “Business and Occupations Tax” which is an awful tax on the gross income of a business, not the net income! On the other hand, getting a general contractor’s license is just a matter of filling out the application, posting a bond, and paying the filing fee.
Good luck, and welcome to our neck of the woods!
In spite of bad governing, it sounds as if you can live with it. Montana is going the way of CA, OR and WA. Thousands of ex-CA are moving to Montana driving up housing prices and changing our conservatives to liberals. Our Rep candidate for Senate yesterday was leading by 2500 votes and all of a sudden, new Dem votes were found and the traitor Tester is still in the Senate. I think a recount should be called, but the Rep candidate has already conceded. Yet, I haven’t found a single person of my acquaintance who voted for Tester.
I’m leaving Washington State as soon as I can. The vote on Tuesday, particularly on 1-1639, signals to me that I am not welcome here, other than as a source of tax revenue to the prevailing regime. They don’t want me, and I don’t want them.
Thankfully, I live in a country that allows me to move to another state where I will be welcomed, where I might feel at home. That is where my future lies.
Think California, 10 years ago. That’s Washington today. Want to know what Washington will be in 5-10 years? Look at California today. If that’s where you want to live, you are welcome to it. I’ll be getting out of your way.
We also have a fairly large population of Libertarians who further exacerbate our problems by taking votes away from Republicans.
Standing in a gun store in western Washington in 1992, an election year, I overheard two men talking about the election. They apparently really disliked, and would not vote for “Bible-thumpers.” Yes, they used that term for religious conservatives.
The Republican party, and conservatism, only rose again to national and state power by the “three legged stool” of national security (including law and order), economic conservatism, and social (read religious) conservatism.
These two fools were sawing a leg off the stool on which they comfortably sat. I guarantee that, if the two men are alive today, they are cheering the state grinding Christians under, with the false conflict of rights and “hate” gambit. And they are bemoaning in the next breath, how it can be that their precious gun rights are being grabbed.
Well, RushBabe. Come to Rush’s home of Missouri where the Republicans outnumber the Democrats 6-2 as U.S. Representatives, and it usually doesn’t matter who the governor is as there is usually close to a veto-proof Republican majority in both state houses. It looks like Washington’s last Republican governor was inaugurated when Jimmy Carter was still president!?! (You would think that citizens would want to shake things up every decade or so just to flush out the corruption.)
Ballot initiatives are what is going destroy Missouri through gerrymandering, forced union dues, increased minimum wage, etc.
On Tuesday, Missourian voted to approve “marijuana for medical purposes” with Amendment 2 but twice rejected “marijuana for medical purposes” with Amendment 3 and Proposition C.
https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_2018_ballot_measures
I think New Hampshire and Vermont are the only states less religious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_religiosity
Five of the six New England states are less religious by another measure.
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2017/10/26/americas-most-and-least-religious-states/5/
RB and Poindexter have covered what I would state. It is absolutely nuts around here.
There’s a whole bunch I could write about but will spare you all. We are staying to be close to our aging parents. (I shudder to think of their driving in Seattle traffic to get to their appointments)
We really should have a Seattle/Washington State meet up soon to commisorate.