Rantz: While Mayor Durkan obsesses over Trump, Seattle suffers

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has a Donald Trump obsession and instead of leading the city, she sends out press releases hoping to get the president’s attention. They’re not.

Seattle Police are feeling neglected and unsupported, and their contract is on the verge of being rejected by the city council, but outside of a couple media appearances on a Friday, Durkan isn’t putting up much public pressure.

Trash and human waste is collecting on streets from Belltown to Lake City, and the mayor is mostly silent.

We’re about to be hit with trafficmageddon thanks to the viaduct closure, but rather than push a public message daily, to help mitigate the problems, the mayor is working with her team drafting press releases expressing phony outrage of something Trump said or did, even when it’s impact on the city is negligible.

The latest press release calls out President Trump’s strategic push to end birthright citizenship and Mayor Durkan felt compelled to virtue signal, reminding voters she’s a Progressive via press release.

“President Trump’s new claim that he can unilaterally end the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship is morally and legally bankrupt,” a staffer wrote for Durkan before showing it to the Mayor to sign off. “The President does not have the power to erase, revoke or rewrite our Constitution or the rights it guarantees.”

Mayors, apparently, can circumvent immigration laws with sanctuary cities though. Mayors, apparently, can push forward with legalizing heroin, preying on addicts instead of helping get them off their disastrous, life-ending path. If the Trump administration got involved on these issues, Durkan would send a press release asking him to get out of local issues, though she’ll happily enter the discussion on national ones.

“The President continues to stoke fear of our immigrant and refugee neighbors,” she continued because she really, really wants you to know she’s a Progressive so when someone further to the left challenges her for re-election (Teresa Mosqueda, anyone?), she can point to this statement. “We have the law and justice on our side, and Seattle will continue to stand with all our neighbors in the face of these illegal and unconstitutional proposals.”

I know other people are writing these statements for her, but the mayor seems as obsessed with Trump as Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Indeed, they work together on press releases and press conferences to condemn the president.

This is a transparent tactic — as transparent as Trump. Trump is bringing up birthright citizenship (and the caravan) to change the narrative to immigration right before the mid-term election. That presumably gives Republicans an edge because they’re the party that’s strong on the topic. Polls indicate independents (and some Democrats) care about this issue and folks like Durkan, outside of Seattle, are fringe supporters of porous borders. It lets them bring folks into their cities so they can play white savior to them. It’s offensive, of course, but it shows you that they care.

For Durkan, tackling Trump lets her momentarily ignore the serious problems facing Seattle — problems that Seattleites are fed up with. It’s why so many people are getting more engaged in politics and announcing challenges to incumbent council members. By focusing on Trump, Durkan is attempting to distract the Seattle anger over traffic, homelessness, and police contracts. She dangles the hated president in front of froth-at-the-mouth Progressives so they can stop complaining about the Seattle problems.

It’s a smart strategy, no doubt, if it works. But while she’s busy with that, we still have some serious problems that we’d like solved or addressed publicly. No doubt, Durkan works behind the scenes to pursue some fixes to problems while she publicly criticizes the president, but I think most of us would prefer she talk more publicly about the city she’s supposed to lead. We have plenty of politicians who can poster in front of cameras. How about you focus on Seattle first.

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