JASON RANTZ

Rantz: Vote like the future of Seattle is on the line — because it is

Nov 1, 2021, 6:00 PM

Seattle, voters...

From left to right: Lorena Gonzalez (AP photo); Teresa Mosqueda (KIRO Radio file photo); Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (campaign photo); Nikkita Oliver (campaign photo)

(campaign photo)

The city of Seattle is at a crossroads. Voters on Tuesday will decide if the city will course correct or continue the deadly embrace of police abolition and lawlessness.

The current slate of candidates is the most extreme and partisan Seattle has ever experienced.

Mayoral candidate Lorena Gonzalez wants to defund the police by 50%, even though previous cuts resulted in skyrocketing and historic homicides. City Council candidate Nikkita Oliver is a police abolitionist who wants to fully cut the Seattle Police Department’s budget. Council incumbent Teresa Mosqueda says we must “dismantle” the police department. Seattle City Attorney candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy doesn’t just want to abolish jail and prisons, she says she will refuse to prosecute most misdemeanor crimes.

They’re not just anti-police, they’re anti-business. They abhor capitalism, blaming “big business” for every issue facing the city. They don’t dare look at their policies. These are ideologues who are blinded by their beliefs. Some are in denial about the state of Seattle, while others don’t seem to care. They justify short-term misery for long-term ideological gain. But the misery isn’t short-term.

Seattle may never be the same

If these extremists take over, Seattle will never be the same.

Activists, of course, will say that’s the very point. They want to fundamentally change Seattle — a city they claim oppresses people of color, marginalizing already-marginalized communities. How bizarre: The very activists making this claim have been running the city directly or indirectly.

What’s come of the city’s embrace of far-left progressive and socialist policies? Homicides just hit a 26-year record high. Small businesses are struggling to stay open with high taxes. Rents are still high. Homelessness has engulfed neighborhoods in this city. Prolific offenders are allowed endless chances for help that they refuse, only to return to crime, creating more victims along the way.

Who is responsible? Progressives aren’t to blame for their own mess?

The reality

Activists sometimes oddly blame big business — as if they have any champions on the Seattle City Council. I hear “right-wing media” thrown around a lot. Other than KTTH, there is no local conservative media alternative that people listen to or read.

Every once in a while, activists claim it’s the conservative influence of Seattle, but they view anyone right of Kshama Sawant to be a conservative. There are just about 17 conservatives in Seattle. We don’t have the power to change elections. Democrats do. And what have they done with their power? They keep voting in candidates more extreme than the last, hoping that their ideas will suddenly work.

When will they realize their obscenely left-ward drift — so far to the left we’re now in socialist and abolitionist territory — is hurting the city?

End the delusion

When will they realize their promises to help minority communities have resulted in those communities being less safe? Defunding police hurts Black neighborhoods. It’s not police shooting and killing Black Seattleites.

When you take police out of those areas, you increase the chances of its residents being victims of crimes. Black voters generally don’t want to defund the police. Perhaps the mostly white activists and politicians speaking on behalf of the Black community should first speak to members of the Black community.

Reading a Robin DiAngelo book doesn’t make you woke; it makes you ignorant and dangerous.

Want to know what a true anti-business environment does to Seattle? Give it a few more years. Amazon is very clearly growing elsewhere, likely taking with them the very wealthy tax base activists use to fund programs that haven’t worked. And those who stay in Seattle but commute to Bellevue to work for Amazon will spend less of their money in local retail and restaurants.

Take a walk through South Lake Union and downtown Seattle and you’ll spot closed businesses that thrived when Amazon had employees at the office. The ones remaining are struggling.

Vote like Seattle depends on it

Voters have a very clear choice. They can’t escape this vote hoping that a progressive politician will moderate some once in office.

There’s no moderating Gonzalez, Oliver, Mosqueda, or Thomas-Kennedy. They do not hide who they are or what they believe. They embrace their political identities and think it’s in line with Seattle voters. Maybe it is? As a conservative, I’m obviously an outlier in Seattle. But are Seattle Democrats so far to the left they’re willing to put up with anyone who identifies as the most extreme progressive? How can they look at what this city has become and think this is a world-class city on the right track?

I certainly hope that Democrats realize what their past decisions have done. At some point, they have to course correct. Nov. 2 is their chance. They have reasonable, viable candidates to vote for.

Seattleites must vote like their city depends on it. Because it does.

Did you like this opinion piece? Then listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz  on  Twitter,  Instagram, and Parler, and like me on Facebook

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Rantz: Vote like the future of Seattle is on the line — because it is