Dori: Carols at the Capitol canceled because our governor couldn’t stand up to extremist groups

We simply cannot have anything nice around here.

Did your parents ever tell you that as a kid when you broke something? Well, I’m telling it to the people of Washington state — we cannot have anything nice here. Why is that? It is because of an abject lack of leadership.

On Saturday afternoon, there was a beautiful event in Olympia called Carols at the Capitol. This is an event where adult and school choirs that have been rehearsing for months perform Christmas songs in the rotunda at the Washington State Capitol. A good choir has plenty of opportunities to sing this time of year, so they cancel other opportunities to appear here because it’s an honor. As much as there is chaos at our state capitol because of our politicians, the state capitol building itself is beautiful and historic. You do get a sense of majesty when you walk in — especially if choirs are in the midst of song. It’s a lovely way to kick off the Christmas season.

But we can’t have nice things anymore. A local Antifa group heard that extreme right-wing group Patriot Prayer was going to be in Olympia this past weekend. So they called an event to “stand against Nazis in Olympia.”

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And so what happened to the beautiful event, Carols at the Capitol? It was cancelled. About a half-hour before the event was supposed to start, the Carols at the Capitol organizers were told that their safety couldn’t be ensured because there would be skirmishes between these two extremist political groups.

If we had a real governor — instead of this guy who is going through the motions because he is so disappointed he is no longer in the presidential race — they would have protected the rights of all of these people who came from far and wide to spread holiday cheer. We could have provided a lineup of cops so that people could safely get into the capitol and experience the uplifting music.

But once again, as we tend to do, we chose to let the inmates run the asylum. We let the radical groups take control. For most of us living somewhere in the middle of these radical extremes, these groups do not represent us. And they are choking the life out of everything that is noble and pure and beautiful. I hear that Jay Inslee is getting a hip replacement this week. I don’t care. You’re still the governor. If you’ve got to call in the National Guard so that the choirs can get to their event at the state capitol, then you should do so. Go in and crack down on extremist groups.

We have lost all sense of goodness around here. We can blame Antifa, we can blame Patriot Prayer, but I blame Jay Inslee. I blame politicians who are not able to stand up for what is good and right and decent because they are so passionate about pandering to the lunatic fringe.

This is the kind of event my wife and I would have taken our daughters to when they were children. We loved going to family Christmas events. And we loved showing them their state capitol; we wanted them to see the process of government from the inside, warts and all. I don’t hate the government. But I hate the cowardice of politicians who turned over the state capitol campus to radical groups on Saturday, at the expense of local musical groups. For shame.

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