There has been a lot of talk — including from me in the last Open Thread — about the Seattle City Council doing a lot of great things right now. The budget looks surprisingly good. The $15 minimum wage passed. They’ve also done more symbolic (but still important!) things like opposing the Hyde Amendment.
There are certainly a lot of reasons for this. In some ways it has been building to it for a while; They passed the sick leave/safe leave bill a few years ago; Both candidates for mayor supported the $15 minimum wage. Since the election of a Socialist city wide, the rest of the City Council has to watch their left flank; Sawant has also done a better job holding the line than some other lefty stalwarts on the council before her. Now that there are districts, a lot of the City Council members have a smaller, more accountable, constituency to appease.
But, also the fact that they’re all up for reelection at the same time means they’re all accountable RIGHT NOW. This is democracy working! So this may be a unique moment to get the entire council to follow a more populist agenda than at any time going forward.
There’s a myth that you can’t get anything done in an election year. Maybe that’s true in divided governments or in particularly polarized situations. But in Seattle it certainly hasn’t been the case. Maybe every seat should be up for reelection every 2 years going forward.
“Since the election of a Socialist city wide, the rest of the City Council has to watch their left flank; Sawant has also done a better job holding the line than some other lefty stalwarts on the council before her.”
I couldn’t agree more. Electing someone who is loudly and proudly to the left of the usual liberals — especially one who got the $15/hr wage through — shows we want a more muscular, less corporate-friendly liberalism around here.
Wrong thread
The right has done an excellent job over the past 30+ years of moving the Overton Window, the range of politically acceptable discourse, far to the right. Democrats have gone along with this shift, fearing to be labeled as soft on crime, soft on immigrants, anti-jobs etc.
Liberals need a non-marginal left to shift the window back to at least a centrist position. So, who’s going to start talking up an income tax in Washington State?
Amen, Dr. Hilarius #2. That was one of the things I loved about Mike Lowry. He wasn’t afraid to push for an income tax, to make the system less regressive. Of course, he lost on that, too, dogdamnit. But it’s time for another to tell it like it should be, and run on it. We are dying from severe income inequalities.
@1, @2 – Meanwhile, the Seattle Times tells us Boeing, Ford and Chevron pay their CEOs more than they pay Uncle Sam:
“Boeing, Ford and Chevron are among 29 U.S. companies whose chief executives were compensated more last year than their corporations paid in federal income taxes ….”
http://seattletimes.com/html/b.....esxml.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Does anyone besides me find this outrageous? Meanwhile, Republicans tell us corporations are overtaxed, and want to cut corporate taxes even more!
(Full disclosure: Roger Rabbit owns stock in all three of these greedy tax-dodging companies, because I know a good thing when I see it.)
The City Council used to be up for election every two years, or at least some of the seats. So was the mayor.
http://www.seattle.gov/cityarc.....-1910-1946
Seems that Washington Conservation Voters are hammering on “the press” (probably meaning the Seattle Times) for flogging the petroleum industry’s line that a “clean” (meaning lower-carbon) fuel standard will add a dollar a gallon to the price of gas. The industry, of course, wants to be left to do as it pleases, but the other side may be barking up the wrong cornstalk. If “low-carbon” gas is made by adding ethanol, it’s a net increase in petroleum use. Basically this consists of removing the dirt from under one rug and sweeping it under another.
yes, district elections CAN move the council to the left.
but candidates for the council are needed. it’s less than a year to the filing deadline, any progressive candidates need to be starting up to run NOW.