Former progressive legislator Brendan Williams says, in The Inevitable Republican Coup and Its Inevitable Silver Lining, that the Democrats’ embracing of Rodney Tom a few years go had a predictable outcome: his turning on them the way the scorpion turned on the frog.
By rejecting the man [Rodney] Tom refers affectionately to as “Rob†[McKenna], Washington voters made it clear that after decades of Democratic governors they still want to chart a progressive course. The actions of Tom and Sheldon are, quite simply, aimed at invalidating the election. Every eight years the frog gets a chance to drown the scorpion. Will we take it? …
We were told an all-cuts bipartisan budget was equivalent to the moon landing! We heard the safety net was saved and the budget “spectacularâ€! We read education and higher education were, by not being cut further in a supplemental budget, saved!
Meanwhile, in truth, the safety net was gutted; the state workforce was cut to a degree greater than any other state; and education funding plummeted while tuition rates soared.
Perhaps the Democrats would reply: “if we didn’t go along with the Tim Eyman-inspired budget cutting, anti-tax mentality, we’d get booted out of office. Blame the misguided voters, who consistently vote almost two to one against income taxes and for 2/3 super-majority initiatives.!” After all, 64.5% of Washington voters approved Eyman’s I-1185 this year: see
Washington Two-Thirds Vote Required to Raise Taxes, Initiative 1185 (2012)
I think Gov. Gregoire should now be using her soapbox to educate the public about these issues. She’s called for new revenue but needs to be louder about it.
Governor-elect Inslee has vowed not to raise revenue.
The Left in Washington State needs to mount a concerted effort to educate the public about how they’re getting screwed by the regressive tax system. The voters’ ignorance is the fundamental problem.
There also should be a cleaning of house in the Democratic Party, in which progressives kick out the DINOs (Democrats in name only). But such a battle would be difficult, because ex-Republicans and “centrist” Dems abound, and some of them are quite good on women’s rights, gay rights, and the environment.