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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Or do the Powers That Be (Savage? Keck?) have veto authority, a la Frank Blethen and the Seattle Times' infamous 2000 endorsement of George W Bush?
You most likely conflated individual median income with household median income in this post.
The notion that Capitol Hill is a "working class" neighborhood falls somewhere between risible and offensive.
Speaking of hiding, how come Jess Spear doesn't have any real biographical information anywhere? If she's supposed to be so in tune with the 43rd, how come she wasn't registered to vote until 2011, and that in the 46th, not the 43rd?
You nitwits WANT to get steamrollered.
I know I sound like an uneducated debutante trying to use big words...I'm just trying my best to sound sincere about a serious concern, while submitting a comment to a website that I love, but also has a regular feature called drunk of the week. Thanks.
Oh no, he does not have enough panache!
Maybe because instead of putting on a loud show and dance of his progressive cred, he was actually working and passing legislation. You know, the thing a legislator does.
That's a POV from young people which is interesting but ...young.
And btw, which asshole pulled my comments on Ansel's Barton Scam Foreclosure post? They were totally polite.
The house of representatives isn't getting "steamrolled" by anyone but Frank Chopp. The house is under complete control by the democrats -- 55 democrats to 43 republicans.
Many democrats have been extremely frustrated with Chopp for blocking any and all remotely progressive measures. Another pot example -- he blocked decriminalization (not even legalization) of marijuana for years even though it was extremely popular. He's not just to the right of states like Oregon and California, he's to the right of Maryland, Ohio, Nebraska, and Mississippi -- other states that decriminalized marijuana.
And I'd like to know why my @3 was cut from this post:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
Spear is not a fighter. The fact that you people think she is shows just how ignorant you are. You know who's a fighter? These assholes: http://houserepublicans.wa.gov/our-membe… (sample: Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, is the guy who suggested that bikes emit more CO2 than cars because the riders are breathing harder).
And these assholes: http://src.wastateleg.org/senators/ (sample: Pam Roach, R-Auburn is the gal who pulled a gun on a fellow Republican in the Senate offices)
Jess Spear is a fighter? Jess Spear vs. Don Motherfucking Benton isn't even going to leave a wet spot on the pavement.
Frank Chopp is a fighter. Ask any Republican in Olympia -- they HATE him, because he's effective. They love Jess Spear though. I'll bet most of her money is coming from them.
And the SECB has always been open to any staffer willing and able to take the time to take an issue seriously. Not all of us are able to do this at any one time, due to putting out a blog and a weekly paper and an arts quarterly. It's an imperfect system, but it's one we've used for as long as I've been here, and it's mostly worked. When there are disagreements—and there are disagreements—we want to let our readers know about it, and that's what we've done here. This post is part of the whole SECB system.
I think that the idea that Chopp is a more effective fighter than Spear is ridiculous. As the article says, Jess helped lead the 15 Now campaign, which showed how a well-organized movement can win for working people. I think this is an important lesson, and one that Jess Spear should definitely take to Olympia. Chopp has, at best, made sure that things are not worse than they are, but its still a fact that WA state has the most regressive taxation, the biggest state handout in history, surging tuition fees, etc. Chopp isn't inspiring, and he's never going to be able to rally people to achieve progress in the same way Jess has.
Spear just organizes successful grassroots movements for $15/hr, studies climate change, and defends disabled veterans from eviction. What a slacker.
"[W]e watch our iced coffee turn into congealed milk-flavored water and daydream about the supreme court actually throwing all these scofflaws behind bars," they wrote.
Chopp is the Head Scofflaw in Charge. I don't know if he deserves to be thrown in prison, but he certainly deserves to be voted out of office.
Reckonings; A Rent Affair
By PAUL KRUGMAN
the New York Times
Economists who have ventured into the alleged real world often quote Princeton's Alan Blinder, who has formulated what he calls ''Murphy's Law of economic policy'': ''Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most and are most agreed; they have the most influence on policy where they know the least and disagree most vehemently.'' It's flip and cynical, but it's true.
Consider, on one side, really tough issues -- where there are plausible arguments on both sides, where nobody really knows how to measure the tradeoffs. Should Microsoft be broken up and, if so, how? Should Britain adopt the euro? Let's ask the economists! And those economists who are prepared to express strong opinions on such inherently ambiguous questions command rapt attention.
On the other side, consider an article that appeared in yesterday's New York Times, ''In San Francisco, Renters Are Supplicants.'' It was an interesting piece, with its tales of would-be renters spending months pounding the pavements, of dozens of desperate applicants arriving at a newly offered apartment, trying to impress the landlord with their credentials. And yet there was something crucial missing -- specifically, two words I knew had to be part of the story.
Not that I have any special knowledge about San Francisco's housing market -- in fact, as of yesterday morning I didn't know a thing about it. But it was immediately obvious from the story what was going on. To an economist, or for that matter a freshman who has taken Economics 101, everything about that story fairly screamed those two words -- which are, of course, ''rent control.''
After all, the sort of landlord behavior described in the article -- demanding that prospective tenants supply resumes and credit reports, that they dress nicely and act enthusiastic -- doesn't happen in uncontrolled housing markets. Landlords don't want groveling -- they would rather have money. In uncontrolled markets the question of who gets an apartment is settled quickly by the question of who is able and willing to pay the most. And so I had no doubts about what I would find after a bit of checking -- namely, that San Francisco is a city where a technology-fueled housing boom has collided with a draconian rent-control law.
The analysis of rent control is among the best-understood issues in all of economics, and -- among economists, anyway -- one of the least controversial. In 1992 a poll of the American Economic Association found 93 percent of its members agreeing that ''a ceiling on rents reduces the quality and quantity of housing.'' Almost every freshman-level textbook contains a case study on rent control, using its known adverse side effects to illustrate the principles of supply and demand. Sky-high rents on uncontrolled apartments, because desperate renters have nowhere to go -- and the absence of new apartment construction, despite those high rents, because landlords fear that controls will be extended? Predictable. Bitter relations between tenants and landlords, with an arms race between ever-more ingenious strategies to force tenants out -- what yesterday's article oddly described as ''free-market horror stories'' -- and constantly proliferating regulations designed to block those strategies? Predictable.
And as for the way rent control sets people against one another -- the executive director of San Francisco's Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board has remarked that ''there doesn't seem to be anyone in this town who can trust anyone else in this town, including their own grandparents'' -- that's predictable, too.
None of this says that ending rent control is an easy decision. Still, surely it is worth knowing that the pathologies of San Francisco's housing market are right out of the textbook, that they are exactly what supply-and-demand analysis predicts.
But people literally don't want to know. A few months ago, when a San Francisco official proposed a study of the city's housing crisis, there was a firestorm of opposition from tenant-advocacy groups. They argued that even to study the situation was a step on the road to ending rent control -- and they may well have been right, because studying the issue might lead to a recognition of the obvious.
So now you know why economists are useless: when they actually do understand something, people don't want to hear about it.
How many of your progressive dreams, like rent control or an income tax, are illegal? Do you know WHY they are illegal?
The progressive legislation you want is never going to happen. Not unless Washington is able to pull a California and drive the Republicans out and build an unassailable supermajority. Jess Spear is never going to do that. No one's even going to listen to her. Why would they?
Electing Jess Spear would be what's called in soccer an "own goal".
If it ever gets here....
"studies climate change"
Is that like being a 'deacon' to the loony left?
"and defends disabled veterans from eviction."
The vet who owned his inherited home outright and turned into into a half million dollar ATM? That Vet?
You have no idea about Krugman.
He is one of the running dog lackeys of the capitalist imperialist pigs.
Of course he is against rent control.
Spear is for The People and knows much more than Krugman about economics.
(Joking.)
Tim Keck got behind Kshama, it seems, because it was "the cool thing to do". Once she got into office and proved truly effective on the minimum wage issue, Stranger support faltered, to put it mildly. Your readers actually believed in the politics.
Now that Jess is running, good on these writers for standing up to what they believe in, which isn't a politician well seasoned in "how Olympia works" i.e. cuts to the poor, largest corporate tax giveaways in US history.
Why did was @3 cut from this post:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
Sincere question. My @3 was a polite though pointed criticism of Ansel's "reporting."
Please explain the boundaries of "trolling" and "inappropriate" comments.
Paul, since you're obviously engaging with the commenters on this post, can you shed light on how you, Bethany, Brendan, Ansel and Charles factor this rent control idiocy into your endorsement of Spear? I'm finding myself unable to look past it.
I'd really be interested to know how you're hoping to achieve anything with this strategy.
The RepubliKKKans realize this, which is why they live in total terror of the Tea Party. They may be absolutely horrid, but they're incredibly effective--something that cannot be said of 99% of the Demonrats.
Elect people that actually inspire and put forth an agenda most voters support--that's REAL leadership.
Kshama during the Seattle race last year was the first to campaign for $15 / hour minimum wage, and Murray and others followed after; under the impact of Kshama and her campaign (which Jess was volunteer organizer for btw). This is together with the SeaTac campaign and the fast food workers. And then the launch of 15 Now, setting up action groups across the city, the big demonstration (organized together with labor), the 15 Now conference all kept the pressure on. And it's come out now that the 15 Now charter amendment had a huge impact on all involved, and helped to push the minimum wage change forward. To argue it didn't play an important role is just bizarre.
In comparison, before Frank Chopp was elected to the state house, he worked in HR and as an administrator for nonprofits.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/952636…
I have asked this before and I will ask it again. Who will Spear caucus with in Olympia? You cannot get anything done in a caucus of one person. I have a hard time believing she knows anything about the legislative process and I can't wait to see Chopp back in Olympia next year.
We got marriage equality in Washington largely due to the persistent efforts of Murray and Pederesen. (That and the tide of history finally coming in.)
But, quite sadly, the 3 reps from from the 43rd have rarely advanced truly progressive issues in Oly.
Yes, Chopp has been solid and successful on housing and health care. At the same time, for example, he's been totally MIA or actively hostile to drug policy and criminal justice reform, which his district supports by a huge margin.
Chopp has even worked to undermine the campaigns of progressives running for office in other districts.
I'm not sure I want him to lose, but I do want to scare the shit out of him.
It's ridiculous that Seattle (other districts included) is represented by such milquetoasts.
Show me how Jess Spear can do work up in Olympia. I am not blindly convinced, neither was The Stranger and you shouldn't be either.
Let me also mention that the Legislature is slow moving like molasses. We have a Senate that is currently Republican blocked, with a Progressive Speaker in the House-Speaker Chopp. If you want to see something get done, vote for Democrats in the SENATE and the HOUSE. One person, specifically Jess Spear will not change that. Especially as unprepared as she is. There is no "clout" involved. Chopp has the chops to get it done.
Vote Chopp.
The state Legislature isn't anything like the City Council. You can't elect a single socialist with all of their fiery messaging and expect it to get anywhere. Kshama was able to work her magic because she was in *Seattle* and on a council with eight other democrats. The Legislature operates on building votes, on strategy, on crossing the aisle, and on not alienating voters or other legislatures. Jess Spear has shown she has no comprehension of that work, when she says she won't just wait for some "magical number" of votes to get something passed. Did she skip Civics 101?
That these writers called Frank a lazy incumbent shows how out of touch they are with the workings of state politics--laughably so. He is one of the hardest working elected officials in our state, and it's only because of him that many social programs survived the recession.
It's also a joke to imply in any way that our regressive tax structure was developed under his leadership. Our tax structure is so regressive in part because it's 100 years old. It's creaky and out of date. But don't pin that on Chopp.
The Spear article repeats the bare half-sentence that is all anyone knows about her climate change science work. When did it take place? At the Burke? Is there anybody at the Burke who remembers her? It can't have been for very long, because she hasn't been in the state very long.
But to describe Chopp's resume as "HR and administration" is just, just, so profoundly dishonest I can't even believe I'm seeing it.
Frank started two unions! He founded the Low Income Housing Institute. He founded Seattle Personal Transit (google "paratransit", you little weasel). He led the fight against the RH Thomson and West Seattle Freeways. He ran the Seattle Low-Income Housing Levy campaign. He is the reason that much of the old Sand Point Naval Station is now devoted to hundreds of units of housing for the homeless. He pretty much created the network of food banks in this city. He also created the biggest domestic violence shelter in the state, which is still going strong after more than 30 years. He started the Home Care program in this state.
The last time the state of Washington raised the minimum wage, Frank ran the initiative campaign.
You won't find a single person involved in literally any aspect of social services in the state of Washington who isn't aware of what Frank has done to further their work.
In contrast, you won't find a single person involved in literally any aspect of social services in the state of Washington who has ever heard jack about Jess Spear and her idiot organization, which claims much but has accomplished nothing.
Take for eg the Dream / real hope act, which is what i think you're referencing when you say that "Immigrant students can afford higher ed because of Chopp". This act means that undocumented students can apply for the Student Needs Grant for higher education in WA state. The only problem is, even before it passed, it was oversubscribed, and 30,000 eligible students missed out on help. When it was passed out of the state house (ie out of Chopps realm of influence), it didn't include any extra funding to make sure present or additional student applicants would be able to get the help they're entitled to. The republican-dominated Senate added $5 million of funding. I really don't understand why the Republicans can find that money to add, but Chopp and the State House couldn't?
I think it's great that undocumented students can apply for help from this fund. I think it's a disgrace that eligible students from whatever background will miss out; it's a shame that Chopp did less than the Republicans to solve this.
And @40 hasn't read the article.
The 43rd District Democrats weren't any more interested in her bullshit than the SECB members who actually showed up were. They endorsed Chopp. Don't like it? Anyone who lives in the 43rd can go to those meetings. Spear wants it handed to her; she doesn't want to work for it.
Plans for the RH Thomson expressway were abandoned by city officials in 1967, when Frank Chopp was 14 years old.
No way that Chopp led fight against RH Thomson.
That's absurd.
You are way over the top to make a statement like that.
It just ain's so.
He may have been a supporter but led it? Baloney.
Please don't start ignoring facts the way Ansel does.
I suggest you back off on your "Chopp led fight against RH Thomson".
Or document it in some way.
She's a climate scientist who studied microfossils called “foraminifera” at the University of Washington."
^ Citation needed
I've tried to research her academic background (since, you know, she hasn't posted a CV anywhere) and know she earned her Master's at U of South Florida. However, the only connection she has to U of Washington is that she worked at the Burke Museum (located on the U of Washington campus) but they're not affiliated anymore than all the Stranger Writers who've been there for a few years (a fairly low percentage of hires, we know) worked at Velo Bike Shop.
Just the year before, Chopp graduated first in his class at his hometown Bremerton High School. By 1972 he had already become a public servant, starting a term as City of Kent planning commissioner while studying at UW.
How can we measure how much Citizens Against the RH Thomson Freeway may have valued Chopp's efforts toward their 1972 victory?
Well, the org invited him to join its board right afterward. I suppose that suggests they valued him pretty highly. That same year he became coordinator for Citizens for an Alternative to the West Seattle Freeway, too. http://www.sos.wa.gov/legacyproject/Hist…
But Tom, read the whole thing:
"By 1967, when city officials abandoned plans for the Thomson Freeway-Interstate 90 interchange, it was apparent that no full-scale highway would be build along the Thomson corridor."
There were so many people who fought the battle starting much earlier than 1972...obviously as far back as 1964-65. It is both inaccurate and insulting for Chopp to claim that he had had "led" it. Most prominent from what I read is a Maynard Arsove who is pictured as founder of CARHT.
http://gatetonowhere.org/1960s-activism/
Fnarf really should get on top of this issue or else he will make Chopp (or is Fnarf = Chopp?) look like a fool.
If Chopp has actually made the claim claim that he "led the fight against the RH Thomson" as expressed @44, he's a liar.
I am getting annoyed with his over-the-top lying about Chopp doing this and doing that.
I don't know much about other stuff Fnarf claims but it's obvious that Chopp did not stop the Thomson.
God knows what other lies Fnarf has in his list.
As for @33, I'll ask what do you hope to accomplish with YOUR "strategy" of ditching the best people in the legislature and voting for shrill unfocused nothings like Spear, who will make "principled" stands in front of an empty chamber that never even get written down?
Here's some more items. I don't work for the Chopp campaign but I'm sure they have many more: The Predatory Lenders bill? The Foreclosure Fairness Act of 2011? Do you want Disability Lifeline to go away? Frank saved it. Do you want the Basic Health Plan to go away? Frank saved it. 28,000 additional families getting food stamps -- that's Frank. TANF? Frank saved it. The Voting Rights Restoration Act of 2012?
Now you really are lying or exaggerating or misrepresenting the RH Thomson.
You just don't know.
Read a bit and learn.
Thx Tom for the very interesting link though not sure why you sent it with regard to Chopp.
The paper illustrates further that at most Chopp MAY have been involved in some way at some time in the process but I don't see his name at all in that paper even once.
If Fnarf is "mis-remembering" to state that (paraphrasing) "Chopp stopped the RH Thomson" or "Lead the fight against the RH Thomson" then he is wrong wrong wrong.
It's just bogus. Read the paper.
I'll retract "led the fight to block the RH Thomson". I pulled this from a misreading of "board of CARHT", which is absolutely true, in the process of pulling together just a few of the many, many accomplishments of Frank Chopp. I don't work for the campaign. I don't work for ANY campaign. I keep reading inanities like "oh, he's just an HR administrator", which is FUCKING RIDICULOUS, so I've taken the time to rebut it. I overstepped on ONE ITEM. Sorry. I'm working fast here.
You on the other hand have never contributed anything to anything, so you can fuck right the fuck off. Read and learn? I've forgotten more about this city than you will ever know.
Now, about those hundred other things I mentioned, who wants to take a crack at those? Good luck. The fact is Frank Chopp has contributed more to social justice and public policy than pretty much any other single person in this state, and he's been doing it for forty years. Jess Spear hasn't even lived in this state for four.
What about HER resume, BTW? I still haven't seen much. She went to school in Florida. She worked at the Burke, for what, a year? A month? Nobody knows. Who endorses her, besides the SA brownshirts and her buddy Sawant? Certainly not working people; the unions support Frank, because they know who's on their side.
Hey Fnarf, your reaction is intemperate and, really, silly. "Fuckface." What is that all about. Don't be a jerk.
You should back off on your grandiose claims for Chopp (or document them in detail). Otherwise your boy Chopp will look like a clown, as you do right now.
My advice: it would have been better for you to offer a simple "Gee, I was wrong" rather than carry on with your pompous bullshit.
Sheesh. I am disappointed in you, Fnarf. Or Chopp.
I dare you: ask ANYONE involved in social justice or public policy what they think of Frank. They'll be even more effusive than I am. The people who do the work know who he is and what he has done. The people like you who check in every few years because you saw a sign and noticed a gal yelling into a megaphone don't know anything.
Maybe that's partly Frank's fault. Maybe he should blow his own horn more. It would hurt him in his legislative work, but maybe it would get uninformed boobs like you to notice.
You are a fool.
The fight against the RH Thomson is legendary. I didn't seek out information on it to discredit you, I knew immediately that Chopp was too young to be heavily involved with it (unlike Jean Godden).
Do you work in the Chopp organization in some capacity?
His campaign? The legislature? Whatever he does?
I, too, would like to know why you think the city would be better off without the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge.
The short answer is:
Jess Spear would meet with anybody and any group if it helped the 99% in struggle.
However the main -- and historic -- role she would play would be in building, leading and inspiring the mass movements of the 99%.
And the long answer:
Well, how did Kshama Sawant, Jess Spear, Socialist Alternative and $15Now become a driving force in the magnificent, largely-victorious Seattle $15 fight?
Not by kneeling before some retrogressives-who-pretend-to-be-progressives in Seattle city council.
Instead, by helping to create and give leadership to a mass movement fighting for it!
Even though Kshama is the sole socialist in the Seattle city council, she, $15Now, the low-waged workers and the workers' movement imposed their agenda on the mayor, the corporations and their council cronies.
So much so that said cronies had no choice but to pass $15 into law.
A magnificent victory! -- even though the cronies did manage to claw back some carve-outs for their corporate masters.
An invaluable lesson: Create mass movements, and we can fight the capitalists and win better living conditions!
That's precisely the approach Jess Spear will take if she unseats Boeing's $8.7Billion bagman Frank Chopp -- with your help.
Just as Kshama did in Seattle city council, Jess would use her legislature position as a platform, a megaphone, a bullypulpit, to help build and lead mass movements to fight for our class, the working class, the 99%.
Let's consider winning a $15 minimum wage throughout WA:
Don't be fooled by the Democrat leader liars when they say "Ooh! -- if not for those rotten Republicans we'd have passed a WA-wide minimum wage ages ago!"
That's mere hypocritical cant -- Frank Chopp has never presented even his anemic $12 minimum-wage proposal to the vote in the WA legislature.
Whereas Jess Spear in the WA legislature, with mass movements for $15Now blossoming, will very likely be able to force the Republicans and Democrats there to pass a WA-wide $15 minimum-wage law.
Just as Kshama was able to in Seattle city council.
Suppose millions of workers supporting $15Now surrounded the WA legislature to demand the passing of a WA-wide minimum-wage law.
Only those capitalist legislators contemplating political suicide would then oppose it, at least openly.
The Democratic and Republican parties are both capitalist parties, parties of the 1%.
They both bailed out the banksters -- to the tune of over $1 Trillion.
They both have murdered dozens of children via drone bomb.
They both have funded to the hilt ($3Billion last year) Israel's blood-soaked rampages.
No bailouts for you and me, though.
No funding for Detroit.
Heck, there they're even trying to deny our low-waged sisters and brothers water. Water, the liquid of life.
The Democrats are the lesser evil?
That's all nonsense.
Sure, the Republicans are evil.
The Democrats are the more effective evil.
(I mean the leaderships of both those parties, of course -- certainly not their rank-and-file members who are merely working-class fish trapped in a capitalist gill-net!)
:)
If you're working-class, one of the 99%, then it's mere silly treason to vote for a Democrat or Republican -- especially when there's a workers' candidate, on a worker's wage, running: Jess Spear!
So you don't agree with Jess Spear on everything, or even on anything?
Well, as far as voting for Jess Spear is concerned, any disagreements you might have with her are completely irrelevant.
If you're one of the 99% you're honor-bound to vote for Jess Spear.
Vote with your class, for your class!
As for disagreements, discuss them with Jess, with Kshama, with their sisters and brothers.
That way we can all learn from one another.
And most importantly, make Socialist Alternative and $15Now your very own party -- join it, build it, influence it.
http://www.socialistalternative.org/
http://15now.org/
Dump the Elephant, Dump the Ass! Build a Party of the Working Class!
Sweet Jesus, you people really need to work on learning how to write things that aren't manifestos
I don't think that "Socialistworld" is for real.
It is one of those false-flag operations -- done by Fnarf? -- to try to make Spear look stupid.
I guess you're saying it's easier to vote for Spear if you believe in some false-flag theories?
God no.
I was joking that the socialist was too dumb to believe.
Better re-read again, Senor late-to-the-party.
Go back to @14 where I praise Fnarf.
Plus, Fnarf already mis-represented (I am kind) Chopp's past experience (mostly committee work so he could pad his resume is what it looks like) and made both Chopp and himself look like clowns.
Did you guys videotape the interviews? Why not put them up on YouTube so people can see how the candidates did?
I am sure that Chopp is a good organization man, good on committees and terrific at padding his resume -- it does look impressive!
But has anyone ever heard Chopp SAY anything of interest? Of wisdom? Showing the way forward to a better world?
Fnarf has barfed up SO much about how great Chopp so now I am wondering about the guy. Does Chopp have any substance? Or is he just one of the characters out of Oz? Yes, I know he is a big-shot elected official. But if you stuck a pin in him would he just deflate? Does he have any substance? I don't know. I was FOR Chopp but Fnarf has by his over-the-top rhetoric made me take a second look.
My advice to Spear would be to focus on Chopp. Who is he? What has he actually done AND said? Words are an important part of being a politician -- has Chopp ever said anything worth repeating? (But Spear, cut the BS sloganeering. Voters will laugh at that crap.)
Your class? Dude, I'm in the 99%. Household income close to $150,000 a year, $600K house, same in savings. You think I'm in it with you?
This has to be the first time anyone has ever said of a politician, "sure, he's done a whole bunch of stuff, but has he ever said anything for us?"
Here are the points again, in summary for possible ease of comprehension:
(1) As a member of the working class, of the 99%, don't vote for a party of the capitalist class, of the 1% -- especially not when a workers' candidate, on a worker's wage, is running: JESS SPEAR of Socialist Alternative and $15Now.
(2) "But-but-but I don't agree with Jess Spear on 'Policy XYZ'!!!" (insert favorite excuse here):
That's irrelevant to your duty to vote with your class, for your class.
Don't be a strike-breaking scab.
Political disagreements are a learning opportunity for everybody, so discuss those with Jess Spear, with Kshama Sawant, with their sisters and brothers.
(3) "But-but-but Frank Chopp is 'Mother' Teresa and 'Mahatma' Gandhi rolled into one!":
Nonsense.
Frank Chopp failed to put even his $12 minimum-wage proposal to the WA house vote.
He gave Boeing $8.7Billion.
(4) "But-but-but Jess Spear would then be the sole socialist in the WA legislature! How could she possibly be effective? Won't she be devoured alive by her rabid-wolf capitalist legislator colleagues?":
Stop worrying -- Jess Spear is made of sterner stuff than they.
Jess's election victory would resound throughout the world, enthusing workers everywhere to take the battle to "their" oppressor governments.
Just like Kshama Sawant in Seattle city council, Jess would use her legislature position as a platform, a megaphone, a bullypulpit, to help build and lead mass movements to fight for our class, the working class, the 99%.
When we fight, we can win!
Dump the Elephant, Dump the Ass! Build a Party of the Working Class!
Hey! Fnarf!
Stop kidding around with this anti-Spear stuff.
Just not fair to make Spear look silly.
He's been a conservative force for the past decade, leading the vote time and again for big business tax cuts and putting pressure on labor unions.
Fuck Frank Chopp. He's a DINO.
Of course you're in the working class -- everyone who works is, by definition.
Don't believe in the capitalist liars' socio-babble where they try to divide us by telling us we're "lower class", "middle class", "upper class" or any other such gibberish.
A social class is a collection of individuals in society who have a unique and specific relationship to the means of production.
You, I and the 99% sell our labor-power.
We're the working class.
The capitalist class owns the means of production -- which includes their owning us, as a class.
They're the ruling class.
But only until we, the 7 billion throughout the planet, throw them off our shoulders.
Dump the Elephant, Dump the Ass! Build a Party of the Working Class!
Your rigid binary is ridiculously simplistic. What about full-time employees with company pension plans (they do still exist) coming from a fund which holds a range of investments including shares in publicly traded companies? What about a small business owner who works 60+ hours a week in the shop she owns, who also employs five other people?
Black and white thinking is great for writing snappy slogans but is useless as a tool for enacting good public policy that actually works in the real world.
No, like I said before, you have an extensive history as a conservative troll. Anything you say, has to be viewed with that in mind. And then be quickly forgotten or ignored.
I think the shift in Chopp's policies can be explained entirely by the demographic shift of the people he represents-- the 43rd today is whiter and a hell of a lot wealthier than it was three decades ago.
If having a more progressive representative is really important to you, you might consider moving to a district whose citizens have interests more in line with progressive policies.
Regardless, what you say is basically acknowledging that I and other anti-Chopp advocates are correct, in that Chopp has gotten more conservative and in line with big business policies. Instead of the progressives moving to districts with more progressive representation, progressives should stay where they are and vote in a truly progressive candidate, and oust the one that's merely a DINO.