Little peanut-head just ate his own shotgun with this dipshit remark:
"When we talk about bike lanes in general, there aren’t enough people riding bikes to make it worthwhile. There’s too many cars on the road."
Critical thinking obviously not in his wheelhouse.

Dude's only 19 using a worn-out Jay-Z line from 2003.

Pertinent!

Plant.
At least I hope so, for his sake.

A good example of why life experience counts for something. This guy reminds me of myself at 19, but he’s not as smart as I was.

So he's big into economic justice, by voluntary donation from plutocrats, no nasty taxes.

Think he's got a bit of schooling to go through on political leverage.

@6 yeah he expects rich folks to be kind and generous just because it's the right thing to do.

NOOB.

It's less his age that's the issue and more that he's got a split message. He wants to pitch himself as working class because he works hard, but he's not actually well-versed in the council's decisions or positions, and he's going to be sucking up to Amazon because they pay his bills, even though they have more money than god.

This ain't it, chief.

Kid's speaking truth to power (that would be you, Nathalie), which will NOT get him the Stranger endorsement. But he does say "fuck" a lot.

Calling this guy "the Doogie Howser of local politics" is a major insult to Doogie Howeser, who had actually accomplished a few things by the time he was 19.

I’m a pro-bike lane District 4 constituent. Rob Johnson is beholden to me. I don’t see the problem.

Kind of says a lot about the libertarians of Seattle when they share most of their political beliefs with this know-nothing 19 year old. Maybe he should run for student government before city government.

“(As readers will remember, they did, in fact, have the votes.)”

It must be embarrassing to understand less about politics than a teenager does. Here’s what he actually said:

“If we had the votes for it in city council, you could use it for leverage against, let’s just say Amazon, and say, 'Alright, if you don’t put this much money back into the community for cleaning up the streets, for getting these needles off the streets, and helping out our most vulnerable citizens, we have the votes to pass the head tax.' Obviously, we’d need to have the votes in city council to do that.”

Our City Council did not have the votes “for leverage” with Amazon, because the prime sponsor of the EHT, CM Sawant, had presented the EHT as a vehicle to attack Amazon, and the Council voted for the EHT on those terms. They were not going to use the threat of passing the EHT “for leverage” with Amazon to do (more) for the homeless; rather they voted to take the money from Amazon, explicitly denying Amazon any opportunity to negotiate about it.

@11

Keep in mind Doogie Howser was cancelled at age 19, too, so maybe the comparison isn't quite the compliment you're making it out to be.

@15

If the bill had been targeted at Amazon, it would have had a substantially higher minimum revenue threshold. And might not have generated the small/local-business resistance that killed it.

You seem rather certain that the very idea of a head tax is gone for good, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it return in a reworked form. We have quite a lot of laws on the books that didn't pass on the first try.

It's nice to see teenagers interested in politics, and I hope to see more and more. BUT not this kid

@17: “If the bill had been targeted at Amazon,”

It explicitly was. “Tax Amazon” was the title CM Sawant used for the effort to pass the EHT:

‘Sawant Congratulates “Tax Amazon” Movement Urges Attendance at Monday’s City Council Public Hearing‘

http://council.seattle.gov/2018/04/20/sawant-congratulates-tax-amazon-movement-urges-attendance-at-mondays-city-council-public-hearing/

“...it would have had a substantially higher minimum revenue threshold.”

Assumes legislative competence not in evidence. :-)

“You seem rather certain that the very idea of a head tax is gone for good,”

What statement or statements of mine can you cite as evidence of my supposed certainty? (That’s a serious question.)

“...I wouldn't be surprised to see it return in a reworked form.”

That would be very unsurprising indeed, as the EHT was itself a re-tread of a previously-failed policy to end homelessness. The original was repealed under Mayor McGinn.

“We have quite a lot of laws on the books that didn't pass on the first try.”

This wasn’t the first try. It wasn’t even the first repeal. (See above.)

While I’d really like to believe what you claim I believe, what I do actually believe is that no one’s life, liberty, property, or job is safe while the legislature is in session. You can quote me on that. ;-)

This is satire, right?

Hey, I'm not gonna dis on the guy- he's young, working full time, and trying to engage with his world.
He's not being a smartass, he's not into being ironic or making himself adorable.
You don't have to vote for him, but don't discourage him.
A lot of his ideas are undercooked but he seems to be a fine young man, let him develop.

I think we could sum up his platform as "anti bike, pro scooter."
To his credit, his age isn't his biggest obstacle. He seems to have the focus and energy to go... somewhere.

Get off my lawn, you snotty little brat.

But to be fair, there were a few years just after my friends and I got old enough to drive that we thought bikes weren't cool, too.

Screw it...he's got my vote and money!!!

A fool & his money are soon parted.

That didn't take long.

Y'all be glad you didn't know me at nineteen, I was a smug libertarian tool. This dude's ahead.

@27 No, he isn’t. He’s a smug libertarian tool who thinks he should be running for office.

I'm glad this candidate cares enough about politics to articulate his views, publicize them, and run for office. Yes, the world is more complex than he understands it to be, but I respect his straightforwardness. He doesn't seem to calibrate his remarks to appease a left- or right-wing elite. He's just being himself, and that's more than I can say for most of the professional politicians two and three times his age. Let him run, trip, fall, hurt himself, and get back up again, wiser. Good for you, young man. Get out there and say what you need to say.

I was just saying to myself yesterday... you know what we need in politics in this country? More white males. smh

Seems unlikely that this nineteen year-old supporting himself living alone by working in an eatery would have much money to spare. Who paid his filing fee?

Oh Honey, no.