Danny Westneat couldn't wait to get his pragmatic-loving hands on last night's election results. And, as expected, he played a tune we are going to hear over and over and over again: "Seattle is the most progressive city no more." The only progressive who appears to be in safe waters is Dan Strauss of Ballard’s District 6 (he's two points behind Pete Hanning); and, of course, this result will be attributed to his wise and recent shift to the right (BLM bad, police good). SECB soberly only gave Tammy Morales a slim chance of winning. Maybe Lewis can squeak one out. The rest can call it a day. It sure looks like Seattle is now open for business. 

This is one way of saying it:

The SECB's breakdown of last night's bad results:

Welp! It really is looking like a bunch of Trump donors and real estate moguls successfully bought themselves a city council to pair with the Mayor they bought in 2021. In District 1, Maren Costa is down 18 points. In District 2, Seattle City Council Member Tammy Morales is down nine points. In District 3, Alex Hudson is down 17 points. In District 4, Ron Davis trails by 11 points. In District 5, ChrisTiana ObeySumner trails by more than 40 points. In District 6, Dan Strauss is down two points. In District 7, incumbent Seattle City Council Member Andrew Lewis is down 12 points. From our vantage, Strauss will likely make it out alive, and Morales MIGHT be able to come back, but otherwise, the progressive slate is toast... 

SECB, however, sees signs of hope in two King County Council races. Seattle City Council Member Teresa Mosqueda ended the night one point ahead of her opponent, Burien Mayor Sophia Aragon. This lead is likely to grow. And former Northwest Immigrant Rights Project executive director Jorge Barón is ahead of Assistant Attorney General Sarah Reyneveld by 13 points. When both win, they will become "King County Council's first Latino members." 

Brandi Kruse must be over the moon. [Eds note: She is, and she's being very mommy about it.]

Let's capture the moment by remixing Samuel Johnson: For many in Seattle, "truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to error. Truth is a cow which will yield such people no more milk and so they are gone to milk the bull."

And what to make of this?

In national news, the GOP had a really bad night. At this stage of American politics, "it's the economy, stupid," has been replaced by, "it's reproductive rights, stupid." Ohio voters, for one, decisively passed "a constitutional amendment... that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care." For two, Kentucky's Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear beat Trumpy Republican Daniel Cameron. And, for three, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's attempt to crack the abortion curse failed miserably. He now faces a state Senate and House of Delegates controlled by Dems. (The former was flipped last night.) If the GOP doesn't change course on abortion, their present losing streak will likely extend to next year's election season.

The GOP, as it licks its wounds: "[P]ure democracy is not a way to run a country."

The GOP can, however, find a little warmth in this victory: "House passed a GOP-led resolution on Tuesday to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over comments critical of Israel and in support of Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas." But how is this even possible? Where have all of the free speech absolutists gone? Doesn't Tlaib have the right to say it like she sees it? No, she does not. Free speech is not for POCs on the left. Get that straight. You can speak as freely as you want if, and only if, you are white and on the right.

Let the brother man (Bishop Talbert Swan) preach it:

22 Democrats joined Republicans to pass a House resolution to censure Congresswoman Rashida Talib over her criticism of Israel.

Seven members of Congress aided and abetted January 6 insurrectionists but were never censured. 147 members of Congress tried to overturn the 2020 election, none of them were censured.

Two members of Congress spoke at white nationalists events. They weren’t censured. 26 members of Congress refused to denounce white supremacy.

They weren’t censured. Yet, the only Palestinian American in Congress gets censured for condemning a white supremacist, apartheid government engaging in the genocide of her people.

This other brother from this planet (which is going up in smoke) got this to say:

Can I get a witness? Nadia Mohamed became the first Somali mayor in the history of these United States. She beat a bland banker, Dale A. Anderson, in the race for the top political position in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb. As we say in Zimbabwe, makorokoto! 

As cities go to the right, suburbs appear to be going to the left. This is what happened in Minneapolis, with Mohamed's victory, and also in Ohio, with the confirmation of abortion rights. But this is to be expected. Cities are just too expensive for immigrants and working-class people in general. This segment of society has been displaced to the periphery of urban cores. We might see in this significant and very recent demographic transformation some answers to Seattle's dismal city council races. Progressivism, even in its weaker forms, was merely transitory and not something inherently urban.

Mount St. Helens is rumbling. It has been rumbling for some time. This is the agitation, the restlessness, the "I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night" of what Newsweek calls one of "the most dangerous volcanoes in the US."   

On that note, let's end AM with Soft Cell's wonderfully robotic version of "Tainted Love."Â