Burn your democracy vouchers. Participation in democracy comes from the soul, not the wallet. Let everyone pay for their own democracy, either in money or volunteering in a political campaign.

Make that:

Participation in democracy comes from the soul, not from other people's money.

Mike O'Brien is on the Seattle City Council. There is no Ballard City Council. And he was thrown out of a party at a private business, not the museum. I quit reading after that.

Yup, anybody who thinks like raindrop should definitely burn their vouchers rather than use them to support their smug candidates. Go to it.

Mike O'Brien was never thrown out of Nordic Museum. He was booted from a private after party at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard. Given his Ballard politics, it is unclear why he thought he had a chummy invitation. Please correct your story. Get basic facts straight, please.

"Is Seattle ready to vote for a spy? Nicole Brodeur of the Times caught up with Naveed Jamali, the self-described double-agent... "

Perhaps, even though Seattle proper didn't vote for Secret Agent "Cadet Bone Spurs" Orange, there may be just enough Trumpfsteristas in Dist. 7 to pull this one off. Who doesn't love a good Spy? 'Specially a Double fucking Agent. (So, he's a double-oh, something? Cool!) Maxwell Smart's got nuthin' on this guy. (does he have a shoephone?)

Advertising oneself as a former double agent seems like a good way to get yourself a Novichok-cocktail (novichok-tail?). I disbelieve this mightily.

Roads are paid for with other people's money. Road travel should come from the soul! If you don't have your own road to drive on, you cannot drive. Not truly. Not. Truly.

Not on a road that other people paid for. Driving on roads paid for with other people's money is but a tragic imitation of true driving, driving as a mighty titan.

Stop and think before you take this terrible step: imagine a lifetime of driving on roads built with taxes on everyone, not just you. Think what that does to you, your humanity, your soul. You'd be but a shell. Imagine a city, filled with the husks of a once great people, who once had no roads but those they paid for themselves. Or inherited from Daddy, naturally. Only those, nothing more. The way God intended!

Better to walk than lose your soul! Walk, and walk tall!

Now sidewalks. Sidewalks are paid with OTHER PEOPLE's money! Sidewalks should come from the soul!

"“Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution—or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement."

CRAWL if you must! Set foot not on the wicked sidewalks of SOCIALISM!!!!!!

oh dear i have to go lie down wheres my manservant richard richard bring the scotch richard where is that man where is richard

@8: Using tax revenue to pay for the common good (sidewalks) is good. Using tax revenue to pay for other people's arbitrary and subjective political contributions is of dubious merit.

@9, it’s not so much paying for political participation that frosts me so much as it’s just feeding the lawn signs, mailers and robocalls election industry. Like a candidate? Knock on doors or get on Twitter. It’s more effective and environmentally friendly than the traditional route.

But using other people's money to pay for arbitrary and subjective trips to 7-11 to buy swisher sweets and Club magazine is totally cool. If you don't like fucking yard signs, go earn enough money to live in Olympic Manner where they don't tolerate all that gauche clutter. Too poor to live in a gated community? Take personal responsibility, Karl Mar!

People drive around for reasons of dubious merit. It pollutes the environment. Thirty thousand Americans die every year on the roads, all so they can cruise around looking stupid, buying things they don't need. Going on booty calls that won't pan out any way.

You know who the nanny is? YOU. You're the one judging what people can and can't choose. You're the one who can't tolerate other people exercising their free choice. We have all kinds of public goods. Roads. Democracy vouchers. The Internet. Safety from foreign invaders. Fucking everything basically. Some people choose to use those public goods, some don't. Some use them in ways you like, some exercise their choices in ways that irk you. Too bad. It's not up to you.

In 1911 when robber baron princeling Sam Hill built Maryhill Loops Road, if you were wealthy enough to own an automobile, you had to build your own private roads with your own money. Some people said we should build a public network of roads good enough for everyone to drive cars on. Fucking drooling knuckledragging libertardians like you moaned about it for exactly the same reasons. It was literally exactly the same as what you're saying about democracy vouchers.

You assholes are the ones who gave us Citizen's United. Before that shit, at least we had gotten a start on cleaning up campaigns and kind of moving towards a less dysfunctional democracy. But you fucking pricks packed the court with enough assholes to declare that money is speech. Which is lunacy.

But if money is speech, then at least we agree it is a useful thing. Political campaigns must be valuable then. Just like roads or the Internet are valuable. And it's perfectly normal to use government resources to provide broad access to valuable things, whether they be safe air travel or safe agricultural products, or roads, or political campaigns. Your arguments are arbitrary and disingenuous and it's glaringly obvious that what you really don't like about them is that it's harder (only infinitesimally) for corporations and rich assholes to choose our office holders for us with their obscenely disproportionate wealth.

You know your real problem is that your ambassadors for the superiority of rich dudes are all Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Howard Schultz. Fucking buffoons. Being rich doesn't make you any smarter than the average schmuck walking down the street. We see that every day.

There's plenty of technical ground to criticize the democracy voucher program. The limits it places on recipients puts them at a disadvantage, and discourages many candidates from taking the money. It's kind of a clunky system. But in principle, it's perfectly fine. Your objections are no different than the ones who objected to building public roads. Let the filthy rich of the world build all private roads, like Maryhill Loops. Like nature intended! Fucking idiots.

Vouchers are awesome. Turns out older, whiter and wealthier Seattle residents use them more than then everyone else:

"According to the report, while more than 20,000 used their vouchers, significant disparities remain in which voters actually use the vouchers:

“…some residents were more likely to use their vouchers than others. These include people who are regular voters in local elections, older residents, those who live in majority-white neighborhoods, and those who live in upper-income neighborhoods. As a result, residents of neighborhoods that are lower income or have a majority non-white population continue to be under-represented among contributors to candidates for local office.”

So yeah, keep sending them out. Turns out people who don't give a shit enough to vote, don't give a shit enough to use the vouchers. Maybe being poor is a character flaw after all.

BTW, never forgot, only "3.3 percent of Seattle residents who received democracy vouchers actually used them, city statistics show. The other 96.7 percent received free money in the mail, and lost it, forgot about it, or threw it in the trash"

But I guess in gub'ment you call that a "success". Turns out the poors really don't give a shit.

But I used mine! The first time I've ever made a political contribution, all to the most centrist candidates I could find in Seattle. This year they are going to who ever can beat Sawant.

Use the word horticulture in a sentence:
"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think".
-Dorothy Parker

Just received my democracy vouchers. I'm super excited! Where do I redeem them for cash and prizes?

I can't wait to sell my vouchers to whomever wants them.

How about, along with our campaign vouchers, we also get Fourth Estate vouchers? And we can access whatever our little well-informed Citizen's hearts/minds desire. Dan, Eli. Lester (Katie?) -- please get onit.

Thanks!

[Is this a repost?]
Apologies!