What the Hell Is Wrong With These People?
The views expressed in this article are opinion and commentary regarding Washington State politics and publicly discussed policy issues.
Washington’s Political Circus Is Getting Harder to Ignore
Just when you think the dysfunction in Washington State government can’t get any worse… Olympia finds a way to prove you wrong.
Every time.
Scandal after scandal.
Power grab after power grab.
And somehow the people responsible keep pretending everything is fine.
It’s not fine.
It’s a full-blown political circus.
Let’s Start With the Latest Power Grab
Lawmakers are pushing proposals to take away the public’s right to elect their county sheriff.
Think about that for a second.
The sheriff has historically been the one law enforcement position directly accountable to the voters — not politicians, not party bosses, not backroom appointments.
The people.
That independence is exactly why the position exists.
But now legislators want to turn sheriffs into appointed positions, chosen by politicians instead of citizens.
Why?
Because elected sheriffs sometimes refuse to go along with political agendas.
That independence has apparently become inconvenient.
Here’s the obvious question nobody in Olympia seems willing to answer:
If misconduct by elected officials is the justification for eliminating elected sheriffs…
Then why stop there?
We’ve seen misconduct by:
Legislators
County commissioners
City council members
State officials
So by that same logic we should eliminate those elections too.
But funny how those aren’t the positions they want to remove from voters.
Meanwhile… Journalists Are Being Blocked
And if that wasn’t alarming enough, legislators have gone a step further.
They’ve managed to obtain restraining orders against journalists, preventing at least three reporters from attending sessions and reporting on legislative activity.
Let that sink in.
Public officials.
Blocking journalists.
From covering the government.
These are elected representatives who are literally deciding which reporters are allowed to watch them work.
That should set off alarm bells for everyone — regardless of political party.
Because once politicians start choosing which journalists can report on them, transparency goes straight out the window.
The First Amendment exists for a reason.
Apparently that memo didn’t make it to Olympia.
Seattle’s Police Chief Has Turned Policing Into Politics
Then there’s Seattle.
Where the police department increasingly looks less like a public safety agency and more like a political instrument.
Policies and directives have pushed officers into the middle of ideological battles that have nothing to do with policing.
Instead of focusing on crime, officers are being pulled into political theater designed to score points with activists and politicians.
Law enforcement should never be used as a political weapon.
But that line has been getting blurrier and blurrier in Seattle.
And the people who suffer for it?
The citizens.
Always the citizens.
The Scandals Never Stop
And while all of this is happening, Washington politics keeps producing one scandal after another.
Public officials arrested.
Ethics violations.
Abuse of power.
Corruption investigations.
Financial misconduct.
You’d think at some point the leadership in this state might pause and say:
“Maybe we should clean up our own house.”
Instead the response always seems to be the same.
More control.
More regulations.
More power for the people already running the show.
Where Did All the Money Go?
Washington residents are paying massive taxes already.
Gas taxes.
Property taxes.
Sales taxes.
Fees for everything under the sun.
And yet the question remains:
Where.
Did.
The.
Money.
Go?
Because despite all that revenue, the state keeps acting like it’s broke.
Infrastructure projects balloon into billion-dollar disasters.
Public programs swallow money with little to show for it.
And every year the answer from Olympia is the same:
“We need more revenue.”
How about explaining where the current mountain of money disappeared to first.
And Now They Want an Income Tax
The latest pitch?
An income tax.
Don’t worry, they say.
It’s only for the millionaires.
Sure.
We’ve heard that one before.
Here’s the reality everyone with a functioning brain understands:
Millionaires are mobile.
They move.
They relocate.
They take their businesses and investments with them.
And when they leave…
Guess who gets hit next.
The middle class.
Every single time.
It’s not rocket science.
Yet somehow the people designing these policies act like they’re solving advanced physics equations when the rest of us can see exactly where it’s headed.
Leadership Operating at a Fifth Grade Level
At this point it feels like many of the people making decisions in Washington government are operating at about a fifth-grade understanding of economics and governance.
And that’s being generous.
Take Seattle.
The mayor has never held a real private-sector job.
Not one.
Yet somehow that qualifies her to run one of the most complex cities in the country.
That’s the leadership pipeline now.
Career political operators making decisions that impact millions of people.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Result: A Full-Blown Political Train Wreck
Washington used to be one of the most beautiful, thriving states in the country.
Now large portions of the political system look like a case study in dysfunction.
Power grabs.
Press restrictions.
Political policing.
Financial chaos.
Tax schemes that somehow always land on the same people.
And every year the gap between the people running the government and the people actually living here gets wider.
This Is a Full-On Shitshow
There’s really no polite way to say it anymore.
What’s happening in Washington right now is an absolute shitshow.
And until voters start demanding accountability — real accountability — the circus in Olympia will just keep rolling on.
Because right now the message from the political class seems pretty clear:
They think the public will just sit back and take it.
The real question is whether they’re right.
Dear unethical pieces of garbage…. My message to you is THIS!
