No Loss for Words

As a lifelong resident of Washington state, I can tell you that this is God’s country.  Where else in the country can you find the diversity of almost everything you find in the northwest corner of the lower 48.  The climate in our state varies from rain forest on the peninsula to desert on the east side.  The Pacific Ocean on the coast and the Cascade Mountains a hundred miles inland.  High tech and manufacturing on the west side and farming and ranching on the east side.  Big cities with high population and traffic congestion on the west side and wide-open range with small town USA stretching from north to south to the east.  The contrasts that exist in our state can be breathtaking.  Breathtaking in one way in particular; the concentration of power not just on the west side, in the greater Seattle/King County area.

As the high tech and manufacturing companies have boomed in King County, the population has exploded accordingly.  From an economic standpoint the region is thriving but along with the boon come the trickle-down impacts that aren’t always kind to all socio-economic segments of the population.  Property values and rents have sky-rocketed as the demand outpaced the addition of new housing options.  For the new tech workers, it established a new norm.  For the lower income base, it created a crisis in housing.  Poorer people were either forced to move further out to the suburbs or they became homeless, living in tents and cardboard boxes throughout the urban landscape.

If you look at the state from the legislative standpoint the level of diversity is evident.  Corresponding to the growth of high tech in the Puget Sound region, the way voters have selected their representatives has changed dramatically.  Almost all of the central Puget Sound area now sends Democrats to the legislature where there previously was a balance.  The net result is that the makeup of the legislature is dominated by Democrats and by extension, they control the agenda and the focus of state resources.

Parts of the state feel helpless as King County Democrats determine their fate.  They have representatives in the legislature, but their influence is marginalized by their chronic minority status.  As much as they appeal for a voice and a fair share, they are reminded that there are consequences of elections.

From a political point of view, the state of Washington is less diverse than we have ever been for many decades.  For the residents of the suburban counties and rural counties there is little chance to have a meaningful voice because the population and concentration of Democrats in the urban counties is so dominant.  One county has so many Democrat votes it controls the whole state.  That’s the reality in Washington state today.

This scenario is played out is other states as well.  As the population centers have grown, their political power has increased proportionally to the point where the states of Oregon and California to our south are also dominated by Democrats in limited geographic concentrations.  The balance of power has sharply shifted to the left because of the concentration of Democrat voters in the urban areas.

The conclusion I came to is that concentrating all the power in one location isn’t healthy for our whole state as it isn’t for our neighbors either.

Now, when you think about why our founding fathers adopted the Electoral College to elect our president you will see that in order to equalize the states with much higher populations with the smaller states with fewer residents the big states were only granted so many electors based upon their representation in Congress.  The founders knew that New York could determine the fate of the country because of their population disparity with their smaller neighbors if only the popular vote was used.  The founders knew that in order that every state could participate in the presidential election process, they needed to shift influence to smaller states by guaranteeing that their votes counted.

The founders recognized that the nation needed the benefits of both the rural and urban economies but if the power was only allocated by population, the control would accrue in the urban.

If the presidential election process abandons the Electoral College, the voters in five or six cities will have enough votes to call all of the shots and our votes will matter as much as those in Okanogan County in our state legislature.

Regarding the controversy in Virginia, I think there are distinct issues to be considered.  First, there is are acts of bad judgement and second there are crimes.  If there is an allegation of criminal behavior, the authorities need to act accordingly.  Whether prosecution is pursued is a local decision.  If the issue is an act of bad judgement at some point in your life, should the result be destroying your career?  How we deal with each of them is important in light of the extreme reactions from the “Jumping to Conclusion Police (JCP)” that are quick to target others accused of something, anything.

We learned during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings that baseless allegations shouldn’t be allowed to ruin a nominee’s career.  We learned that accusations must be accompanied with corroboration to prevent character assassination without recourse.

During that painful time, we heard accusations from multiple women who accused the judge of sexual assault during his years in high school.  In the intervening years no hint of impropriety as Kavanaugh rose through the ranks of federal judiciary with multiple occasions where federal investigators dove into his past to expose misdeeds that would disqualify a candidate for appointment to any federal judgeship.  Not a word from anyone suggesting that Kavanaugh was unfit for appointment.

In each of the cases in Virginia, the circumstances are somewhat different.

In Governor Northam’s case, youthful indiscretion is only part of the issue.  His response to the allegation was to deny that he was either the guy in black face or the guy in the KKK robes; either of which would be problematic.  That is the problem for me.  The fact that he is confused suggests that he was caught in a lie.  Where have we heard that lying derails a career more frequently than bad judgement?

For Attorney General Herring, whose immediate reaction was to call for Northam’s resignation ended up admitting that he also dressed in black face as a youth.  The JCP jumped on him too and initially demanded his resignation.  His own hypocrisy of being guilty of semi-racist behavior while condemning Northam for the same demonstrates an apparent lack of character.

The case of Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax is different.  Two women accused him of sexual assault at different times in his life; one in college at Duke University and one later in his life.  There is corroborating evidence supporting their allegations but neither woman is asking for criminal prosecution.  Whether he is prosecuted or not, his repeated assaults suggest he might be an abuser.

For the partisans in the crowd, it has been pointed out that all three elected officials in Virginia are of the Democrat persuasion creating pressure from the party to respond.  Since the ME TOO Movement came about as a result of liberals calling out some of their most noteworthy icons as sexual predators it got a lot of news coverage and reaction from political leaders.  It was fashionable to judge the witch on the pyre without evidence corroborating their claim, only an allegation.  Everyone who had a soap box was up there judging.

That time conditioned us to believe that an allegation was good enough to convict, so they were quick to demand Kavanaugh be disqualified from serving on the Supreme Court.  What Kavanaugh did that differed from the celebrities was to demand his accusers provide evidence corroborating their claims.   Judge Kavanaugh was asking for one of the foundations of our justice system; due process.

Ultimately, everyone is entitled due process and shouldn’t be burned at the stake based upon flakey allegations.  Without offering an opinion about Northam, Fairfax or Herring, I would just say each is entitled to full investigation before they make a decision about resigning.  Absent criminal prosecution, it will be their decision to resign or stay.

When Donald Trump was a candidate, he was accused of being immoral at the least and the opposition wanted his behavior to disqualify him from serving.  Trump’s defenders said, “Let the voters decide.”  And that is what I would say about Northam, Fairfax and Herring, their behavior might be characterized as racist in the cases of Northam and Herring, but while racism is distasteful, it’s not a crime.  In the case of Fairfax, if his accusers aren’t willing to press charges and the prosecutors aren’t inclined to prosecute, then that case goes nowhere.  If character matters for elected officials, then this might be an opportunity for them to demonstrate if they have any.

Each of these elected officials has exposed their questionable character and are guilty of bad judgement or “youthful indiscretions” but like Trump, they will be judged by the voters when they next stand for re-election.

Remember Marion Berry was convicted of multiple felonies and still re-elected Mayor of Washington DC so voters may not be as concerned about any of these characters as you might.