Politics: Is Seattle a racist city?
I'm sure there are some racist people but it's an extremely liberal city.
Which is the more Liberal/Democratic city: Philadelphia or Seattle?
Both cities have a real SMALL NUMBER of conservative Republicans- Philly is ROTTEN at the top- so is Seattle, but less well controlled. The mass of people in both cities WISH for something very revolutionary- and even elect socialist city counsel members in Seattle.
How liberal is Seattle?
Seattle is liberal in the worst possible ways.The city government’s ambitious projects to make Seattle more accessible to cyclists and redevelop a hot-spot for accidents with a bike-path was doomed from the get-go by hysterical resistance from one-percenters (including a dock for Paul Allen’s giga-yacht) shrieking about property rights.The city’s mysterious police officer’s guild prints a secret newsletter wherein police brutality is celebrated and the Justice Department’s suit against the city alleging institutional violence (and pointing to mountains of evidence) is denounced as an insurrection by Washington DC and Obama.An honest-to-God neo-nazi marched around Westlake Park “Seig Heil”-ing and announcing his admiration for genocidal fascist dictators when a presumed-liberal punched him square in the jaw, producing an infamous animated GIF of the little blackshirt pissant getting knocked out and a hundred thousand memes celebrating punching nazis. Maybe the liberal never considered that after the meme’s life-cycle came to an end, the neo-nazi would reappear in Westlake, now wisely packing heat and free to continue his small-time ethnic cleansing operation without any interruptions.Seattle prides itself on its capital-D Democratic leanings and reliably voted for Clinton, Obama, etc. There is legal weed and gay marriage and there is a Trotskyist on city council. It is as “liberal” as it gets, but that word means different things to different people.
What do people not like about living in Seattle, Washington?
Oh man, where to begin…Horrendous traffic. I live in a suburb of Seattle, and when I worked downtown it took me over an hour to drive 12 miles.Weather. We have 9 months of darkness and rain, followed by three months of 80–90 degree weather in a city where almost no one has air-conditioning in their home or apartment.High cost of living. The median price for a home in Seattle is $700k. The average rent for a two bedroom apartment is $2,109 a month (which is 80% higher than the national average). And although we don’t have a state income tax, we make up for it by having the highest gas tax, the highest liquor tax, a soda tax, a “gun violence” tax, a massive car tab tax, and some of the highest property taxes in the nation.Homeless people and junkies. Seattle has the third largest homeless population of any major city (L.A. and New York are the only cities that beat us). People set up camps on public sidewalks, and openly shoot drugs in public. Businesses downtown have “No pooping” signs in their windows. Seriously.Extreme politics. I’ve lived in Seattle for over 40 years, and it has always been politically neutral (more libertarian than anything else). But in the past few years it has slid into full-blown socialism. Our elected officials are social activists who rule by decree, with no regard for the the law or the State Constitution. If they get their way, Seattle will be the first city in the nation to effectively legalize heroin through so-called “safe injection sites”. One city council member has even suggested providing addicts with free drugs (paid for by the taxpayers, of course).The “Seattle freeze”. People in Seattle are very introverted, and tend to keep to themselves. They aren’t mean, they just aren’t friendly. When I’m traveling, I regularly have great conversations with strangers in bars, coffee shops, Ubers or wherever. If you try to strike up a conversation with a stranger here, they look at you like you’re crazy. I met a young couple from Kansas City on a recent flight home who moved to Seattle two years ago, and they were telling me they don’t really have any friends, because it’s so hard to meet people here.
Is Seattle Council member Kshama Sawant who called some cops murderers the future of Seattle and American urban politics?
I will allow my original answer, below, to stand as written, while acknowledging that the OP has added the word “some” to soften the still quite “loaded” nature of the question’s phrasing.Can you, and sadly most right wing OP’s, ask a question in a forthright manner? That is what’s called a “loaded” question. Like the classic, “when did you stop beating your wife?” If you’ve never beaten your wife, and, for that matter, aren’t even married, it’s a question that doesn’t actually, earnestly seek information, but merely serves as a none-too-clever unanswerable trap.Firstly, Kshama Sawant didn’t call ALL “cops” murderers, as you so un-deftly imply, but the specific police officers who fatally shot Che Taylor, and those police officers even dropped their defamation lawsuit against her in January. Now that we’ve dispensed with the disingenuous phrasing of your question perhaps we can examine the potentially valid real question within. Can cops be murderers and is it acceptable to call specific individuals out as such?The obvious answer is that, yes, if they kill someone while not performing their duty as officers of the law, or use their policing as an excuse to summarily execute an alleged suspect because they are afraid of their skin color, then, yes, cops can be murderers. If you believe that evidence implicates specific cops in that kind of act then, again, yes, they should be called out as such, if only to separate them from the rest of police officers, who are not murderers, and should be protected from such implications as you just made in the “loaded” phrasing of your question.As for Kshama Sawant being the, “future of Seattle and American urban politics,” God, I hope so! As one of the rare politicians who actually cares about her constituents and the country at large rather than their own power, self- enrichment, and self-aggrandizement, we would all be better off with more like her, who appreciate the value of American citizenship and champion the values that the founders of the U.S. hoped America would stand for at home and as a beacon to the world. A hope that others, currently in higher office, seem gleefully willing to trample upon in these difficult times!
How did the Seattle Department of Transportation order streetcars without looking at their measurements or weight?
“If only there were some kind of measuring device…”Look, this is just the latest in a very long list of forehead-slapping fiscal mismanagement by the Seattle City Council, mayoral office (note: we have a relatively new mayor; the orders in question happened during the prior mayor’s term) and city agencies.Why huge cost overruns are so common in SeattleSeattle neglected to collect $3.4M payment for affordable housing as two skyscrapers were built$12 million a mile: Here’s how bike-lane costs shot sky high in SeattleAfter 5 years, walk-bike bridge design for Northgate light-rail station still unfinishedSeattle Mayor Jenny Durkan halts streetcar expansion project as costs jump past $200MSeattle’s Pronto bike share shut down on March 31City Light spent $109M on a flawed billing systemBehind Seattle’s rising pension costs: Past mismanagement adds to taxpayers’ burdenThe City Council paid a lobbyist $50,000 for the income tax ordinance, and other revelationsThe answer includes, but is not limited to:Extremely lax oversight. In many cases, the City Council cannot even account for where money goes that they do approve.Record city tax and fee revenues and city growth have covered up problems allowed inefficiencies to mushroomCity Councilmembers are far too focused on other things, like symbolic virtue signaling and national political issues than doing the hard word of competent municipal management. The best example is Kshama Sawant, who is always talking about this or that “movement,” but is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE at municipal leadership. E.g.:Kshama Sawant justifies using Seattle taxpayer dollars to print anti-Amazon signsRelated: What are your thoughts on Kshama Sawant's policies, the newly elected socialist to the Seattle city council?This dismal record in fiscal management is why many of us who have voted for prior revenue/levy initiatives have turned much more skeptical to them. This is why we moderates signed the citizen referendum in such record numbers, which ultimately caused the misguided “head tax” to be repealed.This city has record revenues — they’ve never been higher. Nor has the unnecessary waste.
Is the washington post liberal or conservative?
They are democratic agitprop. Much like MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS. They're all in the tank for the Democratic Party and a liberal progressive agenda. And you are deluded if you think otherwise. This election cycle proved that. Remember that story the Washington post had about how Russia hacked the power grid. It was fake. They're the ones that claimed Russia supposedly hacked the election. Mainstream news seems to be more fake than the alternative news sources they constantly attack. To anyone who was and is going to ignore WikiLeaks; go castrate yourself.
Is it legal and possible to establish a communist party in America? What are the criteria for the American to establish their own political parties?
It's not only legal and possible, but, as Robert Lee points out, it exists. The nature of American free speech is that you can create a political party adocating whatever you want. The crux of the matter is what's required for a) recognition and b) political influence. The idea of a 'political party' is a fairly fuzzy concept in America. There are the old and well-established parties, but you can get a bunch of friends together in your living room, decide on a political platform, and call yourself a party. Of course, that doesn't really get you anywhere. There are various levels at which political parties are treated like "real" parties. The big one is being included on official, printed ballots. That varies from state to state, but it often only requires a certain number of signatures on a petition. In local and state level elections, you'll often see a number of tiny parties with no hope of victory who are still listed on the ballots. There are other things, such as being included in televised debates, which aren't governmentally controlled, it's usually up to the news networks. As a result, it's uncommon for parties that don't have significant support to be included. Of course, a party doesn't really have influence until they've put people in office. At the national level, there's only one member of Congress who isn't officially a Republican or Democrat, and he's an independent (though he identifies as a socialist). The problem with having a communist party in the US isn't that there are any rules against it, it's simply that so many Americans have such a negative connotation with communism that such a party is unlikely to gain any serious support.