The revolution is starting to happen locally
Just got back from my local legislative district meeting, devoted mostly to endorsements of candidates and ballot initiatives. The big surprise of the evening was that Jay Inslee (incumbent governor), Patty Murray (incumbent senator) and Bob Ferguson (incumbent attorney general) were pulled from the recommended automatic endorsement list for further discussion. The rules require 50% for anyone on the board approved slate and 60% for those not on said slate. The latter are mostly campaigning for offices with no incumbent, and so there are three or four primary candidates involved. If none of the top two get 60%, then there is a motion for either a dual endorsement or no endorsement.
Anyway, the major beef with Murray (though many weren’t thrilled with her endorsement of Clinton over Sanders, who got 70% of the delegates in WA State) was her vote for the TPP. The gripe against Inslee was that he ran as an environmentalist but still supported a huge methanol plant near Tacoma which was eventually cancelled due to strong local opposition. The gripe against Ferguson was not proceeding with fraud charges against local bank fraud and hiring too many lawyers who had previously worked for banks instead of some who had defended tenants and homeowners.
Now, maybe you are thinking that rambunctious young Sanders supporters made the motions. Not so—the prime movers were the long-time Precinct Committee Officer chair, the husband of the LD chair (herself a Clinton delegate) and an older woman who is a long-time member that I don’t know well. (I myself live near some kind of boundary area, because every 10 years like clockwork I get put in a different legislative district.) One younger Sanders supporter spoke last. The endorsements all passed, but with under 60% of the vote. This says to me that people are getting really, really pissed off, even though they intend to vote for Democratic incumbents. They just wanted to send a message by refusing endorsement.
I was thinking on the way home that in the 30s we got an FDR instead of a Hitler. There was nothing pre-ordained about this—for more info google “Father Coughlin.” Are we going to get lucky twice? Sanders is certainly more in favor of FDR’s second bill of rights, or even Clinton might even discover an internal FDR—or better yet, Eleanor. Either way, 2018 still scares me. I am hoping that the crowd of younger PCOs sticks with it and that some will run for office in a few years. That could yet save us.
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Excellent post eridani!
P.S. Where's Cantwell in that list? 
