So, I suppose congratulations are in order. According to a story printed in The Seattle Medium (Jan. 25, 2012), the American Society for Public Administration announced the City of Seattle has won its 2012 Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Exemplary Practice Award, for its Race and Social Justice Initiative. (Incidentally, if you’re interested in who else espouses social justice, check out this article at the Freedom Socialist Party website).
While no chills are running up my spine over this accolade, I don’t really have an issue with progressives patting each other on the back. Seems sweet. But a comment in the article made by Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, brought a notion back, which baffles me. O’Brien said of the honor, “But our work does not stop here. We will continue to advance this initiative as we look to address racially disproportionate outcomes in areas like education, health and opportunity.”
Since at least the 1980s, Seattle’s city government has leaned left of center. Today, to say Seattle’s government leans left of center, is like saying Antarctica’s winters are chilly. Yet, Seattle’s leftist leaders still shriek about racial, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities. They squawk about social justice, as well as health, economic, educational, housing, food, energy, global warming, opportunity, fairness, light rail, and whatever-the-hell-else-you-got justice, for certain groups of Seattleites.
But if this is truly the case, that Seattle is a cesspool of social injustice, we have to ask Seattle’s leaders an important question: who’s been standing in your way? The Left will generally tell you that the Right is responsible for the above “oppression.” But, where is there any meaningful rightwing political opposition in the Emerald City? There is no rightwing, conservative, or—God forbid—Republican, opposition in Seattle. Politically, this is a one-horse—or, I should say, one-donkey—town.
Why, over the last thirty or forty years, haven’t Seattle’s Democrat-dominated public and private institutions accomplished their social goals—at least locally? They have no real political enemies to thwart their “progress.” Despite no political opposition, they still rail on, year after year, decade after decade, about fighting for social “equality” and social “fairness” in leftist, progressive, social Seattle? So, what is their problem?
Simple: Their problem is they’ve bought into the absurd promise progressives have been trying to jam down America’s throat for 100 years. They claim the ridiculous belief they can attain an unattainable utopian goal. But more often than not, they seem to just use this argument to dupe voters into believing this irrational notion equates to caring about the suffering masses. What they seem to demonstrate more clearly, what they care about most, is pandering to the plethora of leftists groups in Seattle, in order to win the next election.
0 Comments