During KCTS 9’s “Ask the Governor,” Jay Inslee was asked why voters (for the 6th time) passed the 2/3-vote restriction for new taxes, i.e. Initiative 1366. Inslee began by listing what we are as a state, including technologically advanced and community minded. Then he said the following,
“But, we are human. And, humans, I have learned, both Republicans and Democrats, have a certain trait and that it that we would love to have an infinite amount of services with a zero rate of payment with revenues. And that is a human trait. We would all, if we were all offered a bowl of ice cream for nothing, we’d take it. And if we could vote for something that would seem to give us the impression we could have a bowl of ice cream at zero cost, we probably, we could take it. But then, eventually, we’d have to ask how to pay for it. So I think we’re experiencing that in a lot of different ways in the state of Washington.”
The incoherency of Inslee’s response is something we’ve come to expect from our very “green” governor. Though we could spend quite a bit of time making fun of his response, there is something much more troubling about it than incoherency.
By his response, Inslee proves he fundamentally does not understand (1) voters and (2) conservative ideology. First, Inslee’s response demeans the intelligence of voters. It assumes voters are “give me people” with no foresight for how to cover costs. In Inslee’s scenario, it’s the government that must nanny the people. It’s the government that dictates the powers and role of government, not the people. Our green governor’s response is a classic big government response, blatantly ignoring the people’s will and arrogantly believing government knows best.
Second, Inslee’s response proves he does not understand the conservative message of small government. Contrary to Inslee’s assumption, conservatives do not want an “infinite amount of services.” In fact, conservatives prefer the government stick to exclusively offering the services it is meant to offer—without wasting their hard earned taxpayer dollars—and stay out of their lives in every other respect. To put it in terms Inslee might understand, conservatives prefer the government not to be there to offer the bowl of ice cream in the first place.
