One-party rule is a danger to our democracy, which we are unfortunately witnessing on an increasing basis in Washington State. As has been the case throughout history, the politicians of the ruling party become more focused on ensuring that they – and their campaign supporters – receive the spoils of governing than in their responsibility to serve all of the public.
A clear example of this has been Governor Jay Inslee’s undemocratic abuse of his so-called “emergency” powers. Even though he announced last month that he would finally end his reign on October 31st (conveniently just a week prior to the midterm elections), the governor will have ignored the views of millions of Washington residents for 975 days. Not even during times of war have we ever seen such an abuse of executive power in this state.
Governor Inslee was able to do this because Democrats in the Washington State Legislature allowed him to keep this unchallenged power, since their primary concern is that their campaign contributors receive the benefits of Governor Inslee’s one-man rule (and Democrat one-party rule) instead of the basic democratic belief that all voices should be heard in the lawmaking process.
It is understandable that a lot of moderates and conservatives have resisted many of the governor’s various unscientific mandates and random orders since it is a natural human reaction to resist demands which you (or your elected representatives) had no voice in determining. Governor Inslee could have saved more people’s lives – through higher compliance of various health and safety mandates – if millions of Washington State residents hadn’t felt that the governor was ignoring their beliefs, concerns, and welfare.
To many people, there appears to be a growing sense that the Democrat politicians in Washington State believe that they no longer should defend basic democratic beliefs. We saw this with the riots that took place in Seattle in 2020. Instead of condemning the political violence committed by liberal activists, Democrat and liberal politicians caved into the rioters’ demands, took money that was designated to police departments and gave it to liberal special interests groups, and passed laws which made it less safe to live in Seattle and Washington State.
We are now seeing almost daily stories of how Democrat leaders are getting away with ignoring basic rules of democracy because theses standards get in the way of looting the public treasury with the help of their friends. Just yesterday Shift’s Daily Briefing contained two stories in which Democrat politicians demonstrated their belief that they are above adhering to basic American governing principles.
King County Executive Constantine Ignores the 1st Amendment
King County Executive Dow Constantine demonstrated his contempt for the 1st Amendment and freedom of the press when his staff blocked a member of the local media from attending a guided press tour the executive held at the 
controversial Homeless Complex next to the Chinatown International District (CID). This is especially troublesome since the member of the media his staff banned was Jonathan Choe, who continues to break stories on how Executive Constantine has upset members of the CID community by not consulting with them before imposing his massive 500-resident homeless facility on the edge of their neighborhood.
Previously, Executive Constantine embarrassingly hid behind staffers and fled from a media briefing when Choe brought up CID concerns over the complex. Evidently the executive believes he does not need to consult with members of the public over major county projects in their neighborhood, answer questions from the media over these projects, or provide equal access to media members for guided tours of a controversial facility. Not exactly a shining example of government transparency.
Brandi Kruse expressed her outrage in an online video over this latest anti-media action taken by Executive Constantine and his staff (which she called “egregious” and “Orwellian”) and condemned the local media for not standing up for Choe. Kruse said, “I plea to the media to stick together on this one because if they don’t it is a slippery slope.” Kruse then lists many members of the Puget Sound media and continues, “What happens the next time a leader doesn’t like your reporting and doesn’t think you are a reporter and keeps you from attending a press conference. While all of this is happening to Jonathan Choe you haven’t said Jack Shit.”
Inslee Administration Ignores Transparency
Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center was denied by the Inslee Administration access to records of the offers and counteroffers made during Governor Inslee’s secret negotiations with his campaign contributors in 
Washington Federation of State Employee. Mercier filed a public records request with the Washington State Office of Fiscal Management for the documents involved in the negotiations. He was informed by a staff attorney that such documents are exempt from being disclosed to the public until after the union contract is approved by the legislature. Thus taxpayers and legislators will not be provided transparency on the negotiations until the union has collected its pay raises, bonuses, and improved benefits. Just another example of how the one-party rule of the Democrats denies transparency for taxpayers to the financial benefit of the Democrats’ major campaign contributors.
Sadly, we expect we will continue to see more examples of Washington Democrat politicians ignoring basic democratic beliefs unless the voters challenge their one-party rule.
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