The Seattle Times is once again doing what it does best: laundering leftist neuroses as serious journalism.

In a fresh display of moral preening, the paper wrings its hands over whether it’s okay for Americans to support the U.S. Men’s National Team at the World Cup now that Donald Trump is president. They found plenty of conflicted Seattle liberals who say they’re “proud to be American” but just can’t bring themselves to cheer for the Red, White, and Blue without feeling icky. One local even replaced his American flag with a Manchester United banner and is openly rooting against the United States.

This is peak modern Democrat pathology. Their patriotism is paper-thin and entirely conditional on their party holding power. While Republican pride in America stays consistently high no matter who’s in office, Democratic pride has collapsed. Only 29% of Democrats now say they’re extremely or very proud to be American, and just 27% plan to fly the flag this Independence Day.

True patriotism doesn’t come with a partisan off-switch. If you can’t support your own country’s soccer team because you hate the guy in the White House, you don’t love America — you love your political tribe. The Left’s growing discomfort with American success and symbols says far more about them than it does about the country.

So, from us here at Shift WA, congratulations to the Team USA’s win in Seattle today – we’re rooting for you!

Read more at Seattle Red.

Opponents of common-sense ballot initiatives backed by Let’s Go Washington officially kicked off their campaign this week with the laughably named “No Hate in WA State.”

The two measures are straightforward: one restores basic parental rights so moms and dads can actually access their children’s school records and medical information. The other simply ensures biological males don’t compete in girls’ sports. Both ideas enjoy broad public support — which is exactly why Democrats and their allies are hysterical.

At their kickoff event, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and various trans activists framed the initiatives as an attack on “vulnerable youth.” Jayapal even claimed the parental rights measure would “out LGBTQIA+ kids” to families that might “throw them out.” The usual emotional manipulation and fearmongering.

The opposition has already raised over $1 million, largely from teacher unions (WEA), SEIU, the ACLU, and other big progressive donors. They’re flooding the zone with cash to defeat fairness for female athletes and transparency for parents.

This is peak Democrat governance in Washington: prioritize ideology and special interest groups over the rights of parents and the safety/fairness of girls. They’ve spent years undermining parental authority in schools and blurring biological reality in sports — and now they’re calling anyone who pushes back “hateful.”

Let’s Go Washington is fighting for exactly the opposite: strong families and protected opportunities for girls. The fact that the Left needs a “No Hate” campaign to oppose basic parental rights and fair sports tells you everything about how far they’ve drifted from reality. Read more at the Washington State Standard.

Three months after Democrats proudly raised taxes to “balance” the supplemental budget, reality has already delivered a slap in the face.

The latest Economic and Revenue Forecast Council update shows General Fund collections came in $103.6 million (2.4%) below forecast for the recent period. Since February, the state is now $135.4 million behind what legislators counted on. Sales tax, business & occupation tax, real estate excise tax — nearly every major revenue source is underperforming.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. The labor market is weakening, employment is falling, unemployment is rising, and Seattle-area inflation is running hotter than the national average. The same predictable pattern under decades of one-party Democratic control: explode spending, create massive budget gaps, ram through new taxes, then act shocked when the revenue fairy doesn’t deliver.

Olympia’s tax-and-spend machine keeps writing checks the economy can’t cash. Now agencies are already being told to brace for major shortfalls in the next biennium.

This is what unchecked progressive governance produces — endless fiscal crises followed by more taxes on working families, with the same dismal results every time. Washington deserves better than this failed governing model. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

Two years after Seattle’s proudly progressive “PayUp” ordinance — which mandated nearly $30 per hour for delivery drivers before tips and mileage — the disastrous results are exactly what critics warned from day one.

As the Washington Policy Center predicted, artificially jacking up wages for independent contractors has crushed the gig economy. DoorDash’s new report shows Seattle’s delivery market has become the most expensive in the country. Restaurant sales growth has stalled at a pathetic 5% while peer cities saw 20–40% increases. Drivers are now earning over 20% less per hour spent on the app, with wait times exploding nearly five times higher. Fewer orders mean the mandated higher pay is spread across far less work.

This is textbook leftist governance in Seattle: pass a feel-good regulation to “help workers,” ignore basic economics, then act shocked when restaurants suffer, customers pay more, and the very drivers you claimed to champion end up worse off.

Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards tried to spin the failure as a success, but the real-world numbers don’t lie. Heavy-handed mandates treating flexible gig work like traditional employment destroy the flexibility that made the industry attractive in the first place.

Another progressive policy, another body count of unintended (but entirely predictable) consequences. It’s time for Seattle to admit defeat and repeal this economic disaster before it does even more damage. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

Seattle City Light customers are about to get hit with back-to-back 9.5% annual rate hikes in 2027 and 2028, adding roughly $10 more per month ($120 per year) for the average household.

The utility cites a massive backlog of infrastructure needs and exploding electrical demand. By 2045, they claim they’ll need more than 3,500 new megawatts of power — double what they use today. Of course, state law forbids using reliable, affordable fossil fuels, so Seattle must chase expensive wind, solar, and other green alternatives.

Add in a recent $1.5 billion settlement with tribes over hydroelectric dams and another nearly $1 billion salmon bypass project, and ratepayers are left holding the bag yet again. This comes on top of the 5.6% hike customers already swallowed earlier this year.

This is the inevitable outcome of decades of Democrat rule in Seattle and Olympia: virtue-signal your way into “climate leadership,” block practical energy sources, pile on regulations and costly mandates, then hand the exploding bills to working families.

Seattle residents already pay some of the highest utility costs in the country. Thanks to progressive priorities, those costs are about to climb even higher — all while the city lectures everyone else about “equity.”

Another classic example of leftist governance: the pain is always passed on to taxpayers, never to the failed ideology. Read more at Center Square.

State Representative and Washington Republican Party Chairman Jim Walsh is dead right to highlight the growing threat to election integrity in Washington and across the West Coast.

California’s recent jungle primary offered a familiar and disturbing preview: conservative candidates led on Election Night, only for waves of late-arriving ballots to mysteriously flip the results in favor of far-left candidates. Here in Washington, we’ve seen this movie before — from the infamous 2004 gubernatorial “recount” that handed victory to Christine Gregoire to other statistically improbable post-Election Day surges.

The core problem is Washington’s dangerously loose election system. Mail-in ballots can arrive up to 21 days after Election Day and still be counted. There’s a broken chain of custody, minimal monitoring, and so many legal loopholes that even obvious problems — like hundreds of ballots recently found dumped near a Renton dumpster — are difficult to prosecute.

Democrats and their allies in the legacy media are terrified of reforms that would restore confidence. They’re especially worried about an impending U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Watson case that could require ballots to actually be received by Election Day. Instead of embracing basic common-sense measures to secure our elections, they attack anyone questioning the status quo.

This isn’t about “democracy” — it’s about protecting a system designed to shield one-party power. Washingtonians deserve elections they can trust. Without real accountability, transparency, and timely ballot deadlines, public confidence will continue to erode. Read more at Seattle Red.