Assuming there are no huge last minute upsets in the ballot counts, the 2018 Election went locally about as I expected. The Red Wave met the Blue Wave and we got mostly slack water nothingness, maybe a purple bruise? Really how much change, better or worse, are we going to experience when our local representative races all ended up forty nine something percent to 50 something percent? It’s just people voting colors and tribes, almost nothing is happening.
My perceptions of my local representation:
- Doug Ericksen should have won by a large margin, but instead it looks like he is winning by hundred votes, give or take a few, which means that he just got called out for all his fast talking shenanigans and self-promotion, which in turn means that he should keep looking for another job because he likely won’t be keeping his gig as our State Senator after the next election.
- Luanne Van Werven has done a fantastic job representing us, but came out narrowly ahead of her absolutely unqualified opponent simply because he was riding the Blue Wave, a sad witness to our local divisions
- Sharon Shewmake, if I can read between the lines a bit, did slightly better than just the color of her wave because she intelligently conveyed common sense ideas and refused to demonize her opposition. I look forward to her making waves of her own color down in Olympia.
Overall, I saw Whatcom County, at least the northern districts, as a bit of a microcosm of our nation’s current political division. Too many candidates, elected officials and voters becoming mini political extremists by doing things, saying things and repeating things without thinking for themselves. Too many people dismissing or simply ignoring the viewpoints of others instead of processing them.
On to the people’s initiatives:
As long as local governments play catch and release with mentally ill and/or violent people, normal everyday people are going to want to exercise their right to keep and bear arms as they see fit, in order to protect themselves and their families. – Our nation’s Constitution says that our right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon, yet the passing of I-1639 by well-intentioned people have done just that, infringed on our right to bear arms as well as our right to privacy. I have no doubt that this will be tested in court very soon, if not already.
As long as local governments play catch and release with mentally ill and/or violent people, law enforcement officers should be able to defend themselves and protect everyday people unencumbered by excessive regulation or unfounded threats of prosecution. – Again, well intentioned people have passed I-940, which solves a problem that doesn’t exist, but it sounds good so people voted for it and now cops have to learn another rule for the same game of protecting us and them from harm.
As long as predatory food and soft drink companies are pushing unhealthy and often addictive products into a community, normal everyday people should be able to come together and protect themselves through taxes and/or fees aimed at reducing the consumption of product they feel are harmful to their community. – Fantastically misrepresented as a ban on grocery taxes, the passing of I-1634 will go down in history as a win for large soda companies and a loss for the next generation of Americans.
As long as we are burning carbon based fuels such as natural gas, diesel, gasoline, and coal, we have a responsibility to ourselves and future generations to remove excess carbon and other unwanted byproducts of combustion from our atmosphere regardless of any perceived or proven ill effects such as climate change, ocean acidification, etc. – What can I say? Oh, I can say that I wish that I-1631 had passed so we could quit talking about the price of gas and get on with addressing the billions of tonnes of carbon pollution that we dump into our air every year
Check out my post Ferndale School Bond – 2018 Fail for a recap of… well the 2018 Fail.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
So with that note ends the 2018 Election season. Now begins the 2018 Holiday Season of bike riding and home projects…gotta keep my balance.