Not anger, disillusionment: deciphering the voters
Polls indicate a surge of resignation about government following the Hurricane Katrina non-performance. That, more than populist rage, seemed to be driving the recent election. To fix it, better to start outperforming expectations.
OK, voters, what's the message here? Are you angry? In a throw-the-rascals-out mood? With Tim Eyman riding high again on passage of another of his perpetual monkey-wrench initiatives, maybe you're just taxed to the max and not going to pay for it any more?
Reading the electorate's collective mind is risky. While roads-and-transit Proposition 1 failed in metro Puget Sound, it did so in part because a makeshift coalition for the anti-roads left and anti-tax right came together. There are obvious other reasons - the package was too big, the conversation leading up to the vote was too narrow, large portions of the tri-county Regional Transportation Investment District felt there wasn't enough for them. And then there are all those folks who didn't vote, given a turnout estimated at 28 percent.
And if national pollster John Zogby is right, you can blame the negative mood on Hurricane Katrina. Zogby, in the state recently to address the Association of Washington Business, said his polling post-Katrina shows a marked disillusionment with all of government. The haphazard, callous response to Katrina by government at all levels was witnessed throughout the nation day after relentless day. Zogby said the response snapped the fundamental trust relation between the public and government. As if Iraq hadn't done that already.
Traveling around the region, I don't sense a populist anger or a mad electorate. It's more like disillusionment and resignation. There is no compelling issue. We blew off some steam this spring with the waterfront tunnel-vs.-Viaduct vote, and we're all concerned about global warming. But we still sit in our cars in gridlock. To some degree, we've become numb to ever fixing a problem as intractable as congestion. We're disillusioned, doubtful that our region will ever develop a coordinated, multi-modal transportation system like our neighbors, Vancouver and Portland.
If you look at the abysmal voter turnout, you can imagine that the majority of voters cast their ballot for none of the above or simply opted out.
For Democrats looking ahead to 2008, the Age of Disillusionment should be particularly troubling. Dino Rossi will certainly try to capitalize on some of this at the state level with his challenge of Gov. Chris Gregoire. Word from Olympia is neither the governor nor state House Speaker Frank Chopp wants a big transportation measure on the 2008 ballot, fearful that Democrats will be tagged with raising taxes.
Politicians, consultants, and the media have all contributed to the malaise. Elections are supposed to be about choices and contrasts. While no one liked the tone of some of this year's races, compared to California or some states in the South our campaigns remain relatively prissy. Tame as they are, they do little to rouse the voters or build mandates for change.
So how to break the Age of Disillusionment and restore some voter trust? I'd grab a page from Jim Ellis, the legendary father of Forward Thrust. Ellis always figured it was better to under-promise and over-deliver.
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Comments:
Posted Thu, Nov 8, 1:51 p.m. inappropriate
Not anger, disillusionment...strategic: There was a Crosscut editorial awhile back supporting roads and transportation Prop 1...something about 'it's as good as it gets'...not good enough. The dialogue coming to me since Tuesday's election results and Prop 1 defeat is strategic--we won, now let's get to work. There is no anger or disillusionment. Defeat of Prop 1 was a strategic manuever that said: do not build more roads; take care of the roads and bridges we have; and pay attention to global warming. The roads and transportation packet [Prop 1] developed over the last 5 years was no longer relevant to the world we live in today.
Posted Thu, Nov 8, 4:19 p.m. inappropriate
Light rail partisans may have to look themselves in the mirror and ask whether that fantasy isn't a taxpayer's nightmare.
Why not busses? On improved roads?
One commentator in another blog talked about the inevitability of greater fuel efficiency and cleaner cars; how soon before we're all in hybrids?
The people said: Don't raise taxes, don't make it easier to raise taxes, and, while we're at it, let's make raising taxes that much harder!
It's not just about Seattle and immediate environs, so the Seattle-centric POV cannot dictate. Who were big losers? Gov. Gregoire, Mayor Quarters, John Ladenburg, and, even though he opposed Prop 1, Ron Sims (he opposed it for the wrong reasons).
It's time for these perennial poor planners to step aside and let other, more visionary people take the transportation reigns. I know one in particular whose head is screwed on just right, but I'm forbidden from mentioning the person's name.
No more representing Seattle or King County or Sound Transit or whatever...It's time to represent the entire regioin unbeholden to any other jurisdiction or issue.
Until all this is radically rethought, we'll just have Son of Prop 1, and it will come from a very illegitimate birth.
The Piper
Posted Thu, Nov 8, 5:15 p.m. inappropriate
RE: Different message...: Ladenburg is a double loser because he was counting a a big Prop 1 win to give him a leg up on the State AG race against McKenna next year. May he rot in Pierce County.
Posted Thu, Nov 8, 10:38 p.m. inappropriate
Visionaries? We dont need no stink'n Visionaries: The Piper suggested that we need visionaries to come up with new transportation plans--
Those wouldnt be the same "visionaries" who squandered a quarter of a billion dollars on the Seattle Monorail are they? Gee, hope not.
Posted Sat, Nov 10, 10:22 a.m. inappropriate
I'm not interested in those who think the sun rises and sets only south of NE 145th, and the rest of Pugetopolis can go hang.
What I would like to see is an assemblage of leadership who don't come representing the legislature, KCC, Seattle, Sound Transit, or anyone other than the people and the transportation needs of the region.
Maybe some will have experience in, say, the legislature, but their allegiance will be exclusively to transportation issues and needs.
What I absolutely would be appalled at is a Julia Patterson-type. She represents elitist thinking and doctrinaire pre-determined decision making. Her tantrums and whining are legend, and exactly the attitude no one needs. That she was as dumb-struck as she was at the defeat of Prop 1 says she was too beholden to it and too out of touch with what clearly was a loser everywhere in the region save the ultra-liberal 43rd Legislative District.
Her time has passed...Time for new, outside the box thinking that comes to the table with no presumed solutions nor prejudices against options or opportunities that might be considered politically incorrect.
Bottom, bottom, bottom line...on the issue of transportation, it's been a very long time since the people were accorded respect. We're the ones who drive/ride/move and we're the ones who'll pay for all this. Why, then, haven't we been the ones whose interersts were put first and foremost?
Rather than this company's preference or that environmental organization's dictates and agenda or some politician's personal pork barrel agenda tied to his future career plans, why not what's best for the people of the region?
Novel thought that, eh what?
The Piper
Posted Sun, Nov 11, 5 p.m. inappropriate
RE: Visionaries...: Interesting choice of scapegoats, here... I'd take a Julia Patterson and give you a John Ladenburg to haul behind the woodshed- except that John's probably more to your liking, ie a hide-bound, bought-up fighter for that developmental sprawl into the Cascade foothills (or prairies- I'm sure Fort Lewis looks pretty ripe to John)... or wherever. Myself, I believe that light rail coupled with up-to-date infrastructure renewal- with a few important highway add-ons- will fly. maybe they should all fly separately, though... so that we don't need some Transportation-only Wonks to tell us what we need... and Where. ^..^