On returning to an unrecognizable home state
A veteran political insider writes a discerning book about being witness to an eventful history. His return to Seattle and his native state brings a shock at discovering how a once-exceptional political climate had soured into something depressingly like that of the rest of the nation, where the people's real needs are not addressed with forthright leadership.
Editor's Note: The following is excerpted with permission from a new book by Ted Van Dyk, Heroes, Hacks, and Fools: Memoirs from the Political Inside (University of Washington Press, 2007). The book recounts the author's long career as a key advisor on presidential campaigns, to Democratic think tanks, to foreign affairs groups, and to other key organizations. Van Dyk grew up in Bellingham, Wash., and graduated from UW before heading East for a fascinating life in public affairs. In 2001, he returned to his native state, settling in Seattle and writing a regular column for the Post-Intelligencer. In this excerpt, he describes what he found in Seattle and Washington state politics upon his return.
Van Dyk will read from his book and take questions at an author event at Town Hall (Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street in Seattle) on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 7:30 pm. Tickets are $5 at the door.
Seattle had changed greatly since my time growing up in the area, and even since my brief return in 1978-80. A region previously dependent primarily on Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, and a few other huge employers had become diverse. New companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Costco, and a wide array of high-tech and biotech firms had broadened the local economic base and made it less vulnerable to cyclical swings. The city's culture had become vibrant. World-class art, architecture, and performing arts were now embedded in the city's daily life, as were the popular-music and arts scenes. The Gates Foundation had become a philanthropic powerhouse.
The city's demographics had changed, however, in an even more marked way than in other big cities. The Seattle School Board had voluntarily instituted compulsory busing for racial balance in the late 1970s at precisely the time that other communities around the country had given up on it. As kids were bused from their neighborhoods and instruction levels suffered during the transition period, thousands of parents moved with their school-age children to the suburbs or enrolled them in private schools. Students remaining in the public-school system were disproportionately poor or members of minorities. Dropout, truancy, and delinquency rates shot up. In addition, school system mismanagement created a huge funding gap. Public schools that a generation earlier had been at the center of Seattle neighborhood and community life became marginalized. I recalled Seattle's Memorial Stadium being jammed with students and parents for Friday night high-school football games. By 2001 the games were being played before scattered handfuls of spectators. The city had fewer school-age kids than any other big city in the nation except San Francisco.
The middle class had fled the city not only because of the schools. It also could no longer afford housing in Seattle. Home prices – bid up in part by high-tech instant millionaires – had risen to the highest level of any city north of San Francisco and west of Washington, D.C. Working families and senior citizens already owning homes found their property taxes rising beyond their means. They could sell their homes at a profit, but afterward could afford to buy only in lower-cost suburbs.
I was most surprised to find that the populist, feisty politics of the city – historically associated with practical liberals such as Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry Jackson – had changed as well. The city remained solidly Democratic. But its nominally nonpartisan city offices were no longer graced with the periodic Republican mayor or City Council members who had helped provide balance. Preponderant opinion on national issues appeared to fall somewhere between Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich. Howard Dean would be a favorite of city Democrats, and endorsed by the party's state chairman, during the 2004 presidential nominating process.
Yet the city governance conducted by the same people was less Ralph Nader than Benito Mussolini. Seattle mayor Paul Schell, a real-estate developer and cultural liberal, had been unseated after one term for his failure to deal effectively with 1999 WTO and Mardi Gras violence in the city. He was succeeded by Greg Nickels, a lifetime political worker, who narrowly defeated moderate Democrat and City Attorney Mark Sidran. Nickels promptly instituted major subsidies for developers – including an estimated $500 million to $1 billion subsidy for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's commercial real-estate development on South Lake Union. He endorsed multibillion-dollar public works schemes including monorail and light rail systems that proved to be far more costly than alternative bus and bus-rapid-transit options.
Nickels' and City Council members' ties to developers such as Allen and the rail projects brought them re-election campaign money from the network of law firms, consultants, contractors, subcontractors, unions, architects, financial institutions, and engineering firms involved with the projects. It proved a handsome bargain for the donors, who could provide thousands in campaign money and, in return, receive hundreds of millions in public money approved by mayor and council. Local business and media establishments generally accepted the situation uncritically.
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 9:18 a.m. inappropriate
Another spot to have to avoid Ted's writing: So, we should do away with the gay pride parade?
The citizens of Seattle over the last three decades have grown up and learned to be fair and inclusive. Is there still hope for Ted?
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 10:13 a.m. inappropriate
Pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Blue Moon?: Wow. That is one depressing article. I think what Ted needs is to belly up to the bar at the Blue Moon. That worked for me when I returned to Seattle after a decade away. Perspective returns in the Moonlight, and things don't seem nearly as bad as they do when you drive through, say, Ballard these days.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 11:01 a.m. inappropriate
Oh, Ted, spare us!: Anyone who can write something like this, presumably with a straight face:
"But its nominally nonpartisan city offices were no longer graced with the periodic Republican mayor or City Council members who had helped provide balance."
can't expect to be taken seriously in this day and age. Face it, Ted -- and you, too, Brewster; you're the SINGLE worst offender -- the day of the "Dan Evans Republican" is gone forever.
There is no hope for "bipartisanship" with these Grover Norquistites. They want to "drown government in the bathtub." They want to dismantle everything that people worked to build in the 20th Century. Their brand of governance failed us in the 1890s, in the 1920s, and during the sad time of the Reagan and Bush Administrations.
One more thing. anyone who calls Dino Rossi a "moderate" is living in la-la land. Go away, Ted, and take David with you.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 11:12 a.m. inappropriate
Take Ted, but Leave DB: Wait, Ivan...we'll keep David. He gave us the original Weekly. (Emphasis on "original") It was a good paper (even though he edited DB Houston's articles rather heavily and only paid him 3 cents a word.) Check out the Weekly archives at the downtown library some time--I think you'll agree that Mssr. Brewster has earned some slack.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 11:18 a.m. inappropriate
RE: Another spot to have to avoid Ted's writing: The excerpt doesn't say anything about doing away with the parade, it just lists it as one of many distractions that keep people occupied while the "ruling class" runs amok. Far from "grow[ing] up and learn[ing] to be fair and inclusive" Seattle, and its lebensraum (the rest of Western Washington) have become vain, arrogant, closed minded, narcissistic, politically correct, lazy and self important. Other than that, yeah, it's little changed from the 60s. :-)
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 12:56 p.m. inappropriate
On moderate Republicans: Ivan is right - the Republican party's dramatic and frightening lurch to the right makes bipartisanship impossible for anyone who values civil liberties, not to mention sound military and economic policy. And keep in mind, Rossi emerged in 2004 when Bush was at the height of his power. Rossi is every bit the Bush Republican, and you can count on him to screw our state just as Bush as screwed the country.
On Brewster, though, I don't think Ivan is quite right. In calling for bipartisanship, Brewster isn't trying to appease the right wing. He's trying to coax thoughtful people on the left and right back to the pragmatic center. Personally, I'd like to see the writers at Crosscut take more of a firm stance against authoritarians and ideologues who dominate national politics, but I can certainly respect Brewster's strategy of trying to seek common ground with local Republicans who are actually reachable.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 1:39 p.m. inappropriate
Many of the people with whom Ted Van Dyke worked in the "old days" would probably vote GOP today even though they were Democrats back then. At best, they'd be treated like Sen. Joe Liberman, who is about the closest thing I see in the national Democratic Party to Scoop Jackson.
How do Seattle-area and national Democrats treat him?
The strident militancy of the left - netroots, DailyKus (that's what's on there, so might as well call it that), HorsesAss.org, WashBlog, BlatherWatch, the Seattle P-I and Roger Oglesby (perhaps the worst of the lot), etc. - isn't something about which Seattle should be proud. Increasingly, these elements push the political discourse to a delusional, fingernails-on-a-chalkboard level.
That so many "mainstream" types scratch their heads at the points of view and tactics of those of us on the right comes, it seems to me, more from an unwillingness to grasp the fact that there are, in fact, others besides your own.
While there has been movement on the right, an equivalent, if not more strident, movement has occured on the left, and it has, indeed, dragged Seattle with it.
In his day, Warren Magnuson was as pink as they come, so it's utterly fascinating to see one of his former legislative assistants lambasted as a junior level Karl Rove while demanding that Crosscut become a house organ for the leftist lunacy de jour.
Grover Norquist is right: much of what government does today deserves to be drowned in the bathtub, and yesterday's overwhelming passage of the legislation to reinstate I-747 indicates that even our Democratic govenor and an incredibly strong majority of Democrats in both the House and Senate at least implicitely acknowledge the right of the people to fill that tub.
Not odd at all that Seattle legislators represented the bulk of the miniscule opposition to that effort.
Conservatives, evangelicals, values voters, Bush supporters, free market types, and the like may be anathema to many of you, but we are out here, we are vocal, and we're not about to either go away or shut up; liberals won't get a free pass from us!
The Piper
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 1:56 p.m. inappropriate
Whine, Whine: Try reading the Kline quote on the front page of the Paper today - for example.(I'm not sure whether it is the TNT or the Times - I get both currently on the weekend.)
Reality is not a shouting match, it can be much harsher than that. You better believe when the losers downtown start feeling the squeeze from the rest of the state not bailing them out you are going to feel it too. Keep screaming for all I care, maybe it will help ease the pain.
As for me, I'm for accountability first. Sadly to say I don't think Downtown Seattle professionals have enough money in the bank to bring themselves current on that account.
They have a word for that - it's called bankruptcy. FWIW a market crash in the housing market is the only solution to the 'affordable' housing crisis. Call it god's will, if that makes you more comfortable.
-Doug
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 1:57 p.m. inappropriate
Grandpa Crosscut: It is bad enough that we have to read Grandpa Van Dyk in the PI telling us how much better things were in the 60's--now Crosscut prints him too?
Remember it doesn't have to be good to be classic...
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 2 p.m. inappropriate
Harrassers.org: Although I only have problems with 'Will@Horsesass.org' I must admit I find this interpretation of their corporate name satisfying. My apologies to all who might find the repetition boring.
...It's still making me happy...
-Doug
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 2:06 p.m. inappropriate
I like that...HarrAssers.org. Or, HorsesHarAssers.org...
Thanks, Tooley; I'm going to add that to my repetoir of blogging terminology when posting among the HA Happy Hooligans.
Would you like me to credit you? Or would you rather not be flamed?
The Piper
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 4:20 p.m. inappropriate
RE: A quick word from the right...: "Grover Norquist is right: much of what government does today deserves to be drowned in the bathtub"
What government programs are you talking about, Piper? The unspeakably expensive and pointless Iraq war? The huge give away of public money to Halliburton for the "rebuilding" of Iraq. The donation of public land and parks to Weyerhauser and Exxon? The grants Bush gives to Christian charities peddling ineffective abstinense programs?
Or are you referring to the dwindling fraction of a percentage of the federal budget that is spent on programs like basic and medical science, transportation infrastructure, disaster recovery, education, and farm subsidies?
Tell me, which of these do you and Grover Norquist want to drown?
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 5:14 p.m. inappropriate
NOBODY WANTS TO ARGUE, PIPER: You done good. Had to be said.
"Republican party's dramatic and frightening lurch to the right"
That phrase, somewhere above, caught my eye. Recently we had a Democrat in the leadership of the House of Representatives saying, "it's a problem..(for democrats)" if things go too well in Iraq.
Just who is lurching here?
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 7:16 p.m. inappropriate
RE: A quick word from the right...: Come on Scott, don't be a coward, answer the question, what do you want to drown?
You write in odd colloquialisms like "fill that tub" (to drown babies), but you really never say much that has any practical application. Vocal yes. Meaningful, not so much.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 7:17 p.m. inappropriate
i noticed during the last election: that port of seattle commissioner elect bryant, of whom i think as "son of pat" [no "son of sam" god forbid] managed to beat the upstanding civil servant alec fisken by a carp's whisker with a last minute radio ad campaign, and with 130,000 of the 480,000 voters not voting at all for that actually quite important commission post - important at least to certain commercial interests who put up 300 k dolares in bryant's behalf. bryant as far as i am concerned is a nauseating demagogue [he ran on three red herrings to an ignorant electorate], it happens of the far right, a bush cheney man all the way... so that is the way that a pooplikan of that kind can win. seattle might as well be called a moderately conservative republican city except that it doesn't appear that way on first sight. these are nuances. seattle is more repressed still than whence all the folks originated in europe.
as to world class art... i am not quite sure where mr. van dyke was when on the east coast. but having come to know the authentic kind fiscally responsible republicans that he recalls so fondly, yes they are still around, and they are more than pleasant, personally. scoop jackson was a cold warrior military contract earmarker all the way. main stream the way that stream was flowing then.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 8:33 p.m. inappropriate
RE: NOBODY WANTS TO ARGUE, PIPER: Well, if you'd attribute your quote to an actual person, than we'd know who is lurching. Please tell me - who said that? My guess is that it was Chris Matthews or Bill O'Reilly. Or more likely, you copied it from some bs piece of right-wing propaganda.
I miss the good old days of the cold war when the enemy was a genuine totalitarian state. No one on the right or left would have tolerated our government spying on American citizens, putting the executive branch above the law, or whisking away people to secret prisons where they'd be held without charges and tortured. That's what the KGB and the Stasi did, and we all believed our country was better than that.
Amazing how quickly we forget, and how low the standards we set for ourselves have sunk.
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 9:15 p.m. inappropriate
Cliches abound...Big, bad Haliburton (name another contractor who could do the work?) and the ultimate bogey man: Iraq.
Before I get to a list of bogus programs, wasteful spending, and boondogles, I might as will annoy many of you now by reiterating my support for the Iraq war. Given that I have two sons in uniform, mine isn't a cavalier or nonchalant POV; I'm pretty invested in this. My oldest has spent over 18-months in Kuwait, Iraq, and most recently, Afghanistan. My youngest aches to go.
BTW...enlistment terms what they are, I have to believe every soldier and Marine serving today either enlisted or re-enlisted since the Iraq War started. Think on that...on that level of commitment and sacrifice.
As to programs to slash? To start, anything named "National Endowment For..."Admittedly, a drop in the bucket, but after a while you get enough drops and you can fill a bucket. The
">Heritage Foundation identified a few rather rancid bits of pork from the proposed 2008 budget:
$2,000,000 to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service,
$1,000,000 to the Clinton School of Public Service,
$200,000 to the Andre Agassi College PreparaÂtory Academy,
$500,000 for Our Piece of the Pie,
$50,000 to Everybody Wins!,
$400,000 to the Montana World Trade Center,
$3,743,014 related to the Formosan subterraÂnean termite,
$1,500,000 to the AFL-CIO Working for AmerÂica Institute,
$100,000 for signage and streetscape improveÂments in the Los Angeles Fashion District, and
$100,000 to the Hunting and Fishing Museum of Pennsylvania.
Not too long ago, The Seattle Times ran an indepth article on earmarking practices of our own Congressional delegation. Pretty porky there, too, like over $4 million in 2002 for a boat the navy didn't want. I'm all for cutting it completely out of the budget, especially since the government can't find a buyer for the boat.
On the state and local level, the overwhelming thumping received by this year's winner of the Porky Pig award, Prop !, was a demonstration of how the public can and will look at something unrestrained and bloated and say, in a loud and emphatic word, "NO!"
And courtesy The Evergreen Freedom Foundation :
"Washington's General Fund State (GFS) operating budget will have increased by $19.5 billion or 188 percent since the 1987-89 biennium. During the same time period, inflation will have increased only 61 percent. Should the legislature follow her budget blueprint, the governor will have increased GFS spending by 26.5 percent since taking office."
When the state budget increases three times the rate of inflation, you can't attribute that to anything other than larger, more expensive, more intrusive government taking more from the people who end up with less.
If the quality of anyone's life is dependent upon a government program, then I submit that life is pretty pathetic. There's a difference between those in genuine need and the increasing number of people with resources of their own who receive government largesse. The receipt of government help should be an absolute last resort, never an alternative to paying out of your own pocket.
Since I'm limited to 4,000 characters, I'll close with these tautologies: "The power to tax is the power to destroy," and, "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." Government should be restrained, not encouraged to grow.
The Piper
Posted Fri, Nov 30, 11:05 p.m. inappropriate
re: a few platitudes from the right: "If the quality of anyone's life is dependent upon a government program, then I submit that life is pretty pathetic."
Nice work, Piper, you've just insulted anyone who has attended public school, taken a road trip in a car, cashed a social security check, required sustained medical treatment after losing a leg/arm/mind on the battlefield, watched Sesame Street, traded securities, guarded our borders, delivered your mail, called the police or fire department, visited Old Faithful, served in the military, taken out a student loan, or purchased anything with US currency.
Funny - if it weren't for federal regulations mandating that the telco companies provide money-losing service to rural areas, we wouldn't have the privilege of reading your platitudes on this web site. Actually, if it weren't for government programs that made cheap electricity available to rural areas, you and your friends in eastern Washington would literally be in the dark. Hmmm, maybe the government is overreaching.
As for the pissant programs you'd like to cut, if you feel that passionately about them, the let's cut them. You'll have a whole extra $.00000000000000000000000001 in your pocket as a result. Hell, double that amount, brother, since I'll gladly donate my share. You'll also have the satisfaction of knowing that those who have fallen upon misfortune aren't living it up on your 1/trillionth of a dime.
As for your alarming statistics showing a state budget spiraling out of control, do the terms "inflation" and "population growth" mean anything to you?
Posted Sat, Dec 1, 9:33 a.m. inappropriate
Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
While the collective social compact calls upon us to jointly bear some responsibilities - common schools in Washington being a paramount responsibility of the state - too often it seems the more public funds that are spent, the worse things get. Ted Van Dyke's thesis squares with this.
There was a time when Metro League football teams couldn't be beaten by anyone on the Eastside. Now, the quality is such that KingCo AAAA is dominated by teams such as Bothell (even this IHS Vik says, "Go Cougs!") not so much because they've gotten better, but, rather, because the previously robust nature of Seattle schools has gotten anemic and weak for reasons Van Dyke suggests and more. Want proof? Danny Westneat's columns in the Seattle Times detailing his struggles with a bull-headed school district bent on political correctness, not education, are a quick Exhibit A.
At the state level, dismissing the outrageious growth in the state budget as inflationary or the result of population growth is to compliment the emperor on the splendor of his new finery.
The Washington Office of Financial Management estimates state population as of April 1, 2007 to be 6,488,000, an increase of just under 2 million (43.3%)over the 1987 figure of 4,527,098. Couple this with an inflation rate in approximately the same period of 61%, and you still can't explain a growth in state spending of $18.5 billion or 188% since the 1987-89 biennium.
Certainly, the General Fund State spending increase of 26.5% in the three-years since Christine Gregoire took office can't be explained by "inflation" or "population growth."
Constitutions are intended not to empower government, but to protect the people from government power. No one said it better than Mark Twain, "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress," and "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
Many of the things that should be at the top of government's priority list - public safety, infrastructure, etc. - get swept under the carpet in favor of pork, earmarks, and booty for the home district. Read the Heritage Foundation report on the 2008 budget deliberations when, even after the Twin Cities bridge disaster, funds for bridge repairs were ignored in favor of pure slush and waste.
A good friend of mine who is very experienced in these matters said, "We MUST prioritize government spending, for one thing, and quit buying flower boxes in lieu of the extra police car." My friend is not of my political persuasion.
When government screws up, where do I go for a refund? What competitor is out there to whom I can turn for an alternative? No one...I'm stuck and I'm screwed.
Consider the mess ferry commuters out of Keystone are in with the pulling of vessals with corroded or cracked hulls. This can't be a new revelation to the state, yet customers are left in a lurch with no alternative.
Consider, also, the mess of Child Protective Service in DSHS and the millions of state dollars being paid out in damage claims on account of negligence, mismanagement, and more that has resulted in serious injury and even death to children who are wards of the state. To uncritical apologists for the glory of big government, it's money well spent, I'm sure.
Bunk!
To be dependent upon government is the same as an addict being dependent upon junk.
The Piper
Posted Sat, Dec 1, 10:08 a.m. inappropriate
ACTUAL QUOTE: Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us."
Washington Post, July 30, 2007
Posted Mon, Dec 3, 9:58 a.m. inappropriate
Ah, but Mr. Piper... about the 61% population growth vs. 161% budget...: Your math does NOT include all the new responsibilites of the STATE that the FEDERAL Government has now passed on... from Highways to Education to Social Services... No Child Left Behind is one of the Major UNFUNDED mandates that the States now HAVE to pick up... and closer look with find many many more. Mr. Bush and Company have done a bang up job of cutting at the Federal Level while expecting the States to either pay up or lose it. That includes funding even things like the National Guard... Who the Feds have called up to Fight in Iraq besides federally paid troops, and federally paid mercinaries... but now costs the state more... With many serving full time in the Iraq, we had to hire out more fire fighters when our forests were alight.
One of many many examples of cuts to federal funds that now cost the state a lot more. Would you have kept level or CUT the fire fighters on wildfires? Especially on land owned by major NW timber companies?
Good figures, but NOT fully inclusive of all the additional responsibilities passed along to the states...
SO I ask again... who would you drown?
Major infrastructure and services that USED to be funded federally have become a STATE responsibilty... and our ever expanding budget reflects that.
Tim got the cost of tabs cut... but you still want your roads in good shape... and we keep discovering more issues with old designs that did NOT take into account that Seattle is built on 7 earthquake faults...
The 520 bridge could never have been built by todays FEDERALLY MANDATED standards... so when it sinks, or is replaced, the new, and much more expensive standards have to be met... without the budget once generated by those tabs... enjoy your lower tab cost as you now spend two hours driving AROUND Lake Washington.
So don't blame the locals for loving increased budgets... thank GWB and company for forcing the states into that position.... because you still want your bridge... and your car...
Posted Thu, Dec 6, 12:39 p.m. inappropriate
Loss of the great American middle: I think that Ted is commenting on is the loss of the great American middle class. Whatever the faults were from the New Deal to the The Great Society, the focus was on building a strong middle class. After stagnation in the 70's, the Reagan revolution introduced a new economic platform that began with all the Wall Street excess and mergers of deregulation and tax breaks and subsidies to large corporate entities and individuals. Many Democrats began to get on the gravy train of the same big donors so both parties had a convergence on economic policy known as neo-liberalism. There has been a loss of the countervailing forces that keep a democracy robust and protect against the concentration of power in one sector of the society. Seattle went from being one of the great middle-class cities of the US to being a very very expensive place to live. There are a whole array of reasons for this but the neoliberal policies have certainly been one of the prime movers. I can only guess how dramatic that change would be to someone who grew up here and came back after a long time away - also, someone associated with a more traditional democratic party that did put the middle class at the center.