In 2014 Seattle Decided To Vote Socialist. Guess What Happened Next.
Seattle- In 2013, a relatively unknown lawful immigrant from India named Kshama Swant decided that she was going to run for office as a socialist. She was an economic instructor in the city and a member of the Socialist Alternative Party. She had previously run unsuccessfully for the house of representatives but lost. In the race for city council though, she won.
She ran on a far left socialist platform of raising the minimum wage, passing a millionaire’s tax, and pushing for the passage of the now repealed Head Tax on Amazon, the city’s largest employer.
She would say things like “When things are exquisitely beautiful and rare, they shouldn’t be privately owned,” and this appealed to her district voters. Multiple times business leaders came together to try and oust her, but she would soundly defeat challengers.
One thing Kshama admits is that a socialist utopia cannot exist without becoming global. That’s why she wants to expand her socialist system outward, wherever Capitalism is. She used her council position as a podium to bully the already leftist Mayor into passing her socialist party agenda. It worked. And the city came crashing down for it.
Minimum wage laws have caused mass layoffs and inflation in food prices throughout the city. millionaire’s taxes have caused rent prices to spiral upward, and scared away developers from building any more properties in the city.
And homelessness, which she had said she’d eradicate, has gotten so bad that Seattle is now among the leaders in homelessness.
Shortly after all of her policies were enacted that she had promised, the city saw already skyhigh prices soar even more in housing, rent, and food.
And it follows a trend seen in other liberal cities too. A recent study found that the more liberal a city’s policies, the worse it’s homeless rate.
The study also finds that:
9 out of the 10 states with the worst homelessness rates are liberal
New York City has the worst homelessness rate in America
San Francisco is a close second
Since Seattle elected Socialists to office, their homelessness rate has skyrocketed
New York Went Socialist the same time
New York City went through tumultuous times during the littleship of leftist Democrat Mayor Dinkin.. crime, homelessness, vagrancy, and lawlessness soared during his tenure. Citizens swore never to elect another far left politician to office as Mayor. And then Mayor Deblasio happened.
Bill Deblasio ran for Mayor on a very liberal near socialist platform that New Yorkers have generally been pretty good at not falling for since the Dinkin years.
Deblasio’s pledges included the usual; a wealth tax to pay for universal kindergarden, a $15 an hour minimum wage, ending stop and frisk policies, expanding paid sick leave. He’s also seen cigarette tax increases. All of these policies though, have sent New York City into tailspin.
The homeless crisis has gotten so bad, the New York Post recently reported that the city buys it’s homeless one way tickets to Hawaii to get them out of the city.
It’s gotten so bad, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams told new people to New York to “Go Back To Iowa.” He’s been attacked for the statement that is seen as racist, since he has also supported protecting illegals in the city.
Racist: NYC Politician Tells People From White States To Leave, Invites Illegals To Come
According to a study conducted of homelessness and and affordability levels in Cities across the country over the past decade, one thing is clear: Democrats are not good news for city life.
Cities that spiral too far democrat and stay there, tend to see homelessness sky rocket, and prices of rent and housing double or in some cases triple, in just the course of 10 years. It’s even worse in cities that are double whammed by a Democrat controlled State that passes liberal state laws onto the already beleaguered municipalities.
Other Liberal Cities are following a similar trend
This news should not come as a surprise to those paying attention to the politics of large liberal metro areas like Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.
Especially San Francisco.
San Francisco has blue skies and perfect sunny weather much of the year, but entering the city you’ll find a different story. 2019 saw the beginning of what some economists have been predicting would happen for awhile; economic apocalypse. Over 400 restaurants closed in 2019 alone. Restaurant owner Gail Wilson closed down her two decade old San Fran establishment, Memphis Minnies, blaming minimum wage laws. She laid over over a dozen employees.
“When you have a small restaurant, the minimum wage is a huge part of the finances,” Wilson said at the time to the San Francisco chronicle. “Even a small dip in sales” can be stressful financially. “It makes it hard to keep going.”
Meanwhile on the homeless front, the city spent over a quarter billion dollars on homeless services. And yet, more and more homeless keep coming to San Francisco. Nobody can understand why.
The Mayor has made it a top priority to increase funding even more for the homeless epidemic in 2020.
And the city has an even bigger problem from the thousands of homeless living on the streets; they have no where to defecate. According to data, thousands of public defecations are occurring every day throughout the city, faster than the city services can pick up the feces.
As for Kshama Swant, it looks like she’s not going anywhere any time soon. She just defeated her 3rd challenger, winning election for another term.