I know most people are living in or near Seattle. Mathematics and statistical distribution says it’s not possible.
But I must comment on one of the worst scandal-not scandal’s I’ve seen in some time.
Ed Murray is the embattled Mayor of Seattle. The reason he is embattled is because it has come to light that his adult past may not be as “clean” as we’d all expect of a mayor.
First, some men that are younger than Mr. Murray came forward alleging that when they were teens, he paid to have sex with them by offering them drugs as well as cash. Allegations like these never look good in public, but I would agree that these allegations alone are not a reason to resign.
But, those allegations started gaining traction in the form of court hearings. Murray, continuing to run for re-election, boldly said that these allegations were part of a “right-wing conspiracy” aimed to take him down.
And that’s the point that I had to raise an eyebrow about his involvement in these alleged past discretions.
If you know anything about Seattle politics, they haven’t had a conservative, or “right-wing” anything in the city since James Braman, who last served as mayor in 1969. Since then it’s been an onslaught of progressively aggressive left-wing ideologues, with Murray being the most recent iteration of that group.
Murray, along with support of the majority of current Seattle City Council, has ushered in the left’s economic scourge of raising minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. They’ve made a mess (yet again) of both the drug and homeless problems in the city, they’ve gone after property owners in Seattle, who in their opinion, are charging too much for rent for certain apartments – going so far as naming a law after a landlord which is prompting a legitimate lawsuit, and the final piece of Murray’s tenure, instilling an income tax against what his council has defined as the “wealthy” of Seattle. In case you’re not catching the theme, these are all examples of major pillars of the far left argument concerning their version of economics, which is suppose to place the common person first, ahead of those that are high earners and innovators.
And for those that are further perplexed, here’s the straight dope: These kinds of moves within any government, can’t be accomplished by the first group in support of them that has achieved a majority of office. It takes years, upon years, upon years to get the right kind of momentum going. Usually, somewhere between 40 and 50, and we’re at 48 years of progressive liberalism in Seattle.
There certainly are conservatives in Seattle and Washington State, but to think that they could organize such an effort to take down an openly gay mayor is comic relief at it’s finest.
The fact that Murray uses that reasoning for these allegations only helps solidify them. Though it will take a court to sort the mess out.
But, if that wasn’t enough, more problems with Murray’s past came to light, to include a very damning report from his life in Oregon, where he had adopted a child. In the report, the investigator who was looking into accusations of child abuse, made clear statements that the adopted child Murray had should have been removed from the home by the State of Oregon, and there was a strong likelihood of both physical and sexual abuse occurring in the home.
It’s this revelation of fact that causes me to put my foot down and state loudly that Ed Murray must resign. He’s argued that he won’t leave office, because it would cause more problems, with a power vacuum occurring within the council.
The main problem with this, whether the media mentions it or not, is that Murray is failing to respect the desires of the citizens of Seattle. Despite politics, despite ideals, no citizen in any citizen wants a child abuser as a mayor, nor should they have to accept that. Murray effectively makes the argument that citizens don’t care enough about their own city to work to remove him, which is essentially the only option, since it is clear the council is not going to take action to remove him. These issues with Murray started to break publicly around February of this year. It’s August now, and the council has verbally said they’d like him to leave, but they’ve done nothing to remove him, which they have some power in. But more to the point, if they truly stood for children’s rights, which they’ve invoked about four dozen times over the last five months, you’d think the first thing to do is begin removal proceedings. There’s no legal grounds for Murray to sue, he serves at the pleasure of citizens, and there’s nothing in law that stops council members from energizing the cause.
And considering that Kshama Sawant, who is the biggest liability on the council, if you read the link news story, you would think this is a no-brainer for them to get started, since she stuck her nose in the business of the City of Seatac, which also had a push for a $15.00 an hour minimum wage.
But of course, while the council has strict rules on their members getting involved in other municipalities politics, they didn’t enforce it with Sawant then, which then allowed the politcally-motivated Seatac judge to dismiss the criminal charges on the worst legal grounds ever uttered in a court of law.
And since it’s clear they’ll let a council member act criminally, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ll let a mayor, whether or not the statute of limitations has been reached. But this is why the citizens of Seattle need to take this effort on. Because until they do signal their supreme interest in having ethical leadership, this kind of terrible circumstance is going to continue to visit this fair city multiple times.
On a side note, this might be the reason that voting down party lines is a bad idea. It gives people the chance to fast-track themselves, despite their inability to maintain a proper life. Of course, that idea can be used subjectively, but I think this example states it very well. While there is no question that no one helped Murray do any of the despicable things he’s been accused of, or been found to have done, it is clear that due to a liberal-friendly media, a liberal-friendly citizenry, and delegates, advisers, business leaders, really a whole apparatus of political “clergy” who were friendly to a politician like Murray that has allowed him to serve as long as he has without anyone digging into his background.
It ought to be concerning to citizens that it took until May 2017 for the child abuse investigation to be made known, seeing as Murray has served in as a State Representative in Washington State for several terms before becoming mayor. Those findings were made in the 80’s. How was the press not capable of finding this out?
All the more reason for citizens to take over their own cause, which is the city, and forced Murray to resign, or face recall.
Matthew Ballantyne 