Progressive policies have caused such harm that some previous supporters and many former neutral observers have begun asserting that these expensive ideas are simply not working.

Seattle Times  columnist Danny Westneat details in his September 30^th article, “West Coast cities start to confront the limits of the liberal dream,” how Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison (joined by Tacoma and Spokane, and by the progressive West Coast cities of Portland and San Francisco) signed onto an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down previous lower federal court rulings which allow “camping” in public areas.

The article states that the progressives’ expensive and ineffective “Housing First” policies are not capable of solving the region’s ever expanding homelessness crisis. Westneat writes that the many West Coast cities who joined in the appeal are “acknowledging that the well-meaning effort to house all the homeless, for years now a widely espoused goal, isn’t actually possible.”

Westneat then described the financial impact of the policy on cities who have literally spent billions of taxpayer dollars, “The reality (is) that homeless populations continue to rise.”

Not only does the article draw attention to the fact that many progressive communities are finally seeing the errors of their ways, but that even some members of the normally liberal friendly media (such as Westneat) are also acknowledging that many progressive ideas have failed to deliver on their promises.

Steve Murch, a politically independent software entrepreneur, stated in a blog post, “West Coast Progressives: It’s Time to Show Your Work,” that he became politically active  after witnessing how progressives failed on a wide array of issues.

Murch writes, “Despite lots of promises and years of investment, it’s hard to think of many significantly improved outcomes for public safety, education, addiction, health and urban ecology that came from progressive policy pushes in the past decade.”

Murch is critical of progressives who argue that “more investment” (i.e. more tax money) is needed to make them effective. Murch points out that current progressive policies have made many problems even worse, and pouring more public money won’t make them suddenly successful. He asks, “How many programs do you know of that miraculously turn the corner from demonstrated negative effects on society to overwhelmingly positive effects when scaled up by 10x or 100x?”

As more people are joining the ranks of those who are critical of the progressives’ failed policies on homelessness, crime, drugs, and many other issues, the extremists who defend these measures have been forced to make some pretty ridiculous statements in their defense.

KTTH’s Conservative talk Show host Jason Rantz uses some of these silly arguments in his satirical article “Hard Rock Café closing boggles the mind.” On the MyNorthwest website Rantz writes as if he is a typical progressive warrior who simply cannot understand why people are blaming radical policies for Seattle’s many problems.

Rantz mimics the progressives when he writes that Seattle’s many failures must be the result of a maniacal Republican conspiracy. “There’s a cabal of conservative business owners destroying their own businesses to generate bad press for Seattle. Capitalists are evil, am I right?”

These three articles show a slight change in Seattle’s political landscape. Westneat’s article revealed that many liberals have become frustrated by the lack of success of progressive homeless policies which have made the crisis worse.  Murch explained in his post that moderates will no longer give progressives a free pass.  And Rantz comically displayed the utter silliness of progressive’s arguments.

We will know soon whether these changes are reflected by Seattle voters. On November 7^th seven of the city’s nine council seats are up for election. Voters will decide between a slate of candidates who represent the current failed policies and those who are calling for more moderate measures. 

On another related note, we encourage our readers to watch the Future 42 segment of Brandi Kruse’s [un]Divided podcast. She is critical of those in Seattle’s liberal establishment who have taken joy in seeing one uniformed resident tell FOX News that people here are not worried about their safety. Kruse states that evidently these liberals, who have constantly downplayed the city’s rising crime rate, have already forgotten about the random tragic killing of Eina Kwon and the random brutal attacks by a man wielding a hammer just last week.