My best friend was so incensed by the political race in her town ... she bought a bullhorn!
Burien, WA sits in the southern end of King County, home to Seattle, coffee culture, and a long-standing belief that individuals need to speak up when things are just WRONG! So when anti-immigration forces decided that—if they couldn’t get current city governments to discriminate against immigrants by standing in front of them DEMANDING IT—they would run candidates for city counsel who WOULD … concerned citizens like my best friend stood up en mass to stop them.
This entire mess can be explained with one website, RespectWashington.us. The group set about trying to convince Burien citizens that they should demand their city government reverse the ordinance instructing county employees to NOT inquire about a citizen’s immigration status during the course of normal city business … and insist that they stop being an “evil Sanctuary City” that allows rapists, murders and drug gang members to run free on their streets.
Reporters from The Stranger—the local alternative paper—quickly discovered that the group was funded by a Michigan-based Anti-immigration group, which further strengthened local opposition to that kind of hatred.
A quick look through PDC filings revealed that the biggest funders of Respect Washington, the group behind the repeal petition, is US Inc., an organization founded by John Tanton. Tanton—dubbed the "racist architect of the modern anti-immigration movement" by the Southern Poverty Law Center—and his organizations have been funding anti-immigrant activism and publishing white nationalist and white supremacist literature for decades.
The haters started with a petition, looking to force the city into a repeal of its Sanctuary City ordinance. Since Burien isn’t quite as progressive and/or liberal overall as Seattle—it’s more of a blue-collar town when compared to the more liberal bastions in our county—the hate-filled petition ultimately encouraged a certain segment of the population to sign it. It pushed the idea, among others, that the increase in crime in the area—100% brought on by the ever-growing population of the area, taking it from rural bedroom community to basically CITY in barely two decades—was really being fueled by the influx of illegal POC who didn’t share “our” values.
When the petition ultimately failed to complete its agenda—thanks to down votes from several vocal members of the city council—Respect Washington and their backers turned to, instead, financing candidates to displace those same city council members. Along the same time-frame, they began a mis-information campaign in the city as well, including sending out a flier that supposedly gave concerned citizens the addresses of local undocumented immigrants who’d committed crimes. That outrage sparked one of many protests and marches supporting the immigrant population of Burien, and decrying the hate many citizens—including my best friend and her bullhorn—saw at the bottom of this group’s actions.
Respect Washington’s response? There wasn’t anything wrong with their flyers, since they didn’t include apartment numbers on the addresses. REALLY?!?!?!
Supporters of repealing the city’s sanctuary status also used vandalism as one of their tools, including spray-painting “F**KING MEXICANS” on one man’s RV. It’s a strategy we’re seeing more and more in this country: use hate-filled PACs to spread the official word, and then use their petty, small-minded followers to do the dirty work.
Local protestors responded by showing up at city council meetings in growing numbers, bringing more and more protest signs off the street and putting them right in front of their lawmakers.
I won’t bother to rehash the entire story here. If you’re interested in a blow-by-blow, many fine local journalists have covered it in great detail. Googlefinger in your favorite web browser, and you’ll find tons on both sides of the story. I just wanted to make sure that other Progressives across the country and our DailyKos community heard about it, too … because I think it’s every bit as inspiring as the wins in VA in this last election cycle.
The final tally tells it all! According to the city’s own blog:
<blockquote>On Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 14), King County Elections released the sixth round of results for last Tuesday’s election, and we can safely call this race a sweep for the progressive slate.
In 2018, the Burien City Council will welcome its first Latinx members – Pedro Olguin and Jimmy Matta – as well as Krystal Marx and re-elected incumbent Nancy Tosta.
Our city’s next “non-partisan” council will go from a 4-3 split favoring moderate/conservatives to a 5-2 progressive leaning one.<blockquote>
So the bottom line here should be obvious: STAND UP, PROGRESSIVES! YOUR VOICE CAN BE HEARD! And if you feel like your voice maybe isn’t loud enough … buy a bullhorn!