After bad poll, Harrell, Davison sue Trump for the cameras

It seems Bruce Harrell and Ann Davison think Seattle voters have the memories of goldfish.

With flaccid polling numbers and strong challenges from campaigns led by people who will actually push for the policies articulated in the state and national Democratic party platforms— and after months and months of capitulation, and quietude in the face of Trumpian authoritarianism, Bruce Harrell and Ann Davison have decided it is time to sue the Trump administration for the cameras.

They announced this yesterday.

And—SURPRISE—it just so happens that today through Tuesday is when most voters will vote in the upcoming primary election (ballots due Tuesday!).

In addition to fooling absolutely no one into believing they are resistance libs, their clumsy attempt at a strategic move betrays their contempt for the intelligence of the people of Seattle.

It’s like they think voters are idiots.

All this follows way too much of nothing from Harrell and Davison in the face of authoritarianism and state-sponsored kidnappings. Since Trump has been in office, Seattle’s executive leadership has embodied everything people hate about about the failures of Republican and Democratic leaders and other institutions to push back against Trump.

Just a reminder: When Trump—a known sex predator who instigated a violent insurrection and who vowed to turn the US government into a corrupt vehicle for getting even with his enemies—was elected to office—Bruce Harrell’s first public words about Trump were to the Washington Technology Industry Association, and he said:

“I’m not going to D.C. with my fist balled. . . That’s just not how I lead, “I look for opportunities … no matter who’s in the White House.”

After striking this collaborative-with-Trump tone, he followed up with a speech to the downtown real estate lobby. As reported by Publicola: “Mayor Bruce Harrell appeared to praise President Trump for bringing “smart innovators” like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks into his inner circle at the White House.” He said:

“We know that our current president surrounds himself by some of the smartest innovators around… When we drop names like [Marc] Andreessen or Peter Thiel or David Sacks or Elon Musk—these are smart innovators.” Publicola also reported that he soon mused that he had gone “off script” (no kidding!) and that later his staff tried to spin his comments as a critique of Trump.

Similarly, Ann Davison - who chose to become a Republican after Trump took over the party - delayed joining other sanctuary cities in a lawsuit defending our residents for months. Even when she finally did join, she couldn’t manage to suggest that her action had anything to do with human rights - it was about MAGA friendly things like “local control.”

Look, I’m not saying these two have done absolutely nothing. Harrell is a Democrat, even if he’s really, really bad pretending he is a do-something Democrat.

Like, he did make positive comments when Davison finally joined that lawsuit in May. But that was after months of abuse by the Trump administration, and only after it became apparent both his and his GOP ally’s jobs were under threat.

Harrell has also finally agreed to let voters decide if they want to plug (a fraction) of this year’s budgetary shortfall with a very small increase in corporate taxes. (This also got started after he had bad poll numbers against his opponent). Granted this follows after last year when he gutted funding for affordable housing to fix a budget gap that could easily have been handled with a modest increase in taxes on the rich.

Re: the new tax—Harrell has echoed the actual do-something Councilmember Rinck in saying this tax is designed to help protect human services from Trump - but one of Harrell’s lackeys on the council is already trying to divert the money away from from any required ties to social services. 

And that’s it. That’s been their entire resistance effort, from what I can tell.

But when Harrell and Davison smiled for the cameras yesterday, and Harrell said nice things and used acronyms like DEI and LGBTQ+, they seemed to think Seattle would be bamboozled into believing our leaders with long feckless records had suddenly become warriors in defense of the defenseless.

Their long history of political choices—not just about Trump, but whose side they regularly choose when it comes to the rich/powerful versus everyone else—makes it clear whose side they are on.

And it’s not ours.

PS. Props to anyone who recognized Jim and Tammy Faye in the headline picture—the famous huckster televangelist couple who swindled the faithful (including, I think, some of my most beloved relatives) out of millions of dollars.