RUJAX!

From PubliCola:

McKenna Belittles Last Week’s Protesters as Jobless, Single, Lazy Loser April 14, 2011 at 12:48 pm by Josh Feit Attorney General Rob McKenna sent out an email today to his supporters that I have to take issue with. The email criticizes the “far-left protesters” and “far-left extremists” who showed up in Olympia last week to protest the current budget proposals—which cut education, health care, and social services—and call for the legislature to look at repealing corporate tax breaks as well. McKenna accuses the protesters of ignoring last year’s election results—where tax increases on candy, soda, and bottled water were rejected and Tim Eyman’s two-thirds rule to raise taxes won big. That’s fair enough (however, recent polling has shown that voters would prefer a budget that combines tax cuts with repealing loopholes.) The part about McKenna’s email that’s simply bad manners is when he accuses last week’s busloads of protesters of (I guess) being privileged enough to take the day off for a day trip to Olympia. He writes:

Unfortunately, average taxpayers don’t necessarily have the time to drive down to Olympia and encourage legislators to hold the line on taxes. They have families to raise, jobs to do and businesses to keep afloat.

The image of snooty protesters rolling down to Oly for a protest is far off the mark. I covered the protests and interviewed lots of protesters, including nurses such as Zandi Hardison and a wife of a longtime utility worker, Donna Simmons, who felt average workers were getting a bad deal.

Here is the full text of the email from the article's comment thread:

That's right, it's less than six months since the historic 2010 election, and already the far-left protestors screaming for media attention are pretending it didn't happen.

In fact, one hard-core tax-and-spend advocate summed up their position succinctly at last week's protests in Olympia: "We don't care what happened in the last election." Don't you think that the message voters sent last year was clear enough? Last fall, voters in our state resoundingly rejected a state income tax and repealed new taxes on candy, bottled water and other items. At the same time they passed, yet again, a 2/3 majority rule for passing tax increases, a measure that majority Democrats have repeatedly ignored and repealed.

No, that message should be clear enough, even for a screaming protester.

Washington voters rejected tax hikes on struggling families and told the Olympia crowd – Make do with the taxes you already take!

It's not that far-left extremists, some of whom were arrested storming the governor's office in the capitol last week, didn't hear that message. They just don't like it and think your elected officials should ignore it.

And that's why the mob was cheering when they heard "We don't care what happened in the last election."

Now that's a pretty galling statement. The far-left position is that everything the voters said last year should be ignored, and they made their voices loud and clear in Olympia last week. They received the media attention they wanted.

Unfortunately, average taxpayers don't necessarily have the time to drive down to Olympia and encourage legislators to hold the line on taxes. They have families to raise, jobs to do and businesses to keep afloat.

So, I do want you to know about one opportunity, perhaps a little closer to your home, where you can make your voice heard. Tomorrow, April 15, I'll be speaking at Bellevue City Hall to the Tax Day Rally 2011 at 11:00 a.m. It will be a great event where we celebrate our state and stand up for the majority of people who DO care what happened in the last election. I hope to see you there.

All the best, Rob McKenna

Stay classy Rob...

Labels: Dumbasses, Greedy Assholes, Republicans