[continued from previous message]   
      
   > he called Wilson’s plan for 4,000 homeless shelter units “fantastical,”   
   > and crippling to the city budget. In a news release, he contended doing   
   > it in six months, by the World Cup, would increase the city’s deficit   
   > “by hundreds of millions of dollars” (her platform, though, calls for   
   > that many units spread over four years).   
   >   
   > “Add to this other unachievable promises with vague spending attached   
   > like municipal grocery stores, taxpayer funds for online blogs, and   
   > summer child care, and Wilson is selling Seattleites a bill of false   
   > goods with checks that can’t be cashed,” Harrell’s campaign said.   
      
   the rest of it is   
      
   The other pressure point is political. Affiliating with Democratic   
   Socialists means having to answer, fairly or not, for the group’s posted   
   national platform. Some of which is bonkers.   
      
   That platform calls for freeing all prisoners in the country, apparently   
   from the Green River killer on down. It supports defunding the police   
   all the way to zero. It calls for nationalization of “critical   
   technology companies” — where the government takes over private   
   enterprise rather than just regulating or taxing it.   
      
   The platform is so extreme that some Democratic officials have called   
   for New York’s socialist mayoral front-runner, Zohran Mamdani, to either   
   distance himself from it or get out of the Democratic Party.   
      
   “I don’t want that in my party,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democratic   
   congressman in New York, said this past week. “Capitalism has raised   
   more people out of poverty than any other system in the history of the   
   world. Create more innovation. Socialism has failed everywhere.”   
      
   These are the stakes — no less than the crackup of the Democratic Party.   
   The spotlight won’t be as hot in Seattle as it is in New York City, but   
   it will shine.   
      
   Can Katie Wilson sell a softer socialism without fracturing the   
   Democrats? Will it work without driving big business out of Seattle?   
   We’re about to find out.   
      
   This article was changed after publication to add detail about Wilson’s   
   homelessness plans.   
      
   Danny Westneat: dwestneat@seattletimes.com. Danny Westneat, a metro news   
   columnist at The Seattle Times since 2004, takes an opinionated look at   
   the Puget Sound region's news, people and politics.   
     View 1485 Comments / 1485 New   
      
      
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)