King County Executive Ron Sims is running for the Democratic nomination to be the next Governor of Washington. But Sims's platform is so much about unrestrained government that the Democrats might just as well nominate Robert Mugabe instead.
 |  |
| Zimbabwean Dictator Robert Mugabe | King County Executive Ron Sims |
Sims is crafting a campaign message he hopes will appeal to devout Democrats. He's promising the sky for education and vowing to make health care available to all.Okay, they differ on gay rights, but that's a minor detail. The important thing is to keep the people poor and ignorant. That's the Mugabe way! The problem is not that Sims is merely in favor of taxing and spending, it's that he champions unrestrained, unaccountable spending:Too costly? No problem; he's putting together a proposal for a state income tax. He's speaking out in favor of gay marriage and against charter schools.
We differ dramatically. I would fund education. [opponent Christine Gregoire] says, 'We have to have accountability first,'" Sims says. "People cite accountability when they don't want something to happen."Actually, people cite accountability when they want something to happen well. Sims's resistance to accountability is not just campaign rhetoric. He's delivered on his promises of badly run, unaccountable government for years.
And like Robert Mugabe, Ron Sims confiscates privately-owned land for "the people" and he also uses illegal methods to crush his opponents!
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 16, 2004 11:04 AMWe won't take this too far. What is he doing to family farms? But you have the basic idea. And good links.
Posted by: Ron on April 16, 2004 01:09 PMIf elected (G-d save us), Sims could also follow the infamous Mugabe “reparations” strategy which would appease both the “devout democrats” (read: unabashed leftists) and his main campaign donators, Casino owning Indian tribes. That is right, force all the whitey WA state farm owners off their land and hand them out evenly to Indians.
Posted by: Naarski on April 16, 2004 01:27 PMStefan,
At first I thought you were posing a humorous photo comparison, but really this is a bit over the top. As bad as the things Sims stands for are, they aren't remotely in the same league as those committed by one of the most vicious tyrants currently ruling. I'll retract my objection if you come up with evidence that Sims is having his political opponents permanently silenced, and/or is arming gangs of thugs to prowl around King County.
As far as humorous photo comparisons, I still think Mike Lowrey and Yasser Arafat look surprisingly similar, but I quit using gag lines about it ("Hey--anybody ever seen Lowrey and Arafat at the same time? Hmmmm") once Arafat launched the Intifada because I thought it was in atrocious taste.
I'm with Kirk on this 100 percent. It's in poor taste, and smacks of the Bush/Hitler comparisons. Criticize the man's proposed policies without making the murderous dictator comparison.
Posted by: Greg on April 17, 2004 11:21 PMI agree with Kirk and Greg about comparing Sims to Mugabe.
That being said, Sims would be a disaster for WA. No personal income tax is one of the great policies that drives the WA economy. Institute a personal income tax and many rich people and their businesses will move to no tax states such as TX, NV, WY, SD or FL.
Posted by: Reid on April 18, 2004 06:52 AMRon Sims, Patty Murray and Jim McDermott are not the problem. It's the voters who are either too stupid to recognize these clowns for what they are or mind numbingly believe the policies these leftists advocate lead to a better world. Unless voter fraud put these idiots in office, the problem is the electorate.
Posted by: Gary B on April 18, 2004 11:31 AM