Liberal Republican Suburb Turns Furious with G.O.P.

[Divernan]

www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/us/politics/30voices.html?pa...
The New York Times
BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 24 — The M.B.A.’s have had it. The engineers are fuming. Bellevue, Wash., is far less Republican than it was years ago. For as long as anyone here can remember, Bellevue has been a stronghold of socially liberal Republicanism. First, it was a prosperous Seattle bedroom community, then a technological boomtown, where employees of Microsoft and Internet start-ups consistently voted for fiscal restraint and hands-off government. But now, voters here are accusing the party in power of overspending and overreaching — and when they do, they sound like people who write manifestos, not software code.
***********************************************
“I am a Republican and have traditionally voted that way,” Tony Schuler, an operations services manager at Microsoft with a Harvard M.B.A., said as he sat with his wife, Deanna, in their home above Lake Sammamish. But Mr. Schuler abhors what he sees as a new Republican habit of meddling in private affairs. “The Schiavo case. Tapping people without a warrant. Whether or not people are gay,” he said. “Let people be free! It’s not government’s job to interfere with those things.”

In Bellevue, the professional is political. Rather than religion or culture, what unites the diverse population — a quarter of residents are foreign born — are the values of their workplaces: technological innovation, accuracy, efficiency. And this year, one issue incenses them above all others: restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. It is a matter of concern across the country, even across parties. But for many engineers and their ilk, restriction of stem cell research is what gay marriage is to conservative Christians, a phenomenon so counter to their basic values that they cannot vote for any candidate who supports it. After all, for Bellevue’s professionals, science is not only a means of creating wealth but also an idealistic pursuit, the most promising way they know of improving the human condition.

“For hundreds of years, science has had its own jurisprudence over the truth. It’s called peer review, and it works pretty well,” said Mr. Mattison, whose father had Alzheimer’s and his uncle Parkinson’s disease. “I’m outraged that a mere politician would interpret science for me.”

[freeplessinseattle]

1. This is so good to hear, thank you!

I am going to send this to everyone I know in this area, they will be pleased.

[liberal N proud]

2. Sounds like some of them are starting to think!

[C_U_L8R]

3. Pssst... you might be a Democrat after all

Any Republican who looks at their own party
with shame or pity needs to get out now.
They don't represent you.. and you know it.

[Stuckinthebush]

4. Isn 't that the truth

I think many people who say they are Republican are imagining a Republican party that no longer exists. Many of the people I know who say they are Republican and have progressive ideologies are confused as to what the GOP stands for these days. The names "Democrat" and "Liberal" have been demonized for so long that it is difficult for many to get past the labels and say, "Wow...I agree with these guys."

[dogfacedboy]

9. Back in the days when

the Republican party was more legitimate, my Dad was what you might call a "socially Liberal Republican". He "Liked Ike". He had respect for Kennedy, and the assassination horrified him. I can recall my Dad saying, even back in the 60's, that the whole thing "looked awful funny." He couldn't stand Nixon, and I can clearly remember him saying "Nixon and his crew are going to destroy the Republicans." I was only about 10 y.o. then, and didn't understand the political world yet, but I watched my Dad drop his Republican affiliation. He not only went with the Democratic party as a voter, but he became an activist for local/national Democratic party candidates. And he never went back.

[Toots]

5. They must not realize it is all by "Intelligent design"

Ask any real conservative...

[SpiralHawk]

6. Free clue: the republicons have been systematically lying to you

people of Bellevue, and all the USA, for a long time...


Wake up and smell the corruption, perversion, and the handing over of tax revenues to halliburton and other R cronies, while shafting our veterans and the poor.

Wake up Bellevue, and all of America.

The republicons hate us for our freedoms.

[leesa]

7. ?new Republican habits of meddling? Remember anti-communism purges?

new Republican habits of over-spending? Republicans have ALWAYS handed out Corporate welfare and defense industry welfare like candy.

There's nothing new here, you just closed your eyes to it.

[kurth]

8. Exactly. Remembrances of things past that never existed

Freaking morons.

[ronnie624]

11. My thoughts exactly.

And lets not forget how the corporatist Republicans were smitten with Mussolini and Hitler back in the 1930s. And their attempted coup d'etat against FDR.

There's nothing new about the Republican Party.

[aaronbees]

23. Bingo!

I think it's the obvious overreaching that's turning the tide here as people realize just how far the current Repubs will go. But you're exactly right, it's no different than traditional Repub meddling and paranoia.

[Ediacara]

10. I grew up in WA-08, in Redmond

which neighbors Bellevue to the northeast. This very much sounds like Reichert's going down.

[maxsolomon]

12. the perspective from the WA 7th district:

my neighbors across the lake sound like they're about half-awake. the auto dependent nightmare they've built has addled their brains & left them no time to think deeply.

Reichert is a clown who's main claim to comptetence is taking 20 years to catch a retarded serial killer.

[Johnyawl]

13. I live at the southern end of WA-08

In the low tech suburbs of south King County. I don't see a lot of support for Reichert here, neighbors that would normally have all the republican signs in their yards, have nothing this year. No Reichert, No Mike!, no Steve Johnson (rw asshole running for State Supreme court), no signs at all. This area has been trending Democratic for the past few years, and coupled with the obvious lack of enthusiasm amongst the repug stalwards, and what I'm hearing doorbelling the undecideds, I'm pretty encouraged about Darcy Burner's chances. And if the hiTech republiberatarians are deserting the republican party (which they should) Darcy should be able to pull this off. She is after all one of them. Harvard graduate (on a scholarship!), Microsoft exec, now retired and raising her kid, husband still with Microsoft.

[maxsolomon]

16. don't you just love RETIRED 35 year olds?

i live next door to one.

i'm too busy paying bills to be jealous.

[pnwmom]

21. It's not that unusual among mothers of three year olds.

And she won't be retired if she goes to Congress, will she?

In her case, all that "retired" means is that she left one job before seeking another.

[maxsolomon]

24. mothers of 3 year olds only say 'retired'

when they are former microsofties.

otherwise they say they are on the mommy track.

[annabanana]

30. hmph

There's no such thing a '"retired" mother of a 3 year old... they are just plain "tired".

[geniph]

18. Not everyone across the lake is "auto-dependent"

Bear in mind that a whole hell of a lot of people who live on the eastside, or in the south county area, also work in those areas. That's why some of us live here. Not everyone works in Seattle. And there's plenty of Seattle residents heading across the lake to work.

[pnwmom]

20. Wipe the smug look off your face.

Bellevue hasn't been the Republican enclave depicted in the article for years. A third of the residents -- more than in Seattle -- are foreign born. Kerry carried Bellevue, and so did Gore. Patty Murray and Cantwell both did, too.

You're living in the past . . . or else you're the one that's half awake.

[lovuian]

14. They are realixing Bush is destroying the

Middle Class and trying to take their Social Security...

[greeneyedboy]

15. the era of the "small gov't" GOP is over. ditch the tax & spend Republicans.

[geniph]

17. Pisses me off they call Bellevue a "Republican" suburb

It's no such thing. It's very much a swing district, and always has been. The money used to all be in the hands of Republicans in the Bellevue precincts, but that is absolutely not true any longer, and hasn't been for many years.

[pnwmom]

19. It's been 20 years since it was a Republican suburb.

Interestingly, a third of the residents are foreign born. Democratic candidates have been winning elections in Bellevue for years. It's a swing district, but the whole suburban area has been trending liberal for quite some time.

[wholetruth00]

22. The Republican theatrics surrounding the Shiavo case turned the tide.

These unscrupulous, low life bastards weren't really concerned about Terry, they just wanted to make a political point that sounded good with the unthinking, uncaring Christain RW fanatics. They went too far.

[goforit]

25. Good old Harvard MBAs......Harvard has always been so over rated.

Voting republican is as stupid as one gets.

Considering the "greed at all costs" logo they are famous for, certainly a Harvard MBA would figure
this one out....... A price to pay

[beltanefauve]

28. You got that right!

"Greed at all costs" is where a lot of these "Republicans" are at. And I've met PHD's from the Lawrence-Livermore Lab area who also identify "Republican". Goes to show that people with book smarts can be "branded" just as easily as any sheep.

[Canuckistanian]

26. Bellevue, WA. - The anti-Florida

And both at the extremes of the country, politically and geographically.

[Delphinus]

27. Music to my ears.

Let's hope they're worse than fuming - let's hope they're outraged!

[Odin2005]

29. It's official, we have a realignment on out hands.

The libertarian types are switching sides en masse.