The Hard Right Turn of the local GOP–and who’s signing on
Last Sunday, August 20, was not Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht’s first concert in Spokane. In fact, Mr. Feucht brought his brand of far right wing religio-politics to the Spokane Pavilion on August 21, 2022, almost exactly one year ago. Then Feucht’s event was advertised on Redoubt News. Organizers included local “Pastor” Matt Shea’s “On Fire Ministries” as well as Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point USA”. I noted the coming event in my August 15, 2022, post, “Another Trumpist Christian Grifter Comes to Spokane” and wondered which local Republican officials or candidates would join Feucht and Shea on stage. If any did so, it did not make news.
Of course that concert was just prior to the 2022 midterm general election. That was before Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich finished out his term and left for Wyoming. Knezovich was a rabid critic of Matt Shea over Shea’s ties to militant white supremacy, Shea’s “Biblical Basis for War” document, and his years of lobbying for a new theocratically based 51st State, the “State of Liberty”. Even before Knezovich stepped down at the end of December 2022, the SpokaneGOP took another hard right turn. Local allies of Matt Shea and Caleb Collier used Steve Bannon’s “precinct strategy” to elect Shea ally “Pastor” Brian Noble as chair of the SpokaneGOP. Predictably, “Pastor” Noble appeared on stage at the opening of this last Sunday’s Feucht/Shea rally. He appears with other “pastors” and leaders in the photo below on the far left in the light blue shirt, symbolizing the shift of the local Republican Party rightward in alliance with Shea and Feucht’s toxic Christian Nationalism. (Noble’s “Christianity” was on display in his Facebook interview with Rod Higgins. See Can Brian Noble Hear Himself?)
Surely City of Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward took note that the SpokaneGOP endorsed candidate for mayor in the primary election was Tim Archer, not Nadine. (This is the Tim Archer who insisted repeatedly in a pre-primary debate that “Spokane doesn’t have a homelessness problem, it has a government [law enforcement] problem”. Since Shea and his allies now control the Spokane County Republican Party (SpokaneGOP), Woodward likely imagined that hitching her Christianity to the Christian Nationalism of the Feucht/Shea/Noble “Let Us Worship” event would attract support from the far right. Without Ozzie Knezovich around to stiffen her spine, Nadine found herself literally embracing Matt Shea, hoping to garner little notice from the wider City of Spokane community.
In the unlikely event that she did not grasp what these people stand for, then she is clueless and has no business continuing as mayor. Even the title of the Feucht tour, “Let Us Worship”, was born of mis-information-based protests against Covid-19 restrictions. Feucht’s history of far right agitation should make him politically radioactive.
Other than Let Us Worship Merch, the first thing you see is a @TPUSA[Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point USA”] booth recruiting young Christian Nationalists to the GOP.
Given the hard right turn of the local SpokaneGOP it should come as no surprise that Earline “Earl” Moore, Republican candidate for City of Spokane City Council (District 3, NW Spokane), would appear on stage along with Nadine. If you live in northwest Spokane, take the opportunity this November to reject Christian Nationalism. Vote for Kitty Klitzke for City of Spokane City Council, the candidate with actual experience in local government.
P.S. If you spend time on social media you will read comments by Republicans indignant that the Feucht/Shea/Noble “concert/worship” event was widely criticized. The criticism is characterized as a “cheap shot” at their freedom to worship. Of course they ignore christo-fascist overtones of the Feucht/Shea/Noble faction of Christianity. We need to understand that Christianity never was, and is not now, a monolithic belief system and that the “Christianity” of the Feucht/Shea/Noble brand is a thin veil barely concealing naked far-right politics. This is not the Christianity in which I was brought up. (See RANGE Media’s “Faith leaders call on Woodward to formally support separation of church and state”, published late yesterday.)
I thought the following Facebook snippet by MJ Bolt, Vice Chair of the SpokaneGOP, was particularly telling—and inane. Absolutely no one is proposing to curtail her freedom to worship. Ms. Clausen’s “BTW – God’s in charge of climate change” is emblematic of Republican Dominion Theology. For Ms. Clausen God gave us dominion over the world and God’s in charge—so there can’t be anything wrong with “Drill, baby, drill!”.
Woodward, Moore, and Yaeger ally with Christian Nationalists
For any who missed it, last Sunday evening the Christian Nationalist Pastor/Songster/Political Agitator Sean Feucht and his ally, disgraced former Washington State Representative (LD4, Spokane Valley to Mt. Spokane) Matt Shea, held a long-scheduled concert/worship service/right wing political rally at The Podium in Spokane north of the river. The event was originally scheduled to be outdoors at the Pavilion, but smoke prompted a move to The Podium an indoor concert venue.
Several local candidates for public office attended the event and appeared on stage with Feucht and Shea, including City of Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, City of Spokane City Council candidate (District 3, NW Spokane) Earl Moore, and City of Spokane Valley City Council candidate and chairwoman of Spokane County Moms For Liberty, Jessica Yaeger.
Mayor Woodward, who in past years denounced Shea and his militant right wing extremism wound up literally embracing Shea on stage Sunday evening. She must have figured she could show her true colors to this crowd and the people of the City of Spokane wouldn’t notice—but she discounted modern day social media. At least in part thanks to former Pastor Joseph Peterson’s post (at @josephdpeterson) on “X”, formerly Twitter, (see one of his photos shared below)—Woodward’s appearance made front page news (pasted below) in yesterday’s, August 22nd’s, Spokesman—along witha scathing, must-read opinion piece by Shawn Vestal in the Northwest Section.
Mr Vestal writes:
Just how politically radioactive is Matt Shea these days?
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward is about to find out.
Shea – the former state rep, Bundyville radical and far-right pastor whose own party booted him from its legislative caucus after he was declared a “domestic terrorist” for his actions in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation – has long been a bellwether for far-right radicalism in our region.
From the Liberty State to the Church at Planned Parenthood to training boys for “biblical warfare” to COVID conspiracies to Stop the Steal rallies, if it’s hateful and nutty, Shea’s in the mix.
Woodward’s attempts in the aftermath to pretend that she thought she was attending a prayer event for victims of the regional wildfires are laughable—Shea’s and former City Council President Ben Stuckart’s refutations of her claim (in the article pasted below) give it the lie it deserves.
In Peterson’s photo pasted above Mayor Woodward is receiving the blessing. Sean Feucht stands with his guitar, his left hand on the Mayor’s right shoulder. “Pastor” Matt Shea stands behind Feucht’s outstretched arm. City Council Candidate Earl Moore appears on the far right in the photo, her finger pointed to heaven and Jessica Yaeger stands to Moore’s right with dark hair and a white top.
Prior to the Spokesman coverage, RANGE media published two great articles I urge you to read (and sign up to receive RANGE articles):
One wonders if Joseph Peterson, Aaron Hedge, and Luke Baumgarten pointing out the candidates participation in this local Christian Nationalist event was the spark that drew the extensive coverage in the Spokesman.
Emry Dinman’s writeup that I’ve copied below is excellent. If you have a subscription click the link to see more of Joseph Peterson’s coverage of the event.
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward is facing calls for her resignation after she appeared on stage Sunday night and received a blessing and endorsement from former state Rep. Matt Shea, a controversial figure and religious extremist.
It came as smoke from fires in Medical Lake, Elk and elsewhere shrouded the city. Woodward and City Council candidate Earl Moore joined Shea on stage at the Podium during Sunday’s stop on the Kingdom to the Capitol [K2c] tour. The religious and conservative political series was organized by self-declared Christian nationalist Sean Feucht and his organization Let Us Worship, as well as Turning Point USA Faith, a recent offshoot of the broader organization founded by right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk.
Placing a hand on Woodward, Shea called on the crowd to join him in prayer as the mayor extended her hands forward.
“I want you to extend your hands right now,” Shea said. “Because we’ve got an enemy we need to fight, and his name is Satan.”
In 2016, Shea led a group of lawmakers to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where Ammon Bundy and other armed protesters were involved in a standoff with federal officials. Shea said they made the trip to help negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff; local officials said they had asked the legislators to stay away.
In a statement Monday afternoon through the Woodward re-election campaign, the mayor wrote she was not aware that Shea would be at the event or leading her and the crowd in prayer, and that she did not seek or accept Shea’s support.
“I am opposed to his political views as they are a threat to our democracy, and I regret my public appearance with him,” she wrote. “I was invited to share in prayer with several thousand citizens out of heartfelt concern for fire victims, first responders and our whole community.”
“I was not aware that he would be at the event last night and it only became apparent as I was walking on stage that he would be leading the prayer,” Woodward continued. “I should have made better efforts to learn who would be speaking at the event.”
The Woodward campaign, which originally suggested Woodward would be available for an interview, did not immediately respond to clarify whether an interview would still occur. Shea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, Shea took to Twitter on Monday evening to dispute Woodward’s characterization of events.
“This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus,” Shea wrote. “It wasn’t for ‘fire victims.’ She was invited and she accepted BEFORE the first started on Friday.”
“She is the one that politicized what everyone knows was a worship event,” he added. “We are praying for Nadine.”
Moore initially declined an interview, saying only that she was a “prayer warrior,” and that she did not know Shea would be in attendance. In a text shortly before 2 p.m., Moore added that she was invited by a personal friend.
“I was not standing on a platform of any individual, but there to pray for my city and for unity,” Moore wrote. “I stand strong against hatred of any kind.”
Feucht, who ran unsuccessfully in 2020 for Congress in Northern California as a Republican against Democratic incumbent John Garamendi, is best known for holding outdoor concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. He held these as a form of protest in response to mask mandates and other pandemic-related restrictions.
Former City Council President Ben Stuckart, who ran for mayor and lost to Woodward in 2019, cursed repeatedly as he responded to Woodward’s assertion that she was not aware Shea would be at the event and rejected that Woodward attended to pray for the victims of the region’s ongoing fires. It was well known that Shea would be in attendance, and the views of Feucht alone should have been enough for the mayor to stay away, Stuckart said.
“It’s just so disgusting,” Stuckart said. “If a Christian white nationalist asks you to stand up on stage and be prayed for, you say … ‘No,’ and you leave the room the moment you figure out that person is there.”
“You don’t go to white Christian nationalist events, put on by Christian nationalists and not expect the Christian nationalists to be there,” he said.
Stuckart called on Woodward to resign, saying she had irreparably damaged her legitimacy and sent a dangerous message to vulnerable and marginalized residents.
Woodward’s opponent in this year’s race for mayor, Lisa Brown, did not echo Stuckart’s calls for Woodward’s resignation, but she did condemn the association and called on voters to take note.
“It’s not just, here’s a difference in policy perspectives,” Brown said. “Shea is calling for armed insurrection with people who have a different perspective than he does – it’s inexcusable to be associated with him in any way at any time.”
Brown said she struggled to believe that Woodward was not aware of the nature of the event she was attending, noting that it had been planned for months in advance and that Woodward embraced Shea as she left the stage.
“I think one would have to be very much out of touch to not understand what was actually happening at the time it was happening,” Brown said. “That is beyond my belief, that she didn’t know what was going on.”
Kitty Klitzke, who faces Moore this November in the race to represent northwest Spokane on the City Council, called Moore’s attendance inappropriate.
“If you’re engaged with this community, you know when you’re showing up to an event with Matt Shea,” Klitzke said.
She noted that Moore has often declined to take a position on policy issues prior to the August primary.
“This is evidence of what someone who refuses to have a position on things will do,” Klitzke said.
Woodward had returned to Spokane on Saturday, cutting short an anniversary celebration with her husband, due to the region’s fires that have displaced thousands, she wrote on Twitter.
Hours after photos and video were publicized showing her on stage Sunday evening, she began posting on social media around 11 p.m. about her activities earlier in the day, showing she had visited fire crews and a Red Cross shelter at Spokane Falls Community College.
“All day yesterday not one fire victim or first responder asked me about my political views,” Woodward wrote in her Monday afternoon statement. “But, they did ask us to pray for them.”
Shea’s history
An attorney first elected in 2008 in Spokane Valley’s 4th Legislative District, Shea was among the state House of Representatives’ most conservative legislators and a member of the Liberty Caucus, which backed what it called a “Freedom Agenda” that included calls for the federal government to turn over land to the states.
He also repeatedly sponsored bills to split Washington state in two at the crest of the Cascades, forming a separate state called Liberty in the eastern half. Although Shea predicted it would be the 51st state, the proposal never got a hearing in the Legislature.
In 2019, a former ally leaked emails in which Shea seemed to be calling for a holy war that would pit conservative Christian “patriots” against Muslims and Marxist “terrorists.” Shea insisted that the document titled “Biblical Basis for War” was actually just notes for a scholarly sermon on war in the Old Testament.
Later that year, a firm of private investigators hired by House leaders authored a report that largely corroborated previous news stories about Shea’s involvement in the far-right “patriot” movement, his preoccupation with military-style prepping and reconnaissance, his belief in an imminent civil war and government collapse, his conspiracy theories about Muslims and liberals, and his dream of achieving a Christian theocracy.
It also concluded Shea had been involved in standoffs with federal agents in Nevada, Oregon and Idaho, and determined that he had sought to intimidate political opponents and condoned acts of violence by his supporters.
Shea denied the allegations in the report, calling it a “sham investigation” and comparing it to investigations surrounding then-President Donald Trump.
House Republican Caucus leaders decided to remove Shea from their caucus, meaning he could not join meetings of the GOP lawmakers or use caucus staff. But he refused calls to resign, and House Republicans balked at an effort by Democrats to expel him from the Legislature.
Late in that session, he joined a group of Christian conservatives in an event that involved prayers, the blowing of rams horns and the sprinkling of oil on the Capitol steps as a counter-protest to a demonstration that day by the Satanic Temple of Seattle.
After the 2020 session, he announced he would not seek re-election. Although he was rumored to be considering a run for Congress, he instead became the pastor of the Covenant Christian Church.
Who is Feucht?
Sean Feucht got his start at Bethel Church, a megachurch in Redding, California, with significant influence in local politics there, said Shawn Schwaller, a history professor at California State University, Chico and a Redding-based freelance writer with a focus on far-right extremism.
While Feucht lost his 2020 bid for Congress, he found political momentum with the creation of Let Us Worship, which protested pandemic-restrictions on in-person church services.
“He hit the jackpot,” Schwaller said. “He toured the country on that and made millions.”
Feucht put out a documentary last year called “Superspreader: The Rise of #LetUsWorship.”
The Kingdom to the Capitol tour made stops in Missoula, Kalispell and Seattle before coming to Spokane. It is next scheduled for South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa before touring in Canada.
Kingdom to the Capitol and Feucht were condemned last month by dozens of faith leaders and elected leaders in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, including state Senate Majority Leader Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, who jointly signed a letter calling Feucht an extremist.
“Sean Feucht has spent the past year capitalizing on anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments by railing against Pride Month, even embracing the exclusionary label of ‘Christian nationalist,’ and declaring that people with his narrow view of Christian theology should make all laws in the United States,” the letter stated.
The Spokane County Democrats are hosting Adrian Fontes, the Secretary of State for the State of Arizona, the weekend of August 19 and 20. In the evening of August 19 Mr. Fontes will speak (see below) at the auditorium at Ferris High School on the South Hill at 3020 E 37th Ave. (Doors open at 5P, program starts at 6P.) This event requires pre-registration, see invitation below.
Check out Fontes bio in wikipedia. Fontes, at age 46, dislodged the seven term Republican Maricopa County Arizona Recorder Helen Purcell in the same election in 2016 in which Trump was elected. (In AZ the County Recorder oversees elections—like the County Auditor does in Washington State.) Purcell had shrunk the number of polling places in Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) from 200 to just 60 before the presidential primary earlier that year. (The population of Maricopa County, at around 4.4 million, is 62% of the population of the entire State of Arizona.) The shrinkage vastly increased wait times, angered voters, and raised accusations of voter suppression, especially suppression of the Latino vote.
As Maricopa County Recorder near the end of his four year term, Mr. Fontes oversaw the ballot counting in the tumultuous 2020 election, an election in which Mr. Fontes himself narrowly lost his seat as Recorder to a Republican challenger. After leaving office Fontes was a vocal critic of the infamous, Trump-induced 2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit.
In July of the same year, 2021, Mr. Fontes announced his candidacy for the 2022 Arizona Secretary of State (SOS) election. In the fall of 2022 he won by a tidy margin of 4.8% over far right Republican Mark Finchem, an Oath Keeper ally of Cliven Bundy and our now disgraced but still very active former WA State Representative Matt Shea (“The Biblical Basis for War”).
Adrian Fontes’ family has been resident on land that is now southern Arizona for more than 300 years. He has an undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and a law degree from the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver.
Sign up (below is the link) to hear Adrian Fontes recount his experience in the tumultuous 2020 election cycle in Maricopa County and lessons learned from his subsequent Arizona statewide electoral victory (in a voting demographic with many similarities to eastern Washington).
Please join the Spokane County Democrats in welcoming ArizonaSecretary of State Adrian FontesAugust 19 at the Ferris High School Auditorium.
In 2022 Secretary Fontes defeated a MAGA-movement election denier who would have overturned the wishes of Arizona’s voters in the 2020 presidential election. Having served as a U.S. Marine, a prosecuting attorney, and county official, Secretary Fontes pulled together voters across the political spectrum.
Gonzaga University School of Law Professor Jeffrey Omari will share a pre-publication research preview in a speech we’re calling, “Political Disinformation and the End of the World as We Know It.”
Ballet Folklorico de Spokane will open the program, and simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish will be available.
All supporters of democracy are welcome, regardless of party affiliation.
What “Stewardship” is freighted with in the minds of some Fundamentalist Christians
I was brought up in the United Methodist Church of the 1960s. Parallel to that upbringing I was introduced at an early age to the modern scientific understanding of the world that includes biological evolution, geologic time, and a vast universe in which the Earth is central only in the minds of some humans. At the time I was vaguely aware that some fellow Methodists, as well as members of some other Christian faith communities, adhered to a belief in the literal truth of words of the Bible (Fundamentalism). Through the years I naively (and somewhat thoughtlessly) assumed that Biblical Fundamentalism and the denial of science that it entailed would gradually recede into the past, much like the astronomical geocentrism of Roman Catholic doctrine gradually gave way to the heliocentrism of the observational and mathematical science of Galileo Galilei. (Nevermind that it took three and a half centuries for a Pope to concede that Galileo was correct.)
Biblical Fundamentalism and all that it entails did not gradually recede, and now it has been harnessed for political purposes. I was vividly reminded of this as I did the background research for Monday’s post concerning the venue for the Deer Park School Board candidate forum at the Tri-County Christian Center (TCCC), an Assembly of God Church in the southern part of the community of Deer Park. In the “Answers to Questions” webpage of the TCCC I was introduced to the Cornwall Alliance’s 2006 Report, “an evangelical response to Global Warming”. The link to that document was stale, but the documentation at the Cornwall Alliance remains abundant—and worth examining for what it reveals about the Fundamentalist view of climate science, Dominian Theology, and humanity’s place in the universe.
Before quoting the Cornwall Alliance as representative of modern Christian Fundamentalist orthodoxy, it is worth noting that Christianity is not now (and never was) a monolithic faith. Conflicts (often deadly serious) between Christian belief systems, often based on differences between concepts most would now consider arcane (e.g. dualism, Catharism, Gnosticism), are as old as Christianity itself. It is dangerous and inappropriate to paint all modern-day Christians with the same brush—and it is equally dangerous for anyone to imagine that wearing a cross of one flavor or another means adherence to a universal belief system called “Christianity”. This is especially true of attitudes toward science in general and climate science in particular. Consider, for example. that Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic institution, is entirely comfortable with the Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment—even as some self-identified “Christians” have insisted to me that “Roman Catholics aren’t Christians”.
25. We affirm that environmental policies that address relatively minor risks while harming the poor—such as opposition to the use of abundant, affordable, reliable energy sources like fossil fuels in the name of fighting global warming; the suppression of the use of safe, affordable, and effective insecticides like DDT to reduce malaria in the name of protecting biodiversity; and the conversion of vast amounts of corn and other agricultural products into engine fuel in the name of ecological protection—constitute oppression of the world’s poor.
If there is any doubt left about Fundamentalist adherence to Dominion Theology, check out point #13. I guess we can just abandon the idea of preserving anything of nature. After all, we were put here to dig up all that oil, coal, natural gas, and all the minerals that God put in the ground for us to find, extract, and use! There’s no need to preserve the cursed wilderness, that cursed natural world.
13. We affirm that the Bible normally associates wilderness or wildness with divine judgment and curse (Exodus 23:29; Leviticus 26:22; Deuteronomy 7:22; 1 Samuel 17:46; Isaiah 5:2–4; 13:19–22; 34:1–17; Jeremiah 50:39; Leviticus 16:21–22).
We deny that wilderness is the best state of the Earth.
14. We affirm that God placed minerals, plants, and animals in and on the Earth for His pleasure, to reveal His glory and elicit man’s praise, and to serve human needs through godly use (Genesis 2:5–16; 4:22; Numbers 31:21–23; Job 38–41; Psalm 19:1–6; Psalm 104).
The website of the Spokane Valley Assembly of God, the church of the recently elected chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party, Pastor Brian Noble, does not specifically subscribe to the precepts of Cornwall Alliance. The Valley Assembly website is much more cagey about its precepts of faith than is TCCC in Deer Park. It should come as no surprise, however, that once one digs down to the CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF SPOKANE VALLEY ASSEMBLY OF GOD, INC. one finds the classical definition of Biblical Fundamentalism as a “Tenet of Faith”: “The Bible is the inspired Word of God, a revelation from God to Man, the infallible rule of faith and conduct, and is superior to conscience and reason, but not contrary to reason (II Timothy 3:15-17; I Peter 1:23-25; Hebrews 4:12).”
Many, if not all, of the self-described “Christians” among Republican U.S. Representatives and Senators, most especially including U.S. Rep. McMorris Rodgers (R-CD5-eastern Washington), come to Congress with a view of the world based in Biblical Fundamentalism laid out among the statements from the Cornwall Alliance quoted above. Climate denialism isn’t just based on fossil fuel corporation money for these people, it is essential tenet of religious faith. The only way to gain representation for us on the issue of global heating is to vote these people out of office.
The tricky part of all this is that, as discussed above, for the voter to learn the specific guiding worldview that a particular candidate’s profession of “Christianity” entails often requires some sleuthing. Most candidate’s would preferDespite abundant evidence in McMorris Rodgers’ educational background (nearly all Fundamentalist Christian schools) it was possible to imagine that she had outgrown her Fundamentalist upbringing—until she professed it from the podium to an audience of admirers.
What Animates School Board Candidates? And What’s Happened to our Civil Commitment?
More School Board Director Clues
On Saturday (the day with only an online version of the “paper”) July 29th, the Spokesman carried an article by Ignacio Cowles entitled “Candidates for Deer Park School Board say they’re willing to go against state law”. In an election cycle in which a number of offices in Spokane County don’t have a single candidate (see below), the five member Deer Park School District 414 [2700 students] Board of Directors is remarkable for an “At Large” Director race that has drawn five candidates, the incumbent, Eric Keller, and four challengers. (There are two other Director seats, Areas 1 and 4, each with a current Director stepping down and each with two candidates who will appear on the ballot for the November general election, not in the primary. None of these nine total candidates reports to the Public Disclosure Commission having raised any campaign funds.)
Eric Keller, the incumbent, has served as a Director since his first election in 2007. He recalls only one prior challenger in four election cycles before this current one. What’s going on? Both the venue and the discussion topics for a recent candidate forum offer some clues. The forum was held at the Tri-County Christian Center, an Assembly of God Church in the southern part of the community of Deer Park. The forum was moderated by one of the church’s pastors, Tim White. (Recall that the Spokane County Republican Party is now led by another Assembly of God Pastor, Brian Noble.) During the two hour forum [the bold is mine]:
The topic of finances, a large part of the school board’s duties, was absent from discussion, and time ran out before any community questions could be answered.
Remarkably, one might think, especially for a pastor, Pastor White appears to advocate ignoring Washington State law [the bold is mine]:
As a final question, White presented the oath that school directors take when assuming office, which states, “When elected/appointed, directors shall take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Washington.”
“You swore an oath to support the constitution and the state of Washington, you didn’t swear an oath to obey the law,” White said.
Notably, every candidate was in favor of refusing to implement mandatory state policies if they considered it to be unconstitutional, with current legislation relating to gender-affirming care heavily referenced.
Mr. Keller, the incumbent, “who has served in the Navy Reserve, suggested that refusing to implement a state law could be similar to refusing a military order. Is that order going to get somebody hurt? …There are ways to refuse those orders.” Among the five candidates, Keller’s statement seemed the least enthusiastic endorsement of Pastor White’s suggestion. Elsewhere in the forum Mr. Keller is quoted in the article saying, “…some new laws are not in tune with the opinions of many in the community, but in the end, we have to follow the law, folks.”
Much of the rest of the discussion focused on the latest Republican obsessions over sex: who uses what bathroom, opposition to state law regarding gender-affirming care, and rumblings about sex ed. Considering that budget issues were never touched upon it was almost laughable that, in offering a “solution” for the bathroom use issue, two candidates, 74 year old Richard Price and 31 year old Samantha Jordan, both seized on “single occupant bathrooms.” Apparently, the remodeling and construction costs of such a proposal never occurred to either of them. Such blatant budget blindness ought to be disqualifying.
This is what school board director candidates have come to. If you vote in the Deer Park School District 414 consider this. If you know someone in the district, share this. One might hope that enough sober voters in the district turn in their ballots so that Mr. Keller is one of the two on the ballot in November. Having to choose between any two of the others in November would be really painful. Whether this happens will depend on turnout in the Primary—and you can bet that social media fora have been buzzing.
Neglected Positions
Meanwhile, on July 27th I received an email from info@spokanecounty.organnouncing a “Special 3 Day Filing Period” running from August 2, Wednesday, to August 4, Friday, this week. This Special Filing Period is for various positions noted below for which not a single person has signed up as a candidate. If only one person responds by signing up they would be a shoo-in at the November election. I was unable to learn how often historically there have been this many open positions for the Special Filing Period—regardless, this seems a sad commentary on the state of our civic engagement. Many of these boards and councils have only five positions. Some have three of those positions open. It is likely that many of these positions are governed by Bylaws that offer a mechanism with which to appoint someone to fill an empty seat, but still…
Open positions currently for which no Candidate has filed:
Town of Spangle [population around 300]– (Mayor) Town of Waverly [population around 100]– (Council Position No. 5) Orchard Prairie School District [the second smallest school district in WA State with less than 100 students] – (Director Position No. 3 and 5) Fire District No. 2 – (Commissioner Position No. 1, 2 and 3) Fire District No. 10 – (Commissioner Position No. 2) Irvin Water District – (Commissioner Position No. 2) Val of The Horse Water District – (Commissioner Position No. 1) Vel-View Water District – (Commissioner Position No. 1, 2 and 3) Hangman Hills Water District – (Commissioner Position No. 1, 2 and 3) Spangle Cemetery District – (Commissioner Position No. 2) Waverly Cemetery District – (Commissioner Position No. 1, 2, and 3)
Take the time to do the research and turn in your ballot to a drop box by tomorrow at 8PM.
Local Primary Election ballots must be turned in before 8PM next Tuesday, August 1, to be counted. Click here, here, and here for recommendations and links.
Main Article:
Prior to Trump’s election in 2016 (can that really be seven years ago?) I read and listened to news media while paying no attention to the names of writers and reporters, to the qualifications of the talking heads, or to the financial backing of the media I consumed. I was media naive. Furthermore, I tended to imagine that everyone else was consuming the same news that I was.
Savvy political operatives have taken advantage of naïveté such as mine probably since the advent of human language, but such manipulation has ramped up with each media innovation: the printing press, radio, television, and now (really only since 2007) social media.
The documentary, “The Brain Washing of My Dad (2015)”, available here on YouTube, offers a vivid example of the malleability of opinion depending no the media we consume.
Majorie Taylor Greene’s July 16 speech at the Turning Point Action Conference in Florida disparaged Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960s, and Biden’s Build Back Better (amid a barrage of totally off-the-wall accusations). Biden’s team, recognizing that a majority of Americans do not share MTG’s distaste for these programs, was quick to characterize her disparagement as “an endorsement” of Biden’s policies. Upon reflection, though, the fact that MTG spoke before a youthful audience that applauded rather than booed her speech is a testament to a relentless drumbeat of propaganda that can be dated back to Lewis Powell’s Memo, “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System” written in 1971. Soon after that writing Nixon appointed Powell to the Supreme Court where he was instrumental in advancing “speech rights” of corporations. (If you are not familiar with “The Powell Memo”, please read the subheading under Lewis Powell’s biographical entry in Wikipedia and/or the text of the memo itself.)
Arguably, the Powell Memo provided the blueprint upon which the entire modern-day conservative media landscape was founded (exhaustively detailed in Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right). Powell’s Memo sparked the founding of what is now a huge interlocking network of “think tanks” with familiar names: The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and, yes, the Washington Policy Center, the latter being one of many state-based spinoffs. As non-profits, these “think tanks” successfully obscure the identities of their wealthy donors. The money is used to hire and promote ideologically-aligned writers and political operatives. For more than five decades, these organizations have pumped out an endless stream of anti-tax, anti-regulation propaganda promoting the interests of big business that Powell sought to defend. For decades now the freely available writings and voices of these well-supported, ideologically-aligned “think tank” hires have appeared in print and on television as largely unquestioned “experts”. Scratch the surface of many of these “experts” and one finds an undergraduate degree in political science rather than in the field of proffered expertise.
Last Wednesday I posted a link to an article from “Center Square” written by Timothy Schumann, published July 10, and entitled “After millions spent, Spokane County frustrated to see homeless numbers increase”. The article—as a news article—is garbage. The title sets up an expectation of an actual discussion of the fundamental reasons that “homeless numbers” are increasing. Schumann’s “research”? He quotes Mary Kuney, Al French, and Josh Kerns as representative of the “Spokane County Commissioners”. He writes as though he weren’t even aware of the existence of Spokane County Commissioners Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan. Schumann then offers the following erroneous tripe:
It was noted that Spokane is a “receiving entity,” offering many more services than any of the nearby counties, including those in Idaho.
Tacoma was referred to as a “sending entity,” and Seattle as the “receiving entity,” implying that disparity was the cause for the increasing numbers in Spokane County.
Schumann ignores (and apparently can’t be bothered to research) that the last known address of over 80% of the homeless surveyed in Camp Hope and in the point-in-time count under discussion at the Commissioner meeting was within Spokane County.
In essence, Center Square is one of many tentacles of the non-profit conservative propaganda “think tank” ecosystem originally inspired by Lewis Powell. Writers and talking heads are hired and funded for their perceived devotion to “a free market, limited government perspective on state and local politics.”
Wow! How selfless! To republish articles from Center Square all you have to do is abandon any devotion you still retain to the concept of unbiased well-researched reporting. The funding for the bias that Center Square provides comes from wealthy dark money donors anxious to convince you that government cannot (and should not) help and your tax money is routinely wasted.
Center Square and its parent, the Franklin News Foundation, pretend to be a local news service for eastern Washington while fielding a single “reporter”, Mr. Schumann, to produce (from an unknown perch) conservative party line click bait funded by obscure donors with a financial interest in convincing you to lower their taxes and deregulate all the supposed marvels of the “free” market.
The intent of this post is simple: read and listen carefully. Pay attention to the likely bias, motivation, and funding of the sources you choose. Concentrate on trusted, traceable local sources for local stories including RANGEMedia.com (subscription requested), the Inlander (free, supported , and the Spokesman Review (paywall). There is no writer or commentator who is totally without bias, but bias and shoddy reporting like that of Center Square is inexcusable.
“They don’t want to solve homelessness,” he said, “They just don’t want to see it.”
In the wake of the closure of Camp Hope on June 9, conservative leaning media published articles pointing out that visible homelessness on the streets of downtown Spokane had increased, hinting that Camp Hope was somehow at fault and that the money spent on the entire issue had been wasted. The Center Square article referenced below, “After millions spent, Spokane County frustrated to see homeless numbers increase” went further. It propped up the counterfactual myth of Spokane as a “receiving entity”—a place attracting crowds of mobile homeless people on account of supposedly lavish services, a lie puffed out in quotes from Spokane County Commissioners, Republicans Al French and Josh Kerns.
Municipal elections are already under way (August 1 Primary ballots due, November 7 for the General election). With at least two arguably “law and order” ballot measures teed up for the November ballot (more on those in later posts) a cynic might be excused for wondering if City of Spokane’s Mayor Nadine Woodward’s administration and the monied interests that back her have any interest in actually addressing the roots of homelessness. After all, demonizing the homeless worked for her in 2019 (by a small electoral margin)—and her biggest supporter, local real estate magnate Larry Stone, bagged a lucrative lease for his quickly purchased warehouse, a lease paid by the taxpayers. Why couldn’t demonizing the homeless work again?
Below I’ve copied the response of Maurice Smith to these articles. Maurice worked closely with Julie Garcia and her organization, Jewels Helping Hands, at Camp Hope throughout its duration. He has been deeply involved with documenting the humanity and plight of the homeless for years before Camp Hope (see links below). He deserves a bigger soapbox, certainly a bigger soapbox than conservative reporters quoting the like of Al French and Josh Kerns on this issue.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
Good Wednesday Afternoon Coalition Partners,
Lingering – even growing – homelessness following the closure of Camp Hope is creating no shortage of questions and even accusations (“It’s all that Camp’s fault”). Two recent articles seem to encompass some of these questions and deserve some responses as we seek to frame homelessness moving forward, while considering the possibility of a regional approach to addressing homelessness. So, here are a few of my thoughts on all three issues.
“If You Spend It, They Will Come” The first article began like this: “(The Center Square) – Spokane County commissioners asked the hard questions and came up with few answers about the efficacy of millions of dollars spent on homelessness only to see more people on the street” (See “After Millions Spent, Spokane County Frustrated to See Homeless Numbers Increase”). The article centers on discussions by Spokane County Commissioners regarding rising homelessness, and highlights two issues. First, after spending large sums of money on homeless services, why are we not moving the needle? Why is homelessness increasing? Second, is Spokane a “receiving” City where people experiencing homelessness receive so much help that we’re attracting people experiencing homelessness from other communities? Here are my responses.
First, the reason homelessness is increasing despite the amount of money being spent is two fold. On the one hand, homelessness is a much larger issue than local officials and policymakers have been willing to embrace, and it’s growing despite the money currently being spent. On the other hand, most of what we’re spending is ineffective and is being wasted. EXAMPLE: The TRAC shelter is costing the City of Spokane roughly $14 million per year, or $40,000 per guest per year. For that amount of money, the 350 guests could have been placed into very decent apartments while receiving a living stipend for an entire year. Or, the 467 badged residents of Camp Hope could have received $30,000 in assistance, again, enough for a decent apartment and a smaller stipend . . . for a YEAR! Instead, we have a shelter we can’t afford in a warehouse with no facilities, and 350 people who aren’t being offered a meaningful exit ramp out of homelessness. Wasted.
Second, no, homeless people are not flocking to Spokane as a “receiving” City. Of the 467 badged residents of Camp Hope, 83% said they came from “greater Spokane” (within 20 miles of the City), while 70.7% said they came from the City of Spokane. These numbers were fairly consistent with the 2022 Point-In-Time Count which found that 74% of those interviewed said they came from Spokane County. 79% of those from Spokane County said they came from the City of Spokane. The vast majority of our homelessness is home-grown, NOT bussed in or attracted from other cities by the amazing benefits they’ll receive in Spokane.
“Remember, You Wanted This” The second recent article that caught my attention, “Open Drug Use, Naked People, Stabbings: Closure of Camp Hope Rocks Downtown Businesses”, came via KHQ (FOX28). The article centered on the increased number of homeless downtown as a result of Camp Hope closing. Reading it, I couldn’t help but . . . smile. No, I don’t think it’s funny or humorous. Rather, it’s the smile of “I told you so.” In my interactions with the City over the months of Camp Hope, I repeatedly warned that if they forced the closure of Camp Hope, the residents would have nowhere to go but downtown. But they insisted that the Camp be closed IMMEDIATELY. To expedite that imagined process, back in September, City and County officials threatened to close the Camp by mid-October. As a result of those threatened closures, over 200 residents left the camp (the unsheltered homeless take law enforcement threats seriously and generally don’t wait around to see what happens next). Again, in December, when law enforcement INSISTED on visiting the Camp and handing out flyers declaring “This Camp Is Closing,” another 200 people left the camp in the two weeks following those visits. So, some 400 people left the camp (I document this in detail in my forthcoming book, “A Place To Exist: The True and Untold Story of Camp Hope and Homelessness In Spokane”). Guess where they went. Yep, downtown. They didn’t head downtown the day after the Camp closed on June 9. They had left long before that, due to the City’s (and County’s) threats to “close that nuisance camp.”
So, downtown businesses are now experiencing the consequences of the City (and County) Administration’s policies and actions . . . and blaming it all on Camp Hope. From the perspective of City leaders, the Camp was “the problem” when it existed, and it apparently is “the problem” now because it doesn’t exist. It’s past time for City and County officials to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, and quit blaming it on others. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
A friend of mine, who has been involved in homeless leadership in Spokane, once told me, “They don’t want to solve homelessness,” he said, “They just don’t want to see it.” Harsh, but true. Camp Hope could have had a much larger impact than the 216 unsheltered homeless we were able to place into housing if the City (and County) had simply left us alone to do our job, or had actually leaned in to help. But they chose to be obstructionist, rather than constructionist. They chose to blast, rather than to build. And the consequences of their choices and threats are now on the streets of downtown Spokane. And they’re still blaming Camp Hope, its organizers (of which I was one), and its residents . . . when they should be looking in the mirror. The “man in the mirror” (or the woman) is the problem.
There’s a great scene in the first “Jack Reacher” movie with Tom Cruise where he is about to take on 3 antagonists in an alley fight behind a bar. Just before the first punch is thrown, Reacher looks the leading antagonist in the eye and says, “Remember, you wanted this” (I’ll leave it to you to imagine how it ended). All I can say to City and County officials who pined for the closure of Camp Hope is to quote Jack Reacher, “Remember, you wanted this.”
Regional Reflections Finally, I spent time this week talking with Gavin Cooley about the proposed regional homeless authority that is now being discussed by local elected officials. I believe Spokane is at a tipping point when it comes to homelessness and homeless policy and services, and I believe a regional coordinated policy under a separate umbrella entity is the best pathway forward. We talked about the discussed goal of cutting regional homelessness by 40% in two years. I countered by suggesting that the goal be re-focused on eliminating unsheltered homelessness in two years (not reducing, but eliminating), getting the 955 unsheltered homeless off of City streets, out of City parks, and into appropriate housing and services. And eliminating unsheltered homelessness in two years would effectively reduce overall homelessness by 40%. That would be my recommendation for a specific targeted goal. We also talked about the vision of a “navigation campus” (as opposed to a warehouse) like “the Beacon” in Houston, a campus spanning 2 or 3 acres, where those experiencing homelessness could do laundry, take a shower, get a real meal (prepared on-site in an actual kitchen), get a bed if they need one, and be assigned to a Peer Navigator who can help them work on their exit ramp out of homelessness.
These are very achievable goals, but not if we nit-pick it to death, or put the same people in charge of the new entity who got us into this mess in the first place. It’s time to “do different,” unless we want to be having these same conversations at a higher frustration level a year from now. That’s the problem with tipping points – if they don’t tip forward, the alternative all too often is backward. And I don’t want to go backward. Do you?
