Washblog

While both ports were the site of protests in the past year, there is only one candidate between the four open seats at both ports. David Lovell, who has filed for a Port of Tacoma position, isn't as far as I can tell, an anti-military candidate. He seems more connected with labor, which of course is a big issue at a large port.

The reason I'm posting here now is not just to ask the same question about the Port of Tacoma that I asked about Olympia a few days ago, but to also ask: Is protest a rejection of electoral democracy?

The main point of the protests was that the ports are local and public and that we as citizens of Pierce and Thurston counties owned them and that we could say what they were used for. But, in the elections for the governing bodies of the two ports, the same people who protested the ports are so far absent.

Lynn wrote a bit back about the state of protest. While I didn't chime in at the time, my thoughts were that I'm not satisfied with protest because it is disconnected with the other, more participatory forms of democracy, including running for office. Protest isn't conversational, it is confrontational. It doesn't strive to solve problems, rather it presents the deep chasm of division between people.

But, I could be wrong. Someone could run for port commissioner who is also against port militarization and makes it a central theme of their campaign. I hope I'm wrong.