Sorry for the misleading headline, kids. In reality, this was probably the dullest public gathering I’ve ever been to . . . outside of church and some local planning meetings. The moderator was tipsy. And the debate? Positively high school.
Instead of engaging each other with facts, arguments, and some honest give-and-take, the parties ignored the questions and instead belabored the audience with their talking points. Though I’m sympathetic to the plight of renters, I left the debate with a sense that rent control is simply too big and complex an issue for Seattle. There are too many variables here, too many things that can go wrong. As one of the heartless villains (read: developers) said: “We can argue about this all we want, but ultimately it’s a waste of time, because rent control is illegal and it’s just not gonna happen.” –Granted, that’s a dumb thing to say in a debate. But I think he’s right anyway.
As a homeowner, I don’t have a dog in this fight msyelf. The reason I went was so I could see Kshama Sawant (Americas Favorite Socialist™) in action. And I’m glad I did, because in the course of the evening, I learned two things about her. First, she’s a terrible public speaker. Her accent makes her hard to understand, and on top of that she talks too fast. However, despite her lack of sophistication – or perhaps, because of it – Ms. Sawant is still very popular. When she was introduced, the full-to-the-gills Town Hall exploded with sustained and raucous applause from all quarters. Clearly, the crowd was with her. (The anti-rent control guys got polite applause and the occasional hiss.)
I used to think of Sawant as a demagogue. Not anymore. In the first place, she doesn’t have the charisma. In the second, she’s not a narcissist. Indeed, she comes across as downright humble. Moreover, in contrast to a demagogue, whose position on a given topic is whatever’s selling at the moment, Sawant seems really to believe in her class-conflict model of social relations. At one point she stated that renters’ interests can never be reconciled with landlords’ interests and that therefore any govt.-sponsored rent-relief commission with landlords on it would be useless. The only thing that poor people can count on, she concludes, is laws that directly help them. Laws like rent control.
I think Sawant his been much more responsive to her base than the average city hack. Before the show a man in her district told me that she had not embraced rent control until she heard from her constituents that that’s what THEY wanted her to push. He was convinced that she takes her marching orders from them. I suspect it’s true.
If Sawant can dial up the charm, dial down the socialism, and get in touch with her inner wonk, she’ll go far. Will she have to sell out to do that? I don’t think so. But then, that’s not for me to say. And I got plenty of my own fish to fry anyway. [Wink]