State Republican lawmakers omit inconvenient truths at Town Hall

If there’s one thing that Republicans can do, it’s stay on message. This ability was never more apparent than during an hour-long December 30 Town Hall co-sponsored by the Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce and the Yakima County Development Association.

Legislators representing Klickitat County—Senator Curtis King and Representatives Gina Mosbrucker and Chris Corry—joined their three Republican colleagues from the 15th Legislative District, and although COVID-19 restrictions required them to join the occasion from their individual homes, it seemed as though they were all reading from the same script.

It’s what they don’t discuss that shapes the spin.

For example, all six agreed that it was horrible of Governor Jay Inslee to utilize emergency powers to issue COVID-19 safety measures beyond thirty days. “The emergency is long past and we need to be working on the recovery,” said Senator Jim Honeyford of the 15th LD.

“We can’t live with emergency edicts indefinitely,” said Rep. Corry. “The people will just not take it. You’re going to see more businesses and individuals push back and revolt.”

What these GOP stalwarts failed to mention was that in states where the governors mostly failed to take action—an exclusively Republican domain—far, far more people on a per capita basis are dead.

The legislators took turns to complain that Governor Inslee did not grant their appeals to hold a special session in order to work out COVID-19 restrictions together. “We’ve sent letters and letters (to Inslee), and we’ve been ignored,” said Rep. Mosbrucker.

 It was only at the end of the Town Hall that the legislators revealed what they would have advocated had their wish for a special session been granted: take away all the governor’s emergency power and put it in the hands of county commissioners.

“Our commissioners know what we need,” said Rep. Mosbrucker. “I would push for local control so that we can match the needs of our community.”

And the outcome of this local control?

“People can make decisions for themselves,” said Rep. Corry, citing as an example how he might not want to go into a restaurant for in-person dining, but that doesn’t mean everyone else should be restricted from doing so if they want.

So, in regard to pandemic safety, the message is: We’ve got a power-hungry governor issuing unreasonable restrictions. What isn’t said is: Give us the power, and we’ll leave it up to individual citizens and businesses to decide what they want to do—oh, and so sad about all those extra, unnecessary deaths.

This pattern prevailed throughout the town hall.

The legislators decried what they anticipate will be moves to combat Climate Change. Senator King railed against carbon taxes and low carbon emission requirements. “I don’t care for either,” he said. What wasn’t said: the term “Climate Change” or the future livability of our planet.

The legislators complained that big box stores such as Costco and Walmart are allowed to open, but small mom-and-pop businesses are not. What wasn’t said, at least initially: they were referring to in-person dining in restaurants. Several cited “research” that less than 3% or 1% (They couldn’t make up their minds on the actual figure, nor did they cite the source of this “statistic.”) of coronavirus infections can be traced to restaurants. What wasn’t said: With 19.7 million coronavirus cases in our nation, even one percent is a hell of a lot of people (1.97 million cases, for those of you who are counting). What else wasn’t said: The Center for Disease Control recommends against indoor in-person dining with the current rate of infections afflicting our nation.

The legislators assailed the paltry amount of assistance that the state government has provided for small business owners. “We asked for more help and he (Inslee) raised it to $70 million. That covers two days,” said Rep. Mosbrucker. What wasn’t said: State governments need help from the federal government. Congressional Republicans refused for month after month to even consider a second coronavirus relief bill, finally relinquishing their resistance this month, approving far less than what is needed.

 Under a Republican administration, it is clear that our nation has botched its response to COVID-19 and fumbled away four years to address Climate Change. But none of that is a problem—if you get the messaging right.