[AspenBeat] My theory regarding this flight from reality in Portland and Seattle (where I lived for a couple of years) is that those cities have long suffered from an inferiority complex vis-a-vis San Francisco. The big city to the south makes Portland and Seattle feel like a timber mill and a fishing harbor.Every policy decision is consequently animated with the unspoken sentiment, "What would San Fran do? Let's outdo that!"
Congratulations, Portland and Seattle, you've managed to outdo even San Francisco in violence, vagrancy and anarchy. Now you can live in the festering filth and feces of sociopaths who have nothing but cynical contempt for your self-indulgent self-righteousness. But at least you feel really good about yourselves.
Let's pull the feds out of Portland and Seattle. Give the people there the feel-good they crave and vote for, good and hard. Let's see how they like it when the thugs come for them.