Posted on 05/18/2026 5:13:46 PM PDT by Red Badger
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson
When voters in Seattle handed the mayor’s office to self-proclaimed socialist Katie Wilson, local Democrat Rob Saka celebrated the “change.” He praised her energy and looked forward to a city that would “uplift working families” while fighting the resurgent Trump agenda. Less than five months later, Saka is singing a different tune. Speaking to the New York Times, the council member admitted he is “gravely concerned” about the accelerating business exodus.
“This is real,” he conceded.
Wilson’s infamous response to fleeing millionaires—”like, bye”—has aged about as well as her economic vision. The mayor laughed off warnings about a wealth flight triggered by Washington’s new 9.9 percent tax on households earning over $1 million annually, the state’s first income tax.
Meanwhile, flagship companies like Starbucks are shifting thousands of corporate jobs to Nashville and laying off workers in Seattle. An iconic business club in the Columbia Tower shuttered after decades, citing declining downtown activity. The pattern is unmistakable: punish success, watch it depart.
This reversal from a fellow Democrat exposes a deeper truth about progressive governance. Cities and states that embrace wealth redistribution and anti-business rhetoric discover too late that capital is mobile—and it votes with its feet.
The irony here is thick. Progressives who rail against “billionaires” and “corporate greed” never seem to grasp that these individuals and firms fund the very services they promise to expand. When the tax burden grows punitive and the regulatory environment hostile, the productive class relocates. Seattle’s downtown vacancy rates and remote-work shifts only accelerate the pain. Wilson’s ribbon-cutting for new public toilets while businesses pack up speaks volumes about misplaced priorities.
Nor is Seattle alone. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” agenda has already prompted figures like Ken Griffin to double down on Miami. Warnings of a potential $12 billion GDP hit and a “death spiral” in city finances echo the same failed experiments seen in California and elsewhere.
Leaders who once assured voters that the wealthy would stay and pay up now scramble as the data proves otherwise. The working families these politicians claim to champion suffer most when jobs vanish and tax revenues shrink.
History offers no shortage of cautionary tales. From the Soviet Union’s collapse to Venezuela’s ruin, centralized control and wealth confiscation deliver poverty, not prosperity. America’s own founding rejected such notions in favor of ordered liberty and property rights.
The Constitution’s framers understood that government exists to secure rights, not to engineer outcomes through coercion. Yet modern socialists treat wealth as a fixed pie to be sliced, ignoring how policies shrink the pie itself.
Even some on the left are beginning to notice. Saka’s admission, however belated, reveals the disconnect between campaign rhetoric and governing reality. Cheering “change” sounded noble until the consequences arrived. Now Seattle faces the predictable result of driving away the very people who generate opportunity.
Scripture warns against envy and the love of money while affirming the dignity of honest work and provision. Policies that punish productivity ultimately harm the vulnerable they purport to help.
The lesson for voters nationwide is clear. Elect leaders who demonize success, and watch cities decline. Reward sound economics rooted in freedom and responsibility, and communities can thrive. Seattle’s awakening Democrat offers an unintended confession: socialist experiments do not deliver the utopia promised. They deliver exodus—and regret.
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Ha Ha!
My question is, when this Commie Seattle Mayor ends her term, will she go back to living in her parent’s basement, or will she be suddenly rrrrriiiiiiich?
Watch out for this commie. She started the whole $15 minimum wage fad. Now she’s running for congress. She got her vast wealth by divorcing some Microsoft dood.
Kshama Sawant: Revolutionary rhetoric and reformist politics
Former Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant is billing herself as an “independent revolutionary socialist” candidate for Congress. She is running for the House of Representatives from the 9th Congressional District of Washington state against the incumbent, Democratic Representative Adam Smith.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/03/16/kssy-m16.html
If she wins there will be no detectable difference.............
When she famously said “Bye” to Seattle’s wealthy business owners, she created the theme and slogan of her opponent’s campaign in 2029.
In looking this woman up, it turns out she is still dependent on her parents for monetary support at 43 years old.
She has never really had a job. She formed a nonprofit in Seattle having something to do with the transportation situation where she paid herself for $75,000 a year.
So she has absolutely no bandage experienced, no experience with finance and no understanding of how business really works, and yet she is surprised all the wealthy people and businesses are leaving Seattle because of her anti-business agenda.
She has a husband and a child and they live in a small apartment in Seattle, where the husband has an oven and bakes bagels and pizza for sale.
IOW, she is totally CLUELESS IN SEATTLE!...........
They voted for that? Why?
What about “Government Greed”. Seems to me Govt loves to expand, using (demanding) other people’s money, promising solutions and never, ever delivering.
The voters are the clueless ones.
Everything is about virtue signaling to the liberal and nothing is about consequences.
They hate the rich worse than they hate to work...............
Miserable people are only happy when everyone else is miserable.
I just signed a petition down here in Washougal, WA for no state income tax. Have to get ahead of the dems in Olympia.
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” - Winston Churchill.............
Of course, if you can’t coerce the rest of the public to forsake capitalism, the plan won’t work.
Smart guy, that Churchill.
She’ll be running out of other peoples’ money a little sooner than usual................
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