Unilateral power in the event of an emergency sounds like it could be bad. When COVID-19 hit Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee was the lone decider tasked with slowing community spread and saving lives. He did a pretty good job. He saved lives. His unilateral power wasn’t so bad after all.
Now, Washington’s Republican legislators are clamoring for a piece of that emergency power; and that might sound fair, if it wasn’t the Republican Party asking.
When the coronavirus was killing Washingtonians, Republicans were no help: they fought mask mandates, they fought vaccine mandates, they pandered to the misinformation that accompanied their politicization of this deadly virus. Washington’s Republican Party saved no lives.
When the next crises come calling, and this same Republican Party wants a hand in deciding our fate, let me be the first to say: no thanks.
