Westneat: Political tension rising

“This is about personal responsibility,” was how Craig Reynolds, a Mercer Island City Council member, put his support for Senate Bill 5963. “We all need to be financially responsible for the risks we create.”

This is election 2024 in a nutshell, it seems to me. How much of a society are we, with an eye for the common good? Or are we veering toward fend-for-yourself individuality?

There’s no question the Yakima commissioner is right about the gist of the Democrat-controlled Legislature of late. They have targeted a series of problems, from gun violence to climate change to the lack of nursing home care, with far-reaching proposals that corral everyone — whether willing or not.

These are classic “collective action problems.” It’s when a group decides on an action for what they perceive is the good of the group. But refusing to go along can simultaneously be a rational choice for the individual.

Take climate change — the mother of all collective action problems. The Democrats decided, understandably, that carbon pollution can’t continue to be emitted for free, and passed the 2021 Climate Commitment Act. By charging polluters, and ultimately consumers, for emissions, the goal is cleaner air for all. But the costs have triggered a political showdown.

Likewise, the notion that misuse of guns has had huge fiscal, medical and emotional costs isn’t debatable. Individuals, though, do have a civil right to own guns. This tug of war has been one giant collective action problem for decades, with the gun-control side trying to impose regulations and costs and the gun-rights lobby essentially viewing any carnage as the price of freedom.

I can see how it must feel, as the Yakima commissioner said, that lawmakers are putting “a cost on simply existing,” I, too, wince when I gas up my car.

But isn’t this what society already did with, say, smoking? Smoking is so hazardous it’s now barred from public spaces, and smokers routinely pay a surcharge for health insurance. This was controversial 20 years ago but isn’t today. It’s effectively what this gun insurance bill seeks to do. It doesn’t mean you can’t still light up or have guns around the house.

That said, I don’t see this gun liability insurance proposal passing, at least not now. It comes at too delicate a time, when our political system is teetering on a bigger question: Are we capable of much collective action right now?

You’ve got to wonder, as it looks like the king of political narcissism, Donald Trump, will be elevated to the top of the November ballot again. Even after he tried to thwart the collective will the last time.

Also up for a vote will be six initiatives to roll back public support for climate action, taxes for schools and more. There will be time to get into the pros and cons of each measure later. For now though, it’s worth highlighting that the multimillionaire financier, Redmond’s Brian Heywood, was portrayed in a Seattle Times story to be an admirer of Ayn Rand, espouser of self-interested individualism. This seems fitting. A symbol of the times.

Because you can feel the tension right now, between group and self, that’s rising up in hearings in Olympia. This fall, community itself is going to be on the ballot.