Why our political system has issues solving problems.

Simple solutions are not possible when every solution offered must first be filtered through the lens of ideology and partisanship.

Let's start off with an example of a problem that my local community (and many others) suffer from. Here we call it a housing "crisis" as we have too few housing options, way too few affordable housing options and way too many people. Homelessness continues to run rampant and there seems to be little movement in actually solving the problem other than moving the homeless camps from here to there.

Now this is a common issue and one that comes with sort of a built-in root cause called supply and demand. we have way too little supply and way too much demand. This should lead us to realize that we have only three possible solutions. Increase the supply, decrease the demand, or actually do both. But because none of those solutions can be justified under the ideology of those who believe that everything boils down to oppressors versus the oppressed and that the American way is to continue to import more and more people from different parts of the world, those solutions will be tossed aside without a second thought. You simply cannot make easier on the blood sucking capitalist who might build new construction, and certainly you cannot make it easier on the slum lord landlords who are obviously sticking it to their renters. Lasty, we cannot under any circumstances admit that Trump and conservatives are right about illegal immigration and stop importing more and more people.

In New York, we saw Mamdani campaign on rent freezes and other government involvement that will literally make it harder (not easier) on people who might want to get into real estate in New York. Things like rent control and rent freezes generally lead to less people wanting to rent or build anything that might involve rental property. Here in Seattle, we have a similar angst against builders and those looking to get into managing rental property. I would offer that most people actually blame the builders and landlords for the problem and assume that something like rent control or more regulation will somehow lead to more building, more rental properties, and less homelessness. Problem is that there are no government programs to be put into place that both punish the existing players while incentivizing any new housing to be built. You cannot force people to build or rent and lose money. When the government actually wants to push for more housing it generally requires some sort of tax incentives or loosening of the red tape to get builders and landlords involved, not the other way around. Providing government assistance to renters and designating housing that qualifies is fine, but that does nothing to increase the supply. You cannot bite the hand that feeds you too many times before it simply stops feeding you. This is where we are at in Seattle as well as many other big blue cities (which all seem to have the same problem).

Of course, the other option would be to reduce demand, which would require us to reduce the amount of immigration and/or crack down on the illegal immigration issue we have here currently. I shouldn't have to tell anyone that such a thing here in Seattle is a non-starter. It doesn't matter that the simple math and the simple logic here is obvious. Obvious doesn't trump ideology when it comes to these things. I really shouldn't have to go too far into the whole liberal embrace with illegal immigration, as it has become all too obvious for everyone to see.

Lastly, what type of politician is going to be elected to solve these problems? In New York it was a socialist who has never apparently held down any sort of job. Here in Seattle, it is a 42-year-old community activist who still relies on a monthly check from her parents to afford her one-bedroom apartment in Capital Hill. Are these people likely to avoid ideology and rather use the commonsense methods needed to actually solve things? Nope. And for those who vote for them, relying on ideology rather than common sense is a feature and not a bug. God help us all!