Home What's Brewing? Day of Reckoning — for City Mayor — and the Seattle Seahawks!

Day of Reckoning — for City Mayor — and the Seattle Seahawks!

Elections can produce stunning results. As we have learned, even dangerous ones.

The “wisdom of the crowd” is disgracefully downgraded when the candidate with the most votes fails to win and govern by the will of the people.

The Internet has been shown to play a decisive role in the process, illuminating too few and misleading a great many more voters across the digital divide. With out-of-control advertising and distorted messaging and notifications, targeted voters have become the unwitting victims of a hostile takeover of objective reporting.

Silicon Valley left the door yawning, Twitter has enabled the American president to weaponize information, bully other branches of government, coarsen our political discourse, and antagonize friends and adversaries. Close the account, Jack. It is a violation of Twitter’s TOS.

The media is hardly to blame. Consider that America’s current president did not receive the endorsement of a single newspaper across America in the 2016 election. This was a non-partisan consensus. But it exposed a critical vulnerability. Clearly, the literacy quotient in a region of the country known as the “Rust Belt” has been severely corroded. What kind of foolishness is it when we refuse to believe time-honored news sources and fact-checked reporting?

America is also suffering from a deficit in civics education. How many of us realize that America’s antiquated Electoral College was created as an artifice which granted the South the right to count slaves as 3/5th of a vote, while failing to count a single vote among African-Americans who were illegally held here or women? Is this corrupt methodology how we should elect our leaders?

Fortunately, the election of Seattle’s next mayor has faced no such paucity of information. From a field of 21 hopefuls, the vetting has taken place among dozens of forums and public debates. both offline and online. A victor has been named.

Jenny Durkan has prevailed over Cary Moon to become the first female mayor of Seattle in nearly 75 years. Congratulations, Mayor Durkan. Now let’s get down to work! [24×7]

Recounting the Votes on Seahawk Strategy & Coaching

Meanwhile, in another Seattle public arena, the Seattle Seahawks were the subject of a different kind of vote on this year’s Election Day.

Local radio station 710 ESPN Seattle sponsored four referendums:

Prop 1.) the future of field goal kicker Blair Walsh (who missed 3-out-of 3 field goals against the Washington Redskins.) One out of three is awful, two may even be forgivable, but three is not.; Prop 2.) the Seahawk’s revolving door of running backs; It is the offensive line that prevents a lumbering Eddie Lacey from gaining more than three yards per carry? Prop 3.) the nature of play calling (run vs. pass) Controversial offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevel, seems bent on keeping the Hawks out of their natural rhythm; and Prop 4.) ultimately, who is responsible for the team’s struggles? The results, as posted on Twitter, appear below.

In a previous column, Is Seahawk Scrum Less than Agile? we observed that so many missed opportunities for such a talented roster warranted a change in the coaching staff. It’s a strange day indeed when former Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch rushes for two touchdowns and 75 yards for a team other than the Seahawks and the entire Seattle run game earns but a fraction.

The mock election was part of the Brock and Salk 710 ESPN Seattle morning show.