We remain in a very serious crisis here in Washington, living under the dominion of the most liberal legislature and Governor in state history. While it is certain that outside of the greater Seattle area we are NOT a liberal state, we are hamstrung politically by the lack of representation by those who espouse traditional values in our government.

University of Washington professor of geography and expert in urban demographics (Dick Morrill) has done some extensive analysis of the R-71 vote and written an informative and fascinating article "We Are Two States: Seattle and Washington". He writes that there is an "indisputable polarization in what we might call the modernist-traditionalist divide". He continues:

"Referendum 71 passed by a 53 to 47 percent vote, revealing the power of the King County electorate, which alone provided a margin of 104,000 of the statewide margin of 113,000. It points again to what a statistical outlier Seattle is among cities, what I called in an earlier article, "Extreme Seattle." Morrill points out that Seattle has the lowest number (2.08) of persons per household in the United States and is right behind San Francisco on several other telling statistics:

"A related statistic is the share of households that are families with children; the Seattle share is 19 percent, San Francisco 18 (lowest in the country), and Portland 24. (The U.S. average is 31 percent share of families with children.) Conversely, the share of non-family households (singles, unmarried partners) is 55 percent (33 for the U.S.). Seattle is only slightly behind the winner, San Francisco, in the share of adults never married (51 percent to 52 percent, 30 for the U.S.). Lastly, the proportion of the population under 15 is 13 percent in Seattle and San Francisco, 18 percent in Portland, and 20 percent nationally."

Morrill then delineates the positive correlations for people who voted for R-71:

"users of transit, non-traditional households, singles, same-sex households, college graduates, managerial professionals, aged 20-39, and Asian.

The strongest negative correlations (those opposing R-71) are: drivers of SOVs, traditional families, aged under 20, born in Washington, high-school education only, Hispanics, laboring and craft occupations."

While Seattle remains a beautiful city and a desirable place to live for many, it has, sadly, declined as a great place for families.  In fact, statistics bear out what Seattle has become, both politically and demographically: One of the most expensive and family unfriendly big cities in America.

As conservatives living in a state dominated by a big liberal city, we certainly have our challenges ahead of us. We have, however, turned things around politically in Washington before. In 1994, for example, we voted out a high taxing, liberal, Democratic majority legislature and sent dozens of genuine conservatives in to replace them.  Two years later these same conservatives passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Washington voters will have the opportunity to replace the current legislature during next year's election cycle. Until then, it is up to each of us to remind our legislators and Governor Gregoire that we will not sit idly by as our values and institutions are sacked and plundered by Seattle-centric extremists who have little or no respect for their neighbors in the "other Washington".

We are in an epic struggle for the survival of our faith, our families and our freedoms. It is our values versus those of the secular "progressives" or "modernist" left. If we believe our cause to be just and right then we must carry on the fight!