Spokane is in the un-lefty part of the state, but it sometimes contradicts its surroundings. Consider Proposition 4, which is on Spokane ballots in the election now. It declares, among other things, that

1. Residents have the right to a locally-based economy;
2. Residents have the right to affordable preventative health care;
3. Residents have the right to affordable and safe housing;
4. Residents have the right to affordable and renewable energy;
5. The natural environment has the right to exist and flourish;
6. Residents have the right to determine the future of their neighborhoods;
7. Workers have the right to be paid the prevailing wage, and the right to
work as apprentices, on certain construction projects; and
8. Workers have the right to employer neutrality when unionizing, and the
right to constitutional protections within the workplace.

Traditional American rights, such as the rights to freedom of speech, press, religion, gun ownership, privacy, marriage, travel, contracting the sale of one’s labor, property ownership, etc., are rights to do things, and to demand that others not interfere in certain ways with one’s doing them. That you have the right of freedom of speech does not mean anyone has to give you the use of a hall, or listen to you. The freedom of the press does not mean you can demand a printing press, or a newspaper company. The right to bear arms doesn’t get you a free rifle. None of the rights in the Bill of Rights is a right to have free stuff, except (in its modern interpretation) the right to have a court-appointed lawyer when the government charges you with a crime.

Several of the “rights” in Proposition 4 are of the free-stuff variety: “affordable” preventative health care, “affordable” housing, “affordable” renewable energy. What is “affordable?” If you’re broke, it means the price is zero. It is the right to free stuff: free health care, free energy, free housing.

Government already provides some of that. There are housing subsidies, housing vouchers, home-heating vouchers, free clinics, etc. But they are gifts. A government may provide them to all applicants who meet certain rules, but it can set the rules, and if it runs short of money it can shrink or repeal its generosity.

Maybe not, in Spokane. If this passes and is upheld (two big ifs) the city won’t be operating in the world of charity. Those dependent on its provision will have rights, and that is a different world. If you have a right to have something provided, it means someone is compelled to provide it to you. And it’s yours. You don’t have to thank anyone for it, or be polite when taking it.

There are other sorts of spurious “rights” in this document. Consider the “right” to employer neutrality when unionizing. That means that before a vote among workers about whether to be represented by a union, the union organizers have a right to speak but the employer has not. That “right” would no doubt be challenged in federal court, and the challenger would probably win.

Another dubious “right” in Proposition 4 is the “right to a locally-based economy.” And what would that mean? A “right” for whom to do what—or be provided with what (and by whom)?

Who put this socialistic mess on Spokane’s ballot? It’s a group called Envisions Spokane, website here. Of the $68,613 raised to promote it, $55,000 (four-fifths) was put up by James Sheehan, the founder and a board member of the Center for Justice, a public-interest law firm that promotes civil rights and the environment.

My guess is that this won't pass in Spokane. Probably it's too lefty even for Seattle, though you never know.