Kendan Bendt
Opinion Editor
Tiffany Smiley is a Republican’s wet dream: just enough hand wringing to appeal to fence voters, just enough hatred for the vulnerable to get Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans excited.
Right from the top, Smiley’s agenda page begins with the Republican standard of the last decade: explanations as to how her inexperience is actually a valuable asset, empty promises and policies that help wealthy donors stay wealthy.
Workers under Smiley ignored multiple emails asking for an interview about her policies and values as the November 2022 midterms approach, so here is this reporter’s review of her agenda according to her website.
Smiley’s experience as the wife of a veteran (yes, this is the first qualification she mentions) will allow her to fix the current political state better than career politicians. This, and mentioning her experience as a triage nurse, appears to be a new version of Trump’s businessman outsider narrative. Smiley has not heard, apparently, that putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t make it prettier.
Frequently, Smiley will begin a section of her chicanery with something that almost sounds like a coherent approach to solving a problem for her would-be constituents. Take, for example, her plan to enact a “commonsense” paid family leave policy. No, there is not much more to the plan other than that title.
When you look at the subsection on this policy, it details a laughably weak strategy of giving families tax credits after a new child is born or adopted. Deafening are the wails of new parents whose fervent wish is for tax credits and… nothing else.
Smiley continues to push the words “reform” and “recovery” throughout her website, though what she sometimes seems to mean is the reversal of progress made over the past few years. A great example comes in her policy section under community and crime fighters.
Smiley would make local governments who defunded their police legally liable for personal and property damages.
This petty disdain for any progress made by the progressive wing of American politics is palpable throughout the page. As you read her proposals on education, you see her true colors: a MAGA diehard in Tulsi Gabbard’s clothing.
She would have Critical Race Theory (though I doubt she could explain what it was) banned from elementary schools, and ban student loan forgiveness in any way that would make “electricians and plumbers pay for the loans of lawyers and doctors.” Smiley misses the target here so hard she might as well have not been aiming at all, while appealing to a crowd of voters that would hear her speak and learn to hate the idea that other people deserve good things too.
Smiley later calls for an expansion of clean energy and an expansion of American natural gas production in the same breath, talking out of both sides of her mouth as naturally as any conwoman should hope to.
Similarly, Smiley decries the problem Washington has with its homeless population, while also decreeing that the state should ban any safe havens for addicts to use in a safe way. Saying she cares about a community while guaranteeing increased deaths is a unique strategy, but it seems to be her strategy of choice.
Smiley pretends to care while introducing packages of policies designed to undermine progress made by her political opponents and obfuscate the real problems Americans and especially Washington citizens face.
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