Washington State had two chances to remove the tendrilous grip of state government. Without going into detail, we had an opportunity to privatize the state-run liquor business and our industrial workers insurance. Both initiatives fell to fear tactics.

The Opposition to the workers comp initiative advertised it was a ploy by AIG to rake us over the coals. The AIG bailout and fraud is still fresh in our minds and so is the bad taste it left, but the fact is, AIG contributed nothing to the campaign. AIG is now largely owned by the taxpayers and is being watched by the congressional oversight committee. They haven’t made any political contributions since 2008.

Those opposed to ending the state monopoly on liquor sales guilted the people by claiming it was a tradeoff between safety (underage drinking) and convenience. The truth is, those in favor of the initiative wanted less government, less government owned real estate, less administration and fewer government employees- not "convenience". A lesser amount of state resources freed up by ending the monopoly could have been use for enforcement of current laws and increase "safety".

A sister initiative confused the issue leading people to think that taxes would be removed from alcohol causing a $200 million dollar budget hit that would harm essential services like Fire fighting. The people apparently couldn't make the distinction between the two initiatives.

Like I said, Sheeple...