There is a scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail that, sometimes, seems to be the story of my life. A King is trying to be sure his son follows through with an arranged marriage. The son, Herbert (or Alice) doesn’t want to go through with it. As the King is leaving, he gets two of his guards to keep an eye on the son. Should be simple enough, right? “Make sure the Prince doesn’t leave this room until I come and get ‘im.”

GUARD #1: Right. Oh, if-if-if, uh, if-if-if, uh, if-if-if we…
FATHER: Yes, what is it?
GUARD #1: Oh, if-if, oh–
FATHER: Look, it’s quite simple.
GUARD #1: Uh…
FATHER: You just stay here, and make sure ‘e doesn’t leave the room. All right?
GUARD #2: Hic!
FATHER: Right.
GUARD #1: Oh, I remember. Uh, can he leave the room with us?
FATHER: N- No no no. You just keep him in here, and make sure…
GUARD #1: Oh, yes, we’ll keep him in here, obviously. But if he had to leave and we were with him–
FATHER: No, no, just keep him in here…
GUARD #1: Until you, or anyone else…
FATHER: No, not anyone else, just me…
GUARD #1: Just you.
GUARD #2: Hic!
FATHER: Get back.
GUARD #1: Get back.
FATHER: Right?
GUARD #1: Right, we’ll stay here until you get back.
FATHER: And, uh, make sure he doesn’t leave.
GUARD #1: What?

You can watch the fun here:

So here I am, not far out from an election for the Seattle City Council and it should be simple. “Price controls are bad. They create inflation and, well, businesses always oppose price controls, especially rent control. Got it?”

No the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the front group People for Seattle can’t seem to understand this. Nor, I guess, can Vulcan. One of the things that characterizes these groups is their dislike of Councilmember Kshama Sawant. I think “dislike” is too weak a word. It’s more like an unhealthy obsession. And when Danny Westneat pointed out that not much will change in this election because the candidates are kind of a mix of the same left leaning people already there (something I agree with), here’s what Michael McIntyre of the Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE), the Chamber’s Political Action Committee said,

Our city government needs to get the basics right and be responsive to citizen concerns. Instead, this council has broken trust with voters and failed to make meaningful progress on too many critical issues.

Don’t let anyone fool you about this election – it will be a vote on change versus the status quo.

The people who should be concerned about backlash this election are those who stand with the status quo.

Right. Don’t be fooled! But someone is being fooled. Either CASE is, the voters are, or donors like Vulcan are. Because if you look at the CASE backed opponent of Sawant, Egan Orion, and mail he sent out to thousands of voters, he supports shelter as a “human right” and rent control, both things Sawant and her adherents support completely.

Yes, it’s right there. If you’re confused about what “shelter as a human right” means, the notion of housing or shelter being a human right is a leftist trope that is behind almost all efforts to undermine the rental housing market. I wrote about how that works at Forbes, but essentially it means private property owners’ rights to do what they want with their property — even their own home — is trumped by a renter’s or buyer’s “right” to shelter or housing. If a tenant doesn’t pay rent, too bad landlord, that person gets to stay there until they find another option.

And “stabilization” is followed in the same sentence in Orion’s mail with the words, “control rising rents.” It’s right there folks.

And here’s what Sawant’s mail says: “Don’t let corporate cash buy City Hall.” Then it cites a contribution by Vulcan of $155,000 to “stop rent control.” Check it out.

What’s going on here. You’ve got CASE saying, “Don’t be fooled,” but supporting a candidate that is going to support and, he says, “enact” something his opponent wants to impose as well, rent control. It doesn’t make any sense. And when I have pointed this out to Orion, Sawant, The Stranger, and the Seattle Times, not a single one of them has responded, although Westneat did reply that he didn’t think that Orion is a “clone” of Sawant. He most certainly is not: he’s a young white, gay, man. I guess that somehow makes rent control acceptable to Vulcan and CASE and business groups throwing money at him.

I suggested that Vulcan should ask for it’s money back since they don’t need to spend it here trying to “stop rent control” since, either way, both candidates are committed to it.

The world we live in is the world we want. And the local business community is led by people that genuinely feel guilty and bad about what they’re doing. Most don’t build, own, or manage rental property. They feel even worse about what you do if you are a developer, builder, or landlord. They think you’re probably doing something wrong. In the view of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce advocating for business is offsetting your greed as a business owner with capitulation, bribes, and support for more intervention in your business operations, how you pay and schedule your workers, and how much money you make. They believe that doing all that will make them “good corporate citizens.”

Trying to explain this to people in the real estate business has me feeling a lot like the King who just wants his guards to do a simple thing, but they just don’t seem to get it. The Chamber and downtown interests are not friends of people who build and manage housing. They think you’re not paying your “fair share” (see the Chamber’s ad for Jenny Durkan). And when the time comes to impose rent control, the Chamber will be there nodding and saying, “Rent stabilization will help people who are struggling in our community. Hic!”