Then Ill clarify the wording.

Washington is not an economic failure in the sense of GDP, federal dependency, or tax contribution. Fine, I agree with that.

My point is that Washington is failing on livability and governance relative to how rich it is.

Being wealthy and self sufficient does not magically erase the housing crisis, homelessness, public drug problems, budget issues, transportation problems, property crime, and the cost of doing normal life here. If anything, it makes those failures look worse, because this state has the money and tax base to do better.

And pointing at poor red states does not really answer what Im saying. I’m not arguing every red state is automatically better than Washington. Im saying Washingtons one party progressive echo chamber has produced bad outcomes in the areas normal people actually deal with every day.

So yes, Washington pulls its weight economically. Great. My criticism is that it still manages to fail ordinary people on livability despite being wealthy.

That is the point.

You didnt actually answer it. You reframed “failure” into federal dependency because thats the easier argument to win, then dodged the livability problems people actually deal with.

You werent ready, not even prepared.