Seattle, Meet Your Matriarchy

About time.

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Take a step back from the close quarters political combat of Seattle's recent elections and you'll see something that has never happened before: a complete matriarchy running this town.

From our US Senators to our mayor and city council, it's a full sweep of women in charge. Finally.

Moving clockwise through the above image, starting in the upper left:

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, the first woman to lead this city since the 1920s—and the first out lesbian ever to run Seattle. When Durkan was sworn in last night, she assessed Seattle's many problems and said: "There are no easy solutions... If there were easy solutions, Seattle probably would not have elected a woman mayor."

Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the first Indian-American woman to serve in the US House of Representatives. Yesterday, she called on Congressman John Conyers to resign in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.

Seattle City Council Member Teresa Mosqueda, who said in a speech after her swearing in at City Hall yesterday: "A fresh wave of leaders is rising and resisting and running for office for the first time ever—record numbers of women, members of the LGBTQ community and people of color. I am one of them." Mosqueda's election creates a veto-proof, all-women supermajority on the City Council. (Mosqueda, Lisa Herbold, Kshama Sawant, Debora Juarez, Sally Bagshaw, and Lorena González.) The majority of that supermajority is women of color.

Washington Senator Patty Murray, who's currently doing battle over the Republican tax bill's assault on Obamacare.

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, who last night offered to teach Senator Ted Cruz a few things about tax reform during their tax plan debate on CNN.

Seattle City Council Member Lorena González, the child of undocumented migrant farmworkers who just got reelected in a landslide and spent her last term fighting for, among other things, an immigrant legal defense fund in Seattle that now helps those harmed by the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies.

Yes, the national news is grim and full of failing, flailing men. But here in Seattle, we now have what a majority of voters in last year's presidential election wanted: a history-making political matriarchy.