What is "Right-Wing?"

Some of you likely heard or saw an attack from a union fronted, far left “watchdog” this week called Washingtonians for Ethical Government against Let’s Go Washington and Brandi Kruse. Without commenting on the general merits (or lack thereof) of the assertions made, it’s worth noting the media framing and problematic way it was adopted as fact and weaponized, just as intended.

First off, WFEG is far left and union fronted. If you know how to use a Google search and do even a 3 minute dive, it’s there for all to see. Until last week, it existed nearly exclusively as a battering ram against Tim Eyman by Andrew Villeneuve, the Executive Director of the NORTHWEST PROGRESSIVE INSTITUTE.

The press release was issued by Power House Solutions, a Seattle PR and political consulting firm, specializing in “Progressive issue, labor union, and ballot initiative campaigns from around the U.S. come here for media, digital strategy, messaging, website, and other communications services.” They’ve opposed Let’s Go Washington initiatives in the past, and do extensive work for every public sector union in the state.

Here’s the opening of the article about it in the Seattle Times (note it’s from their educational engagement reporter, and the Ed Lab, brought to you by Bill Gates and the Ballmers):

By Ryan Nguyen
Seattle Times education reporter

Education Lab is a Seattle Times project that spotlights promising approaches to persistent challenges in public education. The Seattle Foundation serves as the fiscal sponsor for Education Lab, which is supported by grants from the Gates Foundation and Ballmer Group. Learn more about Ed Lab and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

A campaign-finance watchdog has filed a complaint against Let’s Go Washington, alleging the conservative political committee failed to properly disclose political advertising tied to two statewide initiative campaigns.

And here’s how the Seattle Times and the author describe Project 42:

The complaint cites Kruse’s list of advertisers on her website, which includes right-wing group Future 42, a subsidiary of Heywood’s nonprofit Project 42.

(Worth noting: the author did correct this statement to reflect Project 42 is a stand alone entity and not “Heywood’s”)

Reviewing the stated purpose, vision and mission of Future 42, you can see it is common sense based and results drive. There’s a history of working to restore police pursuits, better educational outcomes, bloated programs and wasted taxpayer funds, and budget discipline instead of ever increasing taxes. You know, crazy stuff like results that help citizens and businesses thrive!

So, the natural question is, what defines “right-wing,” especially in the legacy media ecosystem. Creating a safe and livable state? Ensuring a more affordable cost of living? Probably lowering our taxes… The ideological framing is out in the open for all to see. And the why is self-evident as well. The Seattle Times, as it does often as well as a few other local TV news outlets, frame ANY OPPOSITION TO DEMOCRATS as right-wing. I asked this question on X and received some interesting answers.

Steve Gordon@stevemgordon67

Legit question: What is "RIGHT-WING?" Various media outlets describe people and orgs like Brandi Kruse, Let's Go Washington, Project/Future 42, etc. using that term. I'm genuinely curious what folks think defines the term "right-wing." Feel free to answer in the comments.

1:57 PM · May 15, 2026 · 1.53K Views

21 Replies · 1 Repost · 17 Likes

And that framing serves a purpose: It casts the opposition to the political monolith that runs our state as MAGA Trumpers, Christian Nationalists, anti-abortion, and bigoted. It signals to their liberal and progressive audience that it’s ok to keep supporting politicians who consistently deliver failing policy results because they’re “good people” in opposition to the “knuckle-draggers.” To steal from my friend Professor Gad Saad who participated in our Sanity Forum last year, it feeds their “Suicidal Empathy” (available on Amazon now!).

It does seem that the income tax fight forming is waking up a lot of people to the failed results delivered by the current majority in power. They’re decidedly not “right-wing,” conservative, or Republican. They’re simply people that have been living and working to support their families, their communities, and their businesses and realize a lot of those things are now in jeopardy. And they aren’t falling for the propaganda of the state’s political machine and their legacy media allies anymore.

Let’s Go Washington. Washington deserves better and it’s worth fighting for. I’ll have more to say this week with a three part series starting Tuesday…stay tuned.