Oh Steve... left is relative!
I prefer to think of us as not holding on to the patriarchal leadership of the rest of this country. We're the only state with women in both Senate seats and a woman governor. The minimum wage in Washington is the highest in the country, now at $7.93 an hour (vs. the Fed's $5.15). Our neighbor to the south, Oregon -- also a left-leaner, has the next highest, at $7.80.
Check out
http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/laborpress/ if you want to know Washington's radical history... once referred to as the "Soviet of Washington." Mostly, the consensus is that Washington has very strong unions and doesn't put up with a lot of nonsense from the east coast (or Europe or the rest of the world, for that matter)... witness the WTO riots in Seattle. This state is filled with high-minded idealists and kowtows as much to our tribes as to the leadership in D.C. Are we socialists or just unwilling to buy into capitalism run amok?
About the USSR... is the world better now for having not just one large country with nukes, but a whole host of crazed small countries, each with their own small share of the nuclear arsenal? Is Russia, with Putin leading, bribery rampant and gangsters in charge, a good place? Is the stew in the pot better than the soup in the crock? No-goodniks, all.