This post originally appeared a few weeks ago after Sawant packed a debate meeting at Mt. Zion Baptist … filling it with white supporters from outside the District.
While I admired and supported Kshma’s campaign for the $15 minimum wage, she has become a demagogue and shown absolutely no interest in issues affecting District 3: apartheid, gentrification, transportation to and from the UW, support for the arts community, support for the schools, etc.
The all to real issues of the 3rd becoming an Apartheid district and our losing its cultural roots do not interest her.
Since that time I have learned a lot more about Sawant and about her opponents. She is NOT a social democrat or a socialist, she is a Trotskyite. Her calling herself a Trotskyite is not a casual claim. Like Trotsky, she supports the Bolshevik party idea of rule by a self appointed elite that claims to represent the people.
Frankly, she scares me. Here are some facts already reported in other posts on TA:
1. Sawant has been campaigning in New York for funds to run in Seattle.
2. Her New York campaign includes some notorious people who are not just opposed to Israel’s current government, they are supporters of the terrorist, anti-semitic group Hamas.
3. She supported a campaign to unseat Frank Chopp, the leading democrat in the state, speaker of the House, and a strong advocate of all the things ..fair housing and fair wages, Sawant herself claims to support.
4. After claiming she would only take $40,000 of her city salary, Sawant is taking the full sslary and contributing $70.000 directly to her own political party. Her own living needs are supported by her husband, an executive at Microsoft. Meanwhile she demeans her opponents as being corporate tools.
5. She has taken to identifying herself as a “person of color” … a stretch for someone born into India’s highest caste, the Brahmins.
6. During the two years on the Council, Sawant has never held a community meeting in the 3rd to listen to people’s concerns. Her first meeting in the 3rd will be this Saturday. That meeting will charger$15 for attendance and feature (again) speakers from New York who will talk about Gaza, worker takeover of Boeing, rent controls, etc.
I have also met two of her opponents .. Rod Hearn and Pam Banks. Both our outstanding. Rod was a leader of our gay marriage movement and Pam is an African American leader, and a protégé of Seattle’s greater mayor .. the “nice” Norm Rice. Their campaigns typify Seattle’s way .. they are rational, progressive and probably too polite to call out a demagogue like Sawant.
You can read more about Sawant by clicking the tag “Sawant” below.
The Original Post:
Last night at Drinking Liberally, David Goldstein of HorsesAss offered to bet me $700 … the amount he has contributed to Sawant’s campaign this year … that she would win in the primary with over 50% of the vote.
I refused to bet that much, after all David is now a hired writer for a billionaire while I am a mere state employee. Besides, David has another capitalist interest in the saga of Sawant, he is ghost writing her autobiography.
I did offer to bet $50, a bet taken up by one of David’s friends. I guess this was not rich enough for David.
You can read more of my thoughts on the performance of Comrade Sawant here on TA later today or read what Josh Feit has written a on Publicola.
I recommend it!