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BART.GOV

Jill Stein, who has no patriotism issues (her one virtue), wants a recount in the three swing states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) that put Trump in power by an incredibly thin margin (just over 100,000 votes). The reason Stein gives for making this effort, which requires $2,500,000 (she has so far raised $30,000) is “compelling evidence of voting anomalies” in those states. But I think the real reason is this: it has finally dawned on her why many of us on the far left made the hard decision to vote for neoliberal Hillary Clinton and not her. Clinton's opponent is actually very scary and dangerous. Trump is no joke, and we now have to live in his openly and rabidly white supremacist world for the next four years. Again, it's not that Stein or her supporters at the Socialist Alternative cost Clinton the election. The thing is we needed all the help we could get to stop this monster.


Now Kshama Sawant wants to take the lead on the anti-Trump protests, yet she actually made no effort to stop him during the post-Bernie Sanders period of the presidential race. And the stunning thing is she does not acknowledge she made no effort to prevent the terrible situation we are now in. But instead of reexamining her position on the presidential election, she wants to continue as if nothing happened.

Now, why am I a socialist? Not because of some airy-fairy nonsense about human progress or destiny or universality or what have you. I'm on the far left because I believe in logic (reasoned thinking). I support light rail because it is a logical solution to congestion in a big city. I support public housing because the market can not afford the expense of housing the poor and the government can. The left is logical; the right is not. Why do we have privatized prisons? It makes no social/larger logical sense, but they do have a very limited logic on the right: profits for a few people.

Let's think about Sawant. She wants us suddenly not to see the broken logic of her position on Trump today in connection with her position on Trump before he was elected. In this respect, she is challenging the very system by which all leftist programs are based: logic. The left has nothing but its logical ideas and policies and projects. Capitalism can only be dismantled logically. So, calling for Trump protests sans any recognition or reflection on a former stance is simply illogical.