Comments

1

JFC, at least get the facts right. Both Mosqueda AND Gonzalez endorsed Kshama after the Amazon money bomb dropped.

2

OK, missed the line "in the primary." Mea culpa.

3

Maybe people were sick of a arrogant grandstanding jackass of a Council member who never did anything for her district? Well, could be...

5

I'm assuming Rich is too busy (crying in the fetal position under his desk) to post anything?

Finally a clearheaded view on what happened from the Stranger. It's really not that complicated. You get the feeling that the SA folks kinda let having any elected position, however small, go to their heads a bit. Issuing grandiose statements against capitalism and reviving old socialist tropes is fine and good, but should be done in addition to addressing traditional neighborhood issues not in place of. But the SA crowd thought they were above those issues and had to focus on spreading their glorious revolution. And here we are.

6

and the off-putting personality would also be easier to tolerate if she was taking care of basic constituent issues.

7

@3: Bingo. Americans will tolerate all manner of bad personal behavior if we get results. Bad behavior plus no or negative* results should — and usually does — get you canned.

Not only did CM Sawant eschew Democracy Vouchers, she relied on our-of-city money to make negative attacks on Orion’s supporters. She also seemed to have little to no “ground game” in the District. I was walking on Capitol Hill last weekend, close to Pike/Pine (where I had lived for the twenty consecutive years before it became part of District 3) and stopped to chat with the young folks at a table full of her campaign literature. It took only a few questions to confirm they were all very recent arrivals to Seattle, who did not reside in the District. It’s not hard to see a connection between her meager record of legislative accomplishments and her lack of local support.

*The Stranger’s refusal to allow the word “Showbox” into articles about CM Sawant’s electoral difficulties clashes hilariously with their prior relentless pimping of that “issue” to fluff her candidacy — before the million-dollar price tag for No More Showbox arrived. Then it got stuffed up The Stranger’s Memory Hole.

8

Katie you are at it again. Back stabbing again. Sawant introduced an improved minimum wage for workers in Seattle, changed columbus day to a day to honor indigenous people and started the fight for rent control amongst other improvements. Shame on you and the truck you rode in on or whatever it was.

9

7 Tensor you are a proponent of bad behavior and rudeness to put it politely.
You are a total brown noser to the rich and powerful and your comment history proves it.

10

4 Hilary is/was corrupt and so of course is Trump. Many are tired of it.

11

Ivy, when did that minimum wage thing happen? Was Sawant on the council at that point? Was she even the main person responsible for it? And getting Seattle to drop Columbus Day is like getting a dog to bark in a kennel.

And it's easy to say "Seattle needs rent control!" ... it's not that easy to answer the very fair questions people have about a policy that has had such dramatic failures in cities like NYC and SF.

12

As a socialist, I can admit to fatigue with socialist rhetoric in Seattle.

When I pitch socialism, it's all about European countries with no crime, no homelessness, universal healthcare, and what honestly feels like utopian society to compare with Seattle. The solutions to housing, homelessness, and transit are INCREDIBLY easy once you've scoured off the filth that encrusts the odd Seattleite's heart.

Instead of talking about how great socialism is, the ride-or-die socialists in this town just take anti-Pelosi or anti-Obama memes from nazis on twitter, then tweak them to instead have a quirky socialist hot take. Why would you expend all your social media energy on Pelosi and Obama and call that good praxis? Obama's not up for reelection, Pelosi isn't even from this state, and yet that's where socialist energy gets wasted.

As a utilitarian metric, anyone that exceeds a 1 to 1 ratio of Obama drone screeds versus examples of positive socialism is doing it wrong, and wasting time. Yes, the military continued to exist during the Obama administration. People who fixate on stupid shit like that really are asking for their entire political belief system to get reduced to Stalin gulags.

I'm sad for Shaun Scott though. He was incredibly positive, pitched great ideas with great examples of their successful implementation, and was 100% a different flavor than Sawant.

13

This potential "Orion moment" reflects the "Murray moment".

14

11 She pushed it through.

15

"whoever thought up the goddamn electoral college"

You've got to be joking. Clinton won the popular vote so of course the electoral college was a much greater liability than anything else including herself. I guess your current shtick is to portray facts as if they were opinions, like suggesting that Amazon pumping massive amount of money into the campaign had no effect on low information voters.

16

you mean she swooped in when it was already a fair accompli and used it to boost her own profile?

she might have helped get it over the line, but 15/hr has much deeper roots than Sawant.

18

11 Sorry. I don’t have any dates.

19

Another dumpster fire from West Coast Bari Weiss. Lol @ capitol hill, in 2019, being the most progressive district. So many progressives can afford to live there, after all.

Maybe you should get back on twitter and yell at Virginia socialists who go onto easily win reelection.

20

17 Her practices as secretary of state for example. The invasion of Libyia etc. Other war crimes throughout Africa and the middle east. Its all documented. I’m sure you can look it up.

21

Or it could be that Amazon and their PR/Spin team was successful in creating a narrative that Sawant is unlikeable and difficult to work with when the truth is that when Sawant fights for workers, renters, homeless, queers, POC and the disadvantaged it gets in the way of their greedy agenda. Her efforts to create affordable housing and fight for rent control by way of taxing Amazon, Starbucks, etc. and by regulating developers and landlords is what pisses them off. Wake up please. And interestingly, with this article, you are doing to Sawant what was done to HRC. Are people sick of Sawant or are they buying into a bullshit narrative that you yourself are perpetuating?

22

Who knew the Sawant would drain into da Nile. Hardly surprising.

23

16 She was the only council member to vote against a bad police contract that members of the black community had asked the council to veto.

24

Not liking someone is probably the worst basis on which to vote. I mean I would never vote for anyone if it were about liking them. Sawant was annoying, but so is the mayor and the rest of the council to me. "Not getting things done" is a credible criticism, and one I could direct at anyone on the council or incoming. Honestly, have any of these people made credible progress on any of the major issues affecting Seattle?

People can like this new guy all they want and stick it to Sawant all they want. If this guy gets in there and pisses away his tenure I wouldn't call it a net win.

25

"... there’s a valuable lesson here: Likability matters, maybe even more than policy positions or money."

We've been holding our noses and pulling the lever (update: mailin' 'em in) for so long, perhaps we've forgotten that crucial lil' Tidbit.

See: the guy who's about to turn over-turn Kentuck's Governor's race -- total asshole, even to Repubs. Who LOST (for the moment) on Moscow McMitch's Home fucking turf.

Also: Hillary

Should my favorite (current) Seattle City Council member take heed, perhaps her Formidability in an European-type Socialism experiment here in the USA'd be ... Substantial.

Regardless, I do hope she'll take note...
Thanks, Katie.

26

Or maybe the people who most need Sawant in office couldn't be bothered to vote! I'm looking at the 75% of you that didn't vote, despite a damn ballot coming right to your house, you lazy asses!

27

Great post, Katie!

29

@Annef -- "Or it could be that Amazon and their PR/Spin team was successful in creating a narrative that Sawant is unlikeable and difficult to work with when the truth is that when Sawant fights for workers, renters, homeless, queers, POC and the disadvantaged it gets in the way of their greedy agenda."

Excellent point.

30

Honestly, when the council reneged on the "head tax" purely out of fear of retribution from Amazon and other tech companies, I pretty much knew they were never going to accomplish anything. I give Sawant some credit for at least seeing what a flagrant act of political cowardice that was.

32

Newsflash: The Stranger's alt-right-curious troll has a visceral disdain for leftists and their icons, dismisses them out of hand.

But even a broken clock is right twice a day, so...

33

Also, anyone who can say with a straight face in the Trump era that likability matters is out of touch.

Though I suppose our screaming, hostile, charisma void of a president is likable to some fucking people, so who knows?

34

32: I'm fine with Katie being in this rag, but she probably needs to just embrace her conservative politics and stop playing concern troll "classical" liberal.

35

It turns out Sawant just isn't any good at being in city government. Running for city council in Washington State and telling everybody you'll implement rent control is like running for student government in college and promising to give everybody an A+. It's a flagrant lie and depends on voters' ignorance of how government works.

In the areas D3 residents care about and the city actually his control over - transportation, crime, homelessness - Sawant has done nothing at all. Visible homelessness, gun violence, public drug abuse, traffic - Sawant's been on the council since 2013, and none of it's gotten any better. Instead, she's calling the police murderers for shooting somebody who tried to stab them, wasting a million dollars of city money in a failed effort to "save" the Showbox, and trying to impose a direct tax on employment.

36

Did someone say racism?

Are we talking about that rich white lady in D2 whose supporters beat up on a person of color, Mark Solomon and wouldn't give up "space" for the only African American in the race??

37

35: Be honest with yourself: have any city council members actually solved any of these problems in any of the districts?

38

@37 Why should D3 votes be content with mediocrity, even if voters in other districts may be?

40

Christ. Is there no logical fallacy Herzog won't embrace? False dichotomy, in this case.

The answer is: "Both are true."

And it's likely you wouldn't have near the rabid fear mongering hyperbole of public dissatisfaction with Sawant without all that money being poured into the race.

And it was a great deal more than the money poured into the direct campaign. There was YEARS of PR by Amazon. A two year long multi-million dollar propaganda campaign can take fissures in public opinion and turn them in to canyons.

Not that Sawant did herself any favors. She is utterly unlikeable, arrogant, and at at times a ridiculous parody of the out of touch academic Socialist, making herself an easy target to mock.

But let's not kid ourselves that a multi billion dollar corporation didn't take her down. Because they did. And that is fucked up regardless of how stupid she is.

41

@17 "On issue after issue, widely popular policies are stymied because giant corporations and billionaires who don’t want to pay taxes or follow any rules use their money and influence to stand in the way of big, structural change,” Warren writes in her plan. “We’ve got to call that out for what it is: corruption, plain and simple.”

Elizabeth Warren’s first priority as president: ending government corruption
https://www.vox.com/2019/9/16/20867216/elizabeth-warren-anti-corruption-bill

42

I'm confident that with the new slate we'll continue to bravely not address any actual problems in this city. But there will be a lot more talk about public-private partnerships that randomly produce 20 affordable apartment units, pass another levy to underfund our transit system, a couple homeless camp raids, and with any luck, a brand new corporate redevelopment project. Progress! And all we had to do is get rid of the ornery leftist.

43

I'm confident that with the new slate we'll continue to bravely not address any actual problems in this city. But there will be a lot more talk about public-private partnerships that randomly produce 20 affordable apartment units, another levy to underfund our transit system, a couple homeless camp raids, and with any luck, a brand new corporate redevelopment project. Progress! And all we had to do is get rid of the ornery leftist.

44

@41
Yes... And war is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

45

@39 like Andy Ngo?

46

44: That's all you got, some fresh libertarian cliches ripped from the pages of 1984?

Look, I don't think Warren is gonna magically stop corruption, but the fact she aims to stop a great deal of it (regardless of success) is not some weird Stalinist doublespeak. How many times are conservatives going to go back to this same hoary well of Cold War-era bromides?

47

Good, Katie, for not parroting The Stranger's party line. Yes, of course, most of the opposition to Sawant is not due to Amazon's influence but to her sanctimonious, formulaic blaming; aloofness; indifference to the actual details of her district's neighborhoods; self-promotion masked by communitarian rhetoric; and an I'm right/You're wrong tone-deaf condescension. Many voters are fine with a feisty, and sometimes divisive, council member, but less so if collective blaming is heaped on stereotypical "enemies," as if this were the two-minute hate period in Orwell's 1984. Sawant is intelligent, insightful, and at time courageous, and her talents might yet find a vehicle that evokes the good she's capable of achieving. But us-versus-them paradigms aren't merely counterproductive; they usually reflect shallow, tunnel-visioned perception, and most voters are not buying the cartoonish evil "ruling class" clown capitalist Sawant loves to purvey and vilify. And Seattle has more pressing concerns than assuaging Sawant's hurt feelings or criticizing her past performance. We have a corrupt president who needs to be evicted from the White House; huge budgetary issues; and a transportation crisis made far, far worse by the passage of I-976. And I say let's focus on these concerns, not the minutiae of Sawant's ostensible greatness or failures. But, again: thank you for thinking independently. The Stranger staff seems bizarrely obsessed with Sawant, and they're in denial, not unlike the Trump cultists and the Republican Party. Here's to candor and issues-based campaigns and discussions.

48

It's easy to make the argument that Amazon's last-minute contributions actually helped Sawant. Leading up to the election, polling showed that voters wanted massive change on the council. Three weeks before the ballots were counted, Amazon dropped a turd in the punchbowl.

It spurred councilmembers that can't stand her to endorse her at the eleventh hour. It motivated Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to weigh in on her behalf with their supporters. (Has a Seattle City Council election ever received that kind of national attention before? I doubt it.) I know several people personally who were planning to vote for Orion but switched to Sawant in protest of of Bezos' bucks.

If we have learned anything about Amazon's political game in the last year, it's that they are hamfisted, bumbling nincompoops. Look at what happened to them in New York!

And now, billions of dollars deep into Seattle real estate with nowhere else to go, their meddling in Seattle City Council elections just plain stinks.

I suspect she will win in the end, which is a shame. If she does, it will be because of the antipathy Amazon has engendered in this town.

50

49: Not a big civics guy, are you?

"But PACs are legal!" lol.

51

@46
The “double speak” is Warren trying to re-brand political speech as corruption it’s self.

52

A court ruling from 2010 doesn't make buying elections any less corrupt. It was a bad ruling.

53

I see the Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires' Club™ is out in force today.

54

"Why can't we all just sell out for top dollar?"

the cry of entitled NIMBY extremists

57

@51 Like? Give some examples of her doing so. C'mon, Sport.

So you think using the full weight of the federal government and its mighty purse to extort a foreign powers' secret intelligence service to dig up dirt on a political rival is "political speech" now?

She's referring to the Quid Pro Quo that you squealed was a "nothing burger" and didn't happen. Now we have no less than four witnesses testifying that it did happen. And yes. It's illegal. Always has been illegal. And is corruption.

But admittedly you're the exert on double speak. Since it's pretty much what you trade in here almost every day.

58

This is written in Katie Herzog's standard "taunting/trolling her readers" obnoxious style, but it's basically 100% right. She wasn't in a terribly strong position to begin with (her 2015 opponent was pretty terrible and didn't get much support at all, and Sawant only won by about 10), and the demographics of her district are changing, her main response was to insult the newcomers. She's never acted much like someone who cared whether she's re-elected or not. Her fans may like that about her, but ultimately indifference to electoral outcomes is a way of betraying your constituents. It's a progressive district, and there's no reason a good, politically competent progressive shouldn't be able to defeat a corporate empty suit like Orion. The sooner the Seattle left gets savvy enough about politics to recognize this is in no small part Sawant's fault, and they should be pissed off about how unserious she was about retaining the seat, the better.

60

If republicans couldn't make anything stick against Hillary, what does that say about them?
By the same token she couldn't beat a jowly orange sex offender, what does that say about her?

62

@52
Is it equally corrupt when unions buy elections?

How corrupt is it when Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, George Soros, Dustin Moskovitz, Donald Sussman, Fred Eychaner, and Jim Simons buy elections?

Which of the following PACs are (or are not) corrupt when they buy elections?
AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America
PAC to the Future
Common Ground PAC
Purpose PAC
Jobs Education & Families First
America Works
United for A Strong America
All for Our Country
BRIDGE PAC
Shore PAC
Forward Together PAC
Motor City PAC
CherPAC
Lobo PAC
Oceans PAC
Prairie PAC
M-PAC
Getting Stuff Done PAC
Keystone America PAC
Hawaii PAC
Smart Solutions PAC

63

@57
Try to keep up.
I was responding to @41:

"On issue after issue, widely popular policies are stymied because giant corporations and billionaires who don’t want to pay taxes or follow any rules use their money and influence to stand in the way of big, structural change,” Warren writes in her plan. “We’ve got to call that out for what it is: corruption, plain and simple.” (Elizabeth Warren’s first priority as president: ending government corruption https://www.vox.com/2019/9/16/20867216/elizabeth-warren-anti-corruption-bill )

You're just spare parts aren't ya bud?

64

George Soros doesn't buy shit.

Man, I killed Seth Rich for him in a dark alley and that poofy haired Hungarian motherfucker still hasn't mailed me the check. Fuck him.

65

@58: “...ultimately indifference to electoral outcomes is a way of betraying your constituents.”

Not necessarily. We still remember Solon and Cincinnatus exactly because of their utter indifference to longevity in office. Pandering to constituents for re-election is almost the opposite of good governing principle.

You’re correct in noting that our having Sawant out of office could be a boon for getting more actual progressive legislation passed, instead of her M.O. of endless big talk and then her only “action” of posing for photo ops with persons who are actually getting the job done (or at least trying) with no actual support from her.

67

I was just sick of her in a position that contributes to the demise of a Seattle that use to be so much more livable and enjoyable. Hope she goes back to being a private citizen.

68

@34 - I would think the "conservative" take in this situation would be that Sawant loses because of her socialist ideology, not despite it as Ms. Herzog suggests. Could it be that you're less concerned with actual political ideology and more concerned with perceived slights against your tribe?

69

I thought it was fun having her on the council in a "troll the conservatives" sort of way. But it was evident she wasn't any good at politics. Its perhaps a nice quality to have in a human, but its not what you want in a politician.

As if individual city council members, or the council as a whole, have the power to resolve the crisis of late capitalism. eyeroll.

The graveyards are full of indispensable persons.

70

68: No, I don't have a tribe. It's just that virtually everything she publishes on this site is critical of the left (usually dressed up as tough love) and defensive of conservatives and alt-right figures. There are a few exceptions--like her recent Tim Eyman rant--but ultimately Katie has a lot of the same talking points I find in conservative forums and websites. For a few weeks there it actually seemed like she was right on the pulse of conservative op-ed talking points.

I'm not saying this is a problem because she's entitled to her opinions. It's just that her "concern trolling" is starting to read a lot like the never-Trumper rants of Douthat or Brooks or the "intelletual dark web"/Peterson "free speech" brigade.

71

62: Sure, I don't really see how that changes my point. I think elections should be publicly funded.

Or do you honestly expect me to jump to the defense of those PACs?

72

Thank you so much for writing this. I love the stranger, but I was also getting tired of tired of being called a racist neo-con by authors supporting sawant because I wanted someone who, you know, actually had an interest in repping our district.

73

With today's ballot drop, Swant is only 2.5 points behind Orion. She's getting re-elected when the updated count drops tomorrow.

Now we can blame Amazon for that too!

75

@71
I appreciate your consistency. Personally, I don't think it should be legal to donate money to a candidate that you can't legally cast a vote for. But addressing campaign contributions doesn't address other political speech (PACs, Media, Social Media, some guy with a bumper sticker). I'm just not sure how that speech can be effectively regulated at a universal level, and failing that, think the better approach is to not regulate it at all. Its kind of hard to limit political speech with the First Amendment in place, (and it's one of my top two favorite amendments). What gets forgotten is that the Constitution, as an instrument, is intended to limit the actions/power of the government. Not the people.

77

Amazon also contributed $500k to defeat Eyman's initiative. Two questions-- one, are they horrible for doing that? should that also be illegal? two, what does it mean that it was so ineffective?

78

@75 oh for fuck sake. You keep falsely equating "speech" with "money" and it's not the same thing regardless of what your puppet SCOTUS says. And all least I'm made of something — spare or otherwise — besides lies, insecurity and ignorance. You are suck a god damned phony loser it's embarrassing.

79

@70: I read her as a leftist who is bravely asking her community to engage in some self reflection about flaws that ultimately hurt the cause--at no small cost to herself.

As for your response, you make my point for me by focusing entirely on who her critiques are directed toward (your people) and other peoples' reactions to them, rather than the merits of those critiques. So what if the tribe across the river praises XYZ? You know who supported sports and physical fitness? The Nazis! We are anti-Nazi ergo we should ban fitness, etc. etc.

81

A silly, false and wrong article by Katie Herzog.

Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative are genuine socialists.

We strive to create a nationwide mass party for socialism comprising the entire working-class, all the 99 Per Cent, all our sisters and brothers.
Against the colossal capitalist monster and His Republican-Democrat 2-headed snake.

(1)
While participating energetically, enthusiastically, relentlessly in the mass movement building around Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, we will never give even one iota of support to Sanders while he runs as a Democrat.

That is established socialist policy ever since 1850:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm

(2)
Herzog mewls that Kshama Sawant is divisive.

Yes and no:

We fight for maximum horizontal unity — of our class, the 99 Per Cent, the huge majority in society.

And for maximum vertical “division” — of our class against our corporate overlords, our exploiters, our oppressors, our blood-drinkers.

Our class’s final victory will see them “dividing” the colossal capitalist monster’s head from His shoulders.

(3)
Herzog echoes the slanderous liar Kevin Schofield of “SCC Incite” — who refuses to publish our refutations of his slanderous lies — when she falsely claims that Socialist Kshama is somehow unavailable to her fellow-worker district 3 constituents.

As the saying goes: “Where’s your evidence? Put up or shut up”.

For Kshama and for every Socialist Alternative member, Socialist Alternative is our greatest treasure.

Why?
Because it’s the harbinger of our future freedom.

Steam, Piston-box, Motion.
The “Steam” is the love and hope we have for our class, our planet, our future.

The “Piston-box” is Socialist Alternative, uniting, energizing, enthusing that “Steam”.

The “Motion” is the workers’ complete future victory — the socialist future of all humankind.

Nevertheless, what achieves the “Motion” is not the “Piston-box” but the “Steam”.

Hence we appeal to every fellow 99 PerCenter:
Be like Kshama!
Fight like Kshama!
Join Socialist Alternative — the party of Kshama!

https://www.kshamasawant.org/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/

82

You obviously wrote this before today’s ballot drop.

By tomorrow night, Sawant will lead the polls.

You can shut up now, Katie.

83

@78
If you really can’t understand the relationship between money and speech then you’re too stupid to engage. So you can just fuck right off now.

85

Ooh #84 “MrB”, or should that be B^3 for “Billionaire Bezos’s Bootlicker”,

Who cares what you “picture”?

Stay on subject, and address the points raised.

Otherwise you prove you have nothing to say.

https://www.kshamasawant.org/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/

86

Ooh #16 “Tservo”,

So you admit that Socialist Kshama did at least “push the $15 minimum wage over the line” in Seattle?

Now we strive to replicate that victory throughout the country.

Meanwhile, what are you yourself doing to help in that splendid ongoing struggle?

If absolutely nothing, aren’t you being a half-witted hypocrite?

:)

https://www.kshamasawant.org/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/

87

Woo hoo #67 “MrBigg”,

You do sound “just sick”, that’s for sure!

Best wishes to the posse of professional psychiatrists doubtless desperately trying to cure you.

:)

https://www.kshamasawant.org/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/

88

Better just disable comments on this one lol

89

Guess they ain't so sick of her after all eh Katie?

90

@83 HAHAHA. You angry, Bro? Well. Okay, Mr. "OMG! Close the borders there's one Ebola death!"

Your judgment or perspective on how the world should work is hardly, how shall we say, a model of clear headed understanding. HAHAHA.

Oh. Speaking of corruption; your BFF Stable Genius president just admitted (and was fined) to illegally funneling money from his foundation for his campaign and personal gain. Next will be the grift from his inauguration where he stole a shit ton of money. You gotta love you some of dat rightwing corruption.

91

There's gonna be a lot of crow eating for the rest of this week!

92

You should learn more about how ballots are counted in WA before drawing conclusions from the election night numbers. This is not new we have been doing this for ten years now. Amazon needs a better political consultant than a failed tax averse regressive DINO. Maybe they could spend their money helping the less fortunate in Seattle through their fair share of taxes.

93

Hey, remember Chiang Kai-shek?

What if it was Chiang Kai-....Shrek?

94

@77, yes, even if amazon put money into the fucking tim eyeman initiative 976, we should be against rich people and rich businesses from pushing politics to things that affect them. We should not want to be a fucking oligarchy.

95

@81 get a life. you can't be serious, maybe you are 15. What if a rich person like bernie sanders wants to improve the lives of poor people. He aint in the 99%.

96

Hi #95 “Another Damn Programmer”,

What matters is not Bernie Sanders’s policies, but what policies we as a mass movement can force him to act upon.

Heck, we’d even support any genuinely progressive policies — even if they were enacted by mass-murderer war-criminals such as Trump or Obama.

A painting is not made up of paint-dots, but of paint-dots collected to form images.

Similarly: Society is not made up of individuals, but of individuals collected into social classes — each with a unique and specific relationship to the means of production.

Everybody who works is working-class — in the US today, that’s the 99 Per Cent of the population.

Everybody who steals our labor-power, who turns that into their profits, is the capitalist enemy class — in the US today, that’s 0.01 Per Cent of the population, the parasites running the top 250 monopolies and devastating the planet’s ecology.
They’re the ruling class — but only until we throw them off our shoulders.

In the US, our capitalist overlords have 2 main parties — the Republican and the Democrat — two different instruments in Wall Street’s infernal orchestra.

Here are some characterizations of the Republican and Democrat leaderships:

“One’s the jackal, the other’s the hyena — no matter what, they’ll both eat you!”
— Malcolm X

“Two wings of the same bird-of-prey”
— Upton Sinclair

“Two cheeks of the same ass”

:)

Voting for any Republican or any Democrat for any public position — from dog-catcher down to president — would be (a mild form of) mad treason.

Regardless of whether they masquerade as “socialists” — eg. Bernie Sanders, AOC.

So the ruling capitalist enemy has 2 parties.

It’s high time we, the 99 Per Cent, built a mass party of our own — independent of, and in opposition to, the bosses’ Republican-Democrat 2-headed snake.

A trade-union and community based party of the working-class, throughout the land, organized as a confederation of democratically-represented grassroots groups.

Encompassing, enthusing, emboldening the entire working-class — women and men, black and white, gay and straight, young and old!

Within such a mass party, we, Socialist Alternative, will put forward our ideas.
You, and other groups, are welcome to do the same.
In the clash of competing ideas, the best ideas will eventually win.

Armed with socialist perspectives, programme and leadership, such a mass party shall conquer!

So come march with us, argue with us, consider joining us.
Together, we have a world to win!

https://www.kshamasawant.org/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/

97

Enjoy your crow McNuggets in Sour Grape dipping sauce, Katie.

98

Lmao this one aged GREAT

99

Hey Tensor, just wanted to drop in to say I Told You So.


Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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