Tuesday, May 27, 2014

New York Magazine: The Most Powerful Socialist in America

New York Magazine is featuring Seattle Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. She's a very dangerous woman, but, note well, she doesn't attempt to distort her message the way Rand Paul does

NYM reports:
Who is Kshama Sawant?

Kshama Sawant (pronounced "SHAH-mah sah-WANT") is a 41-year-old part-time economics instructor at Seattle Central Community College. An Indian immigrant who grew up mostly in Mumbai, she earned a Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina State University and moved to Seattle in 2006 with her husband, a Microsoft engineer...Oh, and she's a socialist.

Wait, like a real socialist?

Yep. Sawant is a member of Socialist Alternative, a political party formed in 1986 that is active in at least 20 major U.S. cities. (Motto: "Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism.") Socialist Alternative supported Ralph Nader's runs for president in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008, and played a major role in organizing and sustaining the Occupy Wall Street movement. According to the group's website, it believes that "the dictatorships that existed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were perversions of what socialism is really about. We are for democratic socialism where ordinary people will have control over our daily lives."

Sawant joined Socialist Alternative after hearing a speech from one of the group's members in 2006. Since then, she has worn her affiliation proudly: "People have an interest in rebuilding the left in the U.S.," she told me in an interview this week. "There are scores of young people who are looking for alternatives to capitalism."...

For her part, Sawant told me that even if raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour hurts the Seattle economy (and nobody knows if it will), that would say more about capitalism than the merits of the wage hike itself. "If making sure that workers get out of poverty would severely impact the economy, then maybe we don't need this economy," she said...

What's next for her?

According to the Seattle Times, Sawant has other issues on her plate — like "[reforming] the city’s tax system to impose a fee on millionaires that would pay for public transit" and implementing rent control. She'll also have to defend her seat in 2018, and a redistricting plan in Seattle means she might have a tougher time winning over voters in the next cycle.

Still, she seems bound for bigger things. Seattle Weekly describes her as "strikingly approachable, yet relentlessly on-message, flanked by a phalanx of young activists, and with an eye for the long game that would make any politician proud." She told me that she's seen tweets and gotten emails encouraging her to run for Seattle mayor. "It's an interesting idea," she said.

15 comments:

  1. It is easy to act on jealousy. It is hard, wise and moral to subdue that urge.

    "We are for democratic socialism where ordinary people will have control over our daily lives."

    I believe in flying pigs. There, I said something equally ridiculous.



    As Milton Friedman would say, "Nirvana is not for this world."

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  2. JT outg of BarrowMay 27, 2014 at 7:19 PM

    Who is Kshama Sawant?
    .
    President Clinton's Secretary of Commerce.
    .
    lolsigh

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    1. "Who is Kshama Sawant?"

      A complete bimbo with an economics "degree".

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  3. I'm cool with it. People will discover the error in following Jezebels soon enough.

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  4. Obviously, her college education was not a success.

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  5. Wait, like a real socialist?

    Oh, don't be silly, New York Magazine! Do you think there are phony socialists? Or that they are an endangered species? Don't be so coy.

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  6. Oh yea, she's a "real" socialist, just like the ones in Europe. I love how NY Mag fawns over the idea of her being a "real" socialist. That really is an insult to her because you'd have to be pretty damn ignorant to be a "real" socialist in this day and age. She may label herself a socialist but her thinking makes her closer to a fascist. Shes not about bringing all production under control of the state, she's about exploiting the wealth created by others to her own ends which IMO is pure power over the people.

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  7. Who was her professor? Karl Marx? I ask because her degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

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  8. A real, honest "socialist" would divorce (or kill) their spouse for working at such a Capitalist company. Bill Gates made billions off the back of his proto-slaves. Her husband makes millions so she can complain about her priveleged

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  9. Ph.D. in Econ converted to socialism. Musta been one hell of a speech.

    This part's the best:

    "Sawant told me that even if raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour hurts the Seattle economy (and nobody knows if it will), that would say more about capitalism than the merits of the wage hike itself. "If making sure that workers get out of poverty would severely impact the economy, then maybe we don't need this economy," she said..."

    Nobody knows if implementing socialism (control over means of production. In this case, outlawing low skilled labor) will be good or bad for the economy. And, if it turns out that implementing socialism is bad, than that doesn't say much for the the merits of capitalism.

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    1. Like I said earlier, this chick is a total bimbo. Talk about total pretzel "logic" eh?

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  10. They're divorced. Oh and I love how people who's understanding of ecnomics bascally etends to "I googled Milton Friedman that one time and read a lot of right wing libertarian blogs" gets all smug when they find out Kshama Sawant has an actual PhD in Economics. Plenty of people in this world live purely on exploiting the wealth of others. That would be the guy's you're down with, of course when someone tries to turn weatlth distribution in the other direction, to the people who actually create value, that's when you get worried. Of course I am dealing with people who think the Obama administration is for reals secret socialists so you know...not sharpest tools in the shed.

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    1. Dickhead, I've studied economic for over a decade. And Milton Friedman is hardly a guy I would recommend for free market economics.

      "Plenty of people in this world live purely on exploiting the wealth of others."

      That's right. They're called politicians and those in bed with them. And you're so stupid you think even bigger government is going to solve it? LOL!!

      And Obama is a corporatist pal. We know that moron. He's just another corrupt crony.

      I have to deal with simpletons like you...not the sharpest tools in the shed.

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  11. This supports my claim that in order to be a socialist you have to be rich.
    I'm poor and a capitalist. I know that most rich people's success is due to their ability to see a need, think of a solution to that need, and muster the resources to make that solution reality. I haven't been able to do that; hence, poor. But why should I hold that against the rich? Instead, I need to look up to them and try to follow their example.
    People like Sawant are phonies and not only damage the economy but they damage souls by encouraging envy and hatred.

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  12. Who is this "chick" and what Marxist/Leninist teachers instructed her at NC State? A $15 minumum wage (a/k/a job killer for low skiled workers; the very workers she purports to help), a tax on millionaires under the guise of paying for public transportation, and rent control which, if implemented, will lead to housing shortages (see New York and San Francisco for real world evidence).

    Buckle up Seattle...if this stuff gets approved you guys are in for a rough ride!!!

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