Kshama Sawant: The Most Dangerous Woman in America

Being a Democrat, I think that third parties are mostly useless. They can win only in large urban areas, in small towns with major universities, and in those rural areas where there are large numbers of refugees from Woodstock Nation. Far more of the total population does not live in such areas.

In 2013, she had substantial support from Democrats, some of it even public. The PCO coordinator for the 37th LD (the legislative district with the highest population of minorities) was publicly attacked by their executive board. In my more conservative 34th LD, three eboard members admitted to voting for her.

On New Year's Eve I attended a socialist event, and sat a a table with people who talked about how great their Democratic state representatives were, but they will never endorse a Democrat. Similarly, no Dem LD organization will ever state that Sawant stands for more of our platform principles than her opponents, so why not endorse her? Never happen.

If you'd like to support her campaign this year (all council candidates must run again because Seattle now has district elections) her website is https://votesawant.nationbuilder.com/donate

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/16/kshama-sawant-most-dangerous-woman-america

Sawant said it is incumbent upon socialists and the entire U.S. left to swiftly begin the task of building working-class political campaigns independent of the Democratic Party in order to create the space for a viable national party. Efforts to reform the Democratic Party, whose leaders are in the service of the corporate oligarchy, amount to pouring energy into “a black hole,” she said. The Democratic elite dominate Seattle government, and the Democratic elite, as they did with Ralph Nader, have declared war against Sawant. As long as she remains in office she will expose the leaders in the Democratic Party for who they are—corporate puppets.

Sawant believes that because of the presidency of Barack Obama—who has served corporate power, expanded imperial wars, carried out a massive assault on civil liberties and failed to address the needs of the mounting numbers who are unemployed or underemployed—many people, especially young people, are hungry for political alternatives to “the two big business parties.” Poll after poll, she pointed out, shows the American majority to be disgusted with the Congress. And she cited the problems of Chicago Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel in seeking re-election as evidence that even the very beginnings of movements by working people and communities of color can shake and weaken the Democratic Party establishment. “He was considered undefeatable,” she said of Emanuel. “But look now at his vulnerability. Look at the campaign ad he just put out saying, yes, I made mistakes, but I am a human being. Who could have imagined that kind of false humility from him? Even spending $15 million on a mayoral race and having President Obama come and campaign wasn’t enough to buy him an easy victory. This demonstrates the wide opening for the U.S. left to present a principled working-class alternative. This is why we need to begin that project now. It won’t be easy. But this moment is qualitatively different from the period when Ralph Nader ran. The consciousness of the American people has changed. Uprising is in the air.”