Councilmember Sally Bagshaw just doesn’t get it:
Bagshaw said: “More than frustrated, I am sad about how Sawant is acting. I perceive her as intentionally creating class differences for her own gain, whereas we could be shaking everyone’s hands and working together to solve this problem… “
Sigh. So, the thing is, to accuse Kshama Sawant of “creating class differences” is to fail to acknowledge that class differences already exist. And I think that helps explain Bagshaw’s failure to connect with working-class voters.
Also, while Sawant is certainly attempting to create class consciousness (and she may even be attempting to exploit it), none of this is for Sawant’s personal gain. She’s a true believer in the midst of a class struggle. Simple as that. Read your Marx and you’ll gain a lot of insight into what motivates Sawant.
But to attribute it to ego or self-interest is to misread Sawant entirely.
As for Bagshaw, I don’t question her intentions. Every conversation we’ve had has been pleasant and polite. I think we mostly get each other. But then, that is because Bagshaw and I largely hail from the same class. The overflow crowd at the affordable housing forum last week, not so much.
Personally, I struggle to overcome my own class prejudices and preconceptions, not always successfully. Empathy can be a poor substitute for experience. But one thing I know for sure is that these class differences—and the anger and frustration they are generating—are very, very real.
OK, class differences exist. Are they permanent distinctions, like India’s caste system, or is it possible to move up and down the class structure?
@1 Paint yourself black and find out.
@1 or put a rainbow colored t-shirt on and head to your nearest GOP convention hall and walk around and tell people your are thinking of getting married.
@1 On a broader scale, America ranks poorly in social mobility, just as it does in infant mortality and other measures of modernity. The surest way to get rich in America is by being born to rich parents. This isn’t surprising, given the rich have co-opted our political system and used it to stack the deck in their favor. If you’re born poor and black, you go to jail for stealing a loaf of bread. If you’re a rich white banker, you keep the loot, your job, and your social standing. We have a privileged class, an unprivileged class, and a middle class. Simple as that. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/us-.....ty-problem
P.S., Inequality and socioeconomic mobility are a lot worse after three-and-a-half decades of conservative trickle-down policies. Does this tell you anything?
Sawant’s not responsible for the creation of classes nor for the divisions between them. While Sawant’s vitriol toward economically wealthy classes isn’t necessarily unfounded, it’s also not productive and doesn’t contribute to cooperative progress toward a better Seattle. You can only get so far by yelling at people–I wish she’d recognize the privilege of sitting on the council, put down the megaphone, and consider how to harness the actual power of her position and her peers
2,3,4
And personal responsibility has nothing to do with anything, it’s always somebody else’s fault.
re 5: That’s the bottom of the barrel, the ‘personal responsibility’ gambit. I’ve yet to see a conservative (and that’s what libertarians really are) take personal responsibility for any negative consequence of their policy positions.
It always strikes me as odd when someone like Sawant highlights an issue that exists and has for quite sometime and an out of touch politician claims they’re making it up.
If you sweep dirt under a rug, the dirt doesn’t go away, vacuuming under the rug didn’t create the mess that was hidden underneath.
@6. Should I send you the shirt?
Isn’t wanting to marry and being monogamous the responsible thing to do. Please tell me what personal responsibility with being gay are you referring to?
Libertarian should be renamed as Chikenshit.
@5 except that without her, there’d be no 15 dollar an hour minimum wage.
I think you mean to say she hasn’t individually changed the whole system by herself, but conversations that Democrats were too scared to have are now possible because of her.
David, I don’t think Sally is a member of the lumpenproletariat.
@6 yep, just like shitty Z Pizza trying to blame going out of business on the minimum wage. Always someone else’s fault, but the fact is the pizza is shitty and that’s why it’s going out of business.
@5, Sawant doesn’t have “privilege” because she’s sitting on the Council. She ran for office and won.
Suppose Bagshaw had used the word ‘amplifying’ rather than ‘creating’.
Would there be a point to any of this?
@6…
White privilege much?
Apparently referring to oneself as ‘dangerous’ is not good
policypolitics.Socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant is no longer titling her memoir, “The Most Dangerous Woman in America.” Due out from Verso Books on Labor Day, it is now “Kshama Sawant: American Socialist.”
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seat.....18398101=0
I guess trying to publish on May Day was cutting it too close.
Read your Sawant and you’ll gain a lot of insight into what motivates Goldy.
@17 “Read your Sawant and you’ll gain a lot of insight into what motivates Goldy.”
Yep, wanting to make this a better country to live in for people not born to privilege motivates both Sawant and Goldy, although their prescriptions for reform may differ in some details.
By the way, Bob, why aren’t you in Nepal helping the thousands of earthquake victims in desperate need of medical care? Are you one of those self-centered doctors who cares only about making money, and cares nothing for suffering humanity?
There is the normal class and then there is the FASCIST DUMMOCRETIN class! When you disagree with the the FASCIST DUMMOCRETIN class, you are called a bigot, homophobe, hateful, etc…
More worthless BULLSHITTIUM from the senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit! Which party controlled congress until 1995? Which party gained control of the House in 2007 and was rejected again in 2011? So much for that three and a half decades eh senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit?
BULLSHITTIUM!
By the way, senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit, why aren’t you giving all those daily stock gains you brag about to Nepal and in so helping the thousands of earthquake victims in desperate need of medical care? Are you one of those self-centered investors who cares only about making money, and cares nothing for suffering humanity?
@20 “you are called a bigot, homophobe, hateful, etc…”
If the shoe fits, wear it.
@21 “Are you one of those self-centered investors who cares only about making money, and cares nothing for suffering humanity?”
No I’m not, and I’m way ahead of you, I’ve already donated and I’m going to donate more through various channels. Unfortunately I’m not a doctor, so I can’t personally assist with Nepal’s urgent medical needs, so my money will have to do.
Puddy guesses Kshama Sawant understands America has pay class differences.
So why not ask Kshama Sawant about her income inequality practices? Are those workers a special class?
Why aren’t HA DUMMOCRETINS asking Kshama Sawant why does she employ that special class of people whom work for her as 1099 contractors so she can avoid payroll taxes, overtime, and insurance? What makes them that special class of people?
How come no one here is asking why their socialist DUMMOCRETIN hero isn’t paying unemployment insurance or social security payments; basically skirting the rules by not paying into the public workers’ safety net for that special class of worker?
Must be identifying that special class of worker understands America!
There is a rich class and everyone else class. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/0.....arty-rich/
@24 Why is it okay for capitalists to behave like capitalists, but it’s not okay for a socialist to behave like a capitalist? Why should capitalists have a monopoly on capitalism? Where is that written?
No I’m not, and I’m way ahead of you,
Ummm no you aren’t senile schismatic IDIOT Wabbit! http://www.adranepal.org/
and
http://www.adventistreview.org.....s-in-nepal
We are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY ahead of you! Butt glad to see one libtard stepping up to the plate!
@26,
What a joke response!
(cross posted at http://handbill.us/?p=51114)
I was hopeful, based on my respect for Goldy, that this Phd economist leader was more than a load mouth demagogue. After all, she did a great job agitating for the $15 minimum wage. Goldy told me she was for real, imagine a moral person who wanted to be politician?
Since getting elected on the backs of her $15 campaign she has:
1. almost effd the 15 by not cooperating with the rest of the council
2. anointed herself as too moral to attend a meeting with the business community (while demeaning everyone else on the council for doing so).
3. done nada to familiarize herself with the people in her new District.
4. created a façade by running the naïf Spear against Frank Chopp.
5. been absent on issues like pre K.
6. gone out of her way to insult outer members of the council .. because socialist can not join a c-o-a-l-i- t-i-o-n. .
7. She is so impressed with herself that she has commissioned an autobiography! A bit early?
So.. what next.
Now there are a number of impressive people running against her for position 3 on the Council. Unlike her, these folks represent groups of folks who actually live in the 3rd … gays, black establishment, techie, new rich. Not a lot of unemployed folks or Seattle CC kids who joined in her $15 crusade.
I suspect that this cast means a split electorate. IF Sawant does well she will then LOSE in the run off to however has but a c-o-a-l-i- t-i-o-n.
Gold’s golden girl has gone from sizzle to fizzle.
Class exists but Americans are ambivalent when it comes to the subject of class. Part denial. Part hope that they can buy that magic ticket and just join the jet setters. (See we can’t call them the jet setter class just that they are the cool jet setters.)
We are individualists and some folks take that to an extreme. On the frontier there are no classes as everyone gets to wear cool cook skin caps It’s those bastards back east that might be part of a class. Unfortunately there was only so much frontier. If only we could have another Louisiana Purchase and have a revival of the agrarian class less society of Thomas Jefferson.
Class is rather un-American and this has allowed Capitalists to manipulate Americans.
Libertarian’s are about liberty and therefore cannot see class.
You do know Puddy if Harry Truman read you calling Democrats fascists that haberdasher would kick your ass. He would give you hell.
I rather like Sarwant at least she is open about what she is about.
Also give em hell Barry Sanders!
Give em hell Bernie Sanders!
Has a Lions moment.
Here you go glibeterian. Not sure you’ll get past the front door with your rainbow shirt on, apparently spaghetti shirts are even too much for the very phobic ones to handle.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/.....ughter.php
Hillary has made a statement on the injustice and racism of our justice system and distances herself from Bill’s lock-them-up extremes. She is also distancing herself from his trade policies and his sad record on gay rights. This is why she should be president. She learns from the past and seeks to correct it. Republicans, on the other hand, not only want to continue failed policies, they want to make them even worse!
By breaking open the door that was locked against anyone but Democrats. Sawant has confused Bagshaw and others. They simply don’t understand anyone who is not one of them. She is a true believer in the 2 party system, and many of us are not, because the 2 party system is not in the constitution.
Open your minds. Voting for Democrats means business as usual. Voting for 3rd parties means something new. Libertarian should agree with me on that.
Voting for a third party candidate gave us 8 years of George W. Bush — now that’s a whole lotta Rosie.
@ 35
Third-party candidate in the race also gave us…….
wait for it……….
……….
Bill Clinton.
@34 and @35 I think I voted for both of those third party candidates. Why because I wasn’t particularly impressed by the Republican or Democratic candidates. Would have been nice if my candidate had gotten a few electoral votes, but in both cases I voted the way I did to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with both major parties and I believe I really for the better candidate in both elections. Unfortunately neither parties candidates have improved much and darn it’s the same families. How very oligarchy. At least I stuck my finger at the oligarchy and the man!