Kshama Sawant files for re-election to Seattle City Council

[Gardyloo]

It'll be up to the voters of District 3 in Seattle (Central District, First and Capitol Hills, Madison Park, Madrona, Mt. Baker and parts of Beacon Hill and the Rainier Valley) to decide. It will be interesting to see if she gets as much support from the unions as she did last time, when she won by around 3400 votes out of 31,000 cast. Her profile is much higher (and more negative) now than then, and getting 1700+ voters to swing in this increasingly gentrifying district might not be too hard.

[travis t]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Democratic Socialists of America have been around a long time, and are basically Social Democrats, not all that different than FDR was, or a lot of European governments are. Socialist Alternative is regarded as a bunch of wackjob Trotskyites, quite extreme. Incumbency has it's advantages. So I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican or Socialist or Libertarian. If you hold the position, and nothing terrible has happened under your watch, chances are you'll get re-elected. So I wouldn't say that Kshama Sawant losing is a slam duck. I wouldn't vote for her, but a lot of people have in the past. No reason to believe they're all going to turn on her now.

Thanks for reply, appreciate the info about 'Socialist Alternative.'

I have spent some time looking at the SDA site, and it does appear that they are actual socialists (gov't owns means of production) rather than social democrats like Denmark and Sweden (private ownership of means of production, but with high taxes and extensive welfare state).

Here's a link I ran across when I was reading their site:
https://www.vox.com/first-person/201...sm-jacobin-dsa

I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism. And we want to do that by pursuing a reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States.

I think they don't advertise as much as some, but they are true believers in Marxism and socialism. I have come to favor the social democrat model you mention, sometimes called the 'Nordic model.'