Has Kshama Sawant gone too far here? (Seattle, Republic: real estate, crimes)

[Flightoficarus87]

Well...

In Seattle, is it now taboo to be friends with a Republican? | The Seattle Times

To quote the article highlight:

"Get along with “our Republican friends”? Ha! Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant was cheered recently when she declared she has no Republican friends. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)"

And to put the highlight into context:

The council was debating the juvenile-justice issue. Not everyone agrees whether a new jail should be built. But everyone in the room seemed aligned that incarcerating kids is to be avoided, and that other forms of justice and rehabilitation should be pursued, except maybe in the most extreme violent cases.

One council member, Tim Burgess, tried to highlight this basic agreement by noting that “even some of our Republican friends” have been calling for seismic changes to the incarceration system. Burgess cited an article by the Seattle brothers Mike and John McKay, former U.S. attorneys and, yep, both Republicans, who excoriated their own party’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for calling for harsher sentences even on low-level crimes.

Kshama Sawant wasn’t having any of that. She stood up and said Burgess wasn’t speaking for her with this “our Republican friends” stuff. Because, she assured the crowd, she doesn’t have any Republican friends.

Yay, cheered the crowd.

Thoughts?

Now, many would say I'm pretty left on a lot of issues (and centrist on others), but I'm not liking this. She's going to lash out at those of a different political background who are agreeing with her, and finding common ground on an issue?

This is starting to look like pretty dysfunctional leadership to me.

[Xanathos]

Starting? What awesome fantasy paradise have you been living in the last few years? Sawant is just espousing the popular echo chamber line with this commentary. All who have different viewpoints than hers are to be reviled and denigrated at every possible opportunity. Only those of pure mind and spirit, who are members of the approved political party, are to be associated with so as to not stain the purity of the alt-leftist ideology.

Oh, and bash the fash.


Because the first paragraph wasn't ironic enough without the approval of dehumanizing and committing violence of those who have different belief systems than your own to fully complete the "people screaming that others are Hitler while literally acting like Hitler" motif.

[hurricane harry]

Seattle doesn't deserve any less.

[homesinseattle]

I have Republican friends, not those who chose to vote for Trump though. I can even be okay with people who voted for him and now recognize their mistake, even ones who would have voted for Bush, Christie, the others. How can you still support Trump though? If you do, you're no friend of mine. If You Still Support Trump, I Instantly Know 7 Things About You | Bluedot Daily

[509]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

I have Republican friends, not those who chose to vote for Trump though. I can even be okay with people who voted for him and now recognize their mistake, even ones who would have voted for Bush, Christie, the others. How can you still support Trump though? If you do, you're no friend of mine. If You Still Support Trump, I Instantly Know 7 Things About You | Bluedot Daily

It is NOT a Democrat or Republican thing.

It is the Elites and their minions against the Deplorables.

Why do you want to be minion?

[animalcrazy]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

I have Republican friends, not those who chose to vote for Trump though. I can even be okay with people who voted for him and now recognize their mistake, even ones who would have voted for Bush, Christie, the others. How can you still support Trump though? If you do, you're no friend of mine. If You Still Support Trump, I Instantly Know 7 Things About You | Bluedot Daily

Yikes. How about people who are elderly and are simply out of touch and fell for his rhetoric? That's been my experience with Trump voters so far. Or those who were totally frustrated with the status quo and thought that he would be the savior they were looking for? Or the religious fanatics that think they have the right to dictate to every female on the planet what they should and shouldn't do with their body based on a one size must fit all mentality? Yep, I had a friend that voted for him purely on that issue. Or the idiot factor. "He says what we're all thinking." Or people who couldn't stomach the Clinton mafia being in the white house? Or the angry older white man filled with bigotry and hate? There are many varied reasons people voted for Trump. We don't have to agree with them but we have to respect it. One size does not fit all and I think pieces like this do more harm then good.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Flightoficarus87

Well...

In Seattle, is it now taboo to be friends with a Republican? | The Seattle Times

To quote the article highlight:

"Get along with “our Republican friends”? Ha! Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant was cheered recently when she declared she has no Republican friends. (Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times)"

And to put the highlight into context:

The council was debating the juvenile-justice issue. Not everyone agrees whether a new jail should be built. But everyone in the room seemed aligned that incarcerating kids is to be avoided, and that other forms of justice and rehabilitation should be pursued, except maybe in the most extreme violent cases.

It's the decision to not arrest kids doing and dealing drugs that resulted in some of Berkeley's landmark businesses closing. They lost so many customers because of drug deals taking place on the sidewalk in front (and they'd put the City Council on notice, a couple of years before closure, as to what the problem was), that they were forced to close. (The Council had also expanded their definition of "youth" to anyone in their 20's.) These were pillars of the commercial community around the university.

After a number of closures, the City Council noticed that tax revenues were down, threatening to impact their own pay and City functioning. They'd never made the connection before, between a healthy business community and City revenues. Seriously. Even so, they didn't change their policy toward "troubled youth" being exempt from drug laws, and being deserving of free counseling, instead of jail time.

Seattle, don't let it happen to you! Imagine a downtown or University District with numerous boarded-up store fronts, abandoned real estate. This is your future, if these lax policies take hold.

[CrazyDonkey]

Throw red meat into the lion cage...

Trumpism is the politics of resentment - he's screwing his base, however, by trying to take away their welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Obamacare, HUD housing, addiction treatment.

[misscross]

Originally Posted by 509

It is NOT a Democrat or Republican thing.

It is the Elites and their minions against the Deplorables.

Why do you want to be minion?

so many people brainwashed to focus on this BS while the elites from both parties laugh at us plebs fighting over R or D labels.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by animalcrazy

Yikes. How about people who are elderly and are simply out of touch and fell for his rhetoric? That's been my experience with Trump voters so far. Or those who were totally frustrated with the status quo and thought that he would be the savior they were looking for? Or the religious fanatics that think they have the right to dictate to every female on the planet what they should and shouldn't do with their body based on a one size must fit all mentality? Yep, I had a friend that voted for him purely on that issue. Or the idiot factor. "He says what we're all thinking." Or people who couldn't stomach the Clinton mafia being in the white house? Or the angry older white man filled with bigotry and hate? There are many varied reasons people voted for Trump. We don't have to agree with them but we have to respect it. One size does not fit all and I think pieces like this do more harm then good.

The older people I know who fit the description of the bolded voted for The Bern. He was anti-status-quo, and said what people were "all" thinking, too. But he wasn't a corporate type, like Trump. He wasn't a guy who imported cheap labor from Romania as hotel staff, to avoid hiring Americans. This isn't an ad for The Bern; merely an observation that there were two candidates who fit that particular bill, so people who were fed up had a choice.

Both parties need to do a MUCH better job selecting their Pres. candidates. I still don't understand how/why Hill & The Bern came on stage at the start of the first Dem candidate debates, behaving as though they already had the nomination in the bag. O'Malley was the far better speaker and candidate, having the most thoughtful answers to the questions given. A process where the winning candidate/s is a foregone conclusion isn't much of a process. I guess it's all about "star power", on both sides, these days?