Why the media and the "moderate" Democrats have it wrong.

[TalkingDog]

There's an idea, constantly pushed on this board, that Progressives are unelectable because they are "too far left".

Well, progressive Bill De Blasio is leading New York City's Democratic Mayoral primary.

People want real change in this country. Not promises of change or talk about change. Or changing the President from one party to the other while Corporate boot-licking continues apace. We want people who can work for the good of the largest number of people; not just the 1%.



http://www.votesawant.org/primary_result_2013

Socialist Kshama Sawant wins 35%

Seattle voters sent a clear message yesterday to an out-of-touch political establishment that they are fed up with business as usual, and are looking for an alternative to corporate-pandering politicians like Richard Conlin. Kshama Sawant, who was recently written off by The Seattle Times as “too hard left for Seattle,” won a stunning 35% of the vote, a number that will likely rise as late ballots are counted.

A majority of primary voters voted against 16-year Seattle City Council incumbent, Democrat Richard Conlin, who despite a massive fund-raising advantage and name recognition, received only 48%. Sawant and a second challenger to Conlin, Brian Carver, won the majority of the vote in the City Council Position 2 race.

[PowerToThePeople]

1. There is a history of Socialism here.

http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/cpproject/index.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_of_Washington

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_Massacre_%28Washington%29

[bahrbearian]

4. Thanks for the Links

[TalkingDog]

6. 2nd the thanks! n/t

[Maedhros]

10. During the 1919 general strike in Seattle

the Wobblies (International Workers of the World) pretty much ran the city:

The city now stopped functioning, except for activities organised by the strikers to provide
essential needs. Firemen agreed to stay on the job. Laundry workers handled only hospital
laundry. Vehicles authorized to move carried signs 'Exempted by the General Strike
Committee'. Thirty-five neighbourhood milk stations were set up. Every day thirty thousand
meals were prepared in large kitchens, then transported to halls all over the city and served
cafeteria style, with strikers paying twenty-five cents a meal, the general public thirty-five
cents. People were allowed to eat as much as they wanted of the beef stew, spaghetti, bread,
and coffee.

WARNING: PDF
http://libcom.org/files/1919%20The%20Seattle%20general%20strike.pdf

Just one of the reasons I love the Pacific Northwest.

[Scuba]

2. ....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023460773

[TalkingDog]

5. In a nutshell. nt

[xchrom]

15. !

[Hydra]

23. So. Much. Truth. n/t

[leftstreet]

27. !!

nice

[raouldukelives]

30. If you enhance it you can see a bunch of "liberal dems" clinging to the donkey tail. nt

[deutsey]

3. I wouldn't say they have it "wrong"

They know how the game is rigged in favor of the big-monied interests that have done a lot to purge and marginalize (if not crush entirely) the left in this country since the '70s. I believe most media pundits and moderate Democrats are fully aware that if they want to continue being players in the game, they will remain within the boundaries of the established corporatist narrative.

That said, I think you're right that people want real change and politicians who will fight for our interests. Whatever people may think of Occupy, I think how rapidly and deeply its rhetoric resounded with "regular people" (despite ridicule and dismissal from the corporate-owened media) says a lot about what's fermenting beneath the surface.

[LWolf]

7. I think

that we are either part of the problem or part of the solution. When we see the left marginalized, and yes, often crushed, we can energize and act for the left, or we can enable the process by abandoning the left at the ballot box.

It's all about critical mass; as long as too many people enable the problem, instead of the solution, we are screwed.

[Maedhros]

9. Abandoning the Left at the ballot box is the only sensible thing to do!

At least, that's what the DNC keeps telling me.

[LWolf]

26. Yes,

and too many let Chuckles bully them into doing so.

Look what we get as a result.

[deutsey]

16. I agree, but I think the critical mass option has been lost in Reaganism's hyper-individualism

We have to overcome the "there is no such thing as society" mentality that Thatcher, Rand, and the Neo-cons and Neo-libs espouse.

[DissidentVoice]

20. We allowed it to happen

Especially after Walter Mondale's and Mike Dukakis' drubbing at the hands of the GOP smear machine (the late Lee Atwater).

The Republicans have been very, very good at taking their bullshit and wrapping it in God, Guns, Guts and the Flag and selling it to an electorate that is essentially voting against itself.

In doing so, we have installed a self-perpetuating plutocracy.

[deutsey]

21. One of the most frustrating and depressing times for me

was right after the 2000 election.

I was one of the protesters in DC when Bush was coronated and became very active in trying to raise awareness of what had happened to lead to his installation (voter purges in Florida topping the list followed by the bullshit Supreme Court Bush v. Gore decision).

Mostly everyone I knew, even dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, said it was time to move on. One in particular assured me that Bush was going to be a one-termer like his dad and that we just needed to ride it out.

She said that before 9-11, of course, and was singing a different tune by 2008...which was too late by then.

[DissidentVoice]

22. I remember those times well...

...even though I don't want to.

He and the GOP machine were brutally effective in '04 at smearing John Kerry with bullshit.

[LWolf]

28. For me it was 9/12. The day after.

I was righteously pissed at the selection, but it didn't look to me like GWB was going to be able to accomplish his agenda; his administration had no legitimacy.

Until "everything changed." With the consent of the fearful governed.

[okieinpain]

8. i've always believed that progressive should stop complaining and get out

there and run. lets see what happens.

[AgingAmerican]

12. Like they did successfully for 50 years

nt

[okieinpain]

17. you left off the sarcasm thingy. n/t.

[AgingAmerican]

29. You must not be very old

A lot of young people believe the political climate was always this dysfunctional.

[el_bryanto]

11. Are you arguing that New York and Seattle are representative of America as a whole? nt

[TalkingDog]

24. That's a broad question. In what sense? n/t

[AgingAmerican]

13. I don't listen to right wing Democrats

They are too confused. They call themselves, 'centrist' which means half Republican and half Democrat. When you ask them which Republican ideas they adhere to, they just look confused and embarrassed.

[kentuck]

14. I hope the Democratic Party is watching and listening...

There are things going on that we don't know.

[RobertEarl]

18. Obama 2008

The so called socialist won, didn't he? And had more votes than anyone, ever!!

When he tracked to the center he got fewer votes the next time.

[DissidentVoice]

19. The bloody DLC

Even though it doesn't exist any more, it has poisoned the Democratic Party in the name of so-called "electability."

So what do we get?

"Republican-lite" in various forms, in the personages of Evan Bayh, Bill Clinton, and, yes, Barack Obama. These gentlemen are much more like pre-Reagan Republicans than they are Democrats.

"Third Way" is NO way.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

25. If elections were limited to New Yorkers, progressives could do a whole lot better. N.T.