Yay! Socialist Kshama Sawant Elected To Seattle City Council - AP

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

We Washingtonians now have our own Bernie Sanders.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/socialist-kshama-sawant-seattle_n_4287516.html

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle voters have elected a socialist to city council for the first time in modern history.

Kshama Sawant's lead continued to grow on Friday, prompting 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin to concede.

Even in this liberal city, Sawant's win has surprised many here. Conlin was backed by the city's political establishment. On election night, she trailed by four percentage points. She wasn't a veteran politician, having only run in one previous campaign.

Sawant, a 41-year-old college economics professor, first drew attention as part of local Occupy Wall Street protests that included taking over a downtown park and a junior college campus in late 2011. She then ran for legislative office in 2012, challenging the powerful speaker of the state House, a Democrat. She was easily defeated.

This year, though, she pushed a platform that resonated with the city. She backed efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15; called for rent control in the city where rental prices keep climbing; and supports a tax on millionaires to help fund a public transit system and other services.

[liberal_at_heart]

1. There is something in the air. Far left progressives are winning all over the country.

[bluestate10]

2. I saw her talk to Chris Hayes last night. She is an impressive thinker and has

intense passion for the objectives that she is fighting for. I am not a Socialist, but for those on that side of the political spectrum or near, keep supporting the movement that lady is leading, she could well be a US Senator or our President one day.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Or, vice president. Sanders/Sawant?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. kick

[socialist_n_TN]

5. She is actually a Trotskyist of the Ted Grant lineage.........

so she's more left than Bernie. Not as left as I am or the group that I belong to (also Trotskyist), but she's NOT a social democrat. The Pakistani girl Malala is also a Trotskyist of the Grant lineage.

Count this as the beginning of the education into Fourth International politics.

Now we'll see what she DOES with political power. The problem with Grantites and their "deep entryism" is that when you PRETEND to be a left reformist long enough, you BECOME a left reformist.

[leftstreet]

6. She's forced the 'center' up against a wall

She didn't just put a 4 term incumbent on the defensive and out the door, she's put the 'centrist' faux progressives in a bind. Beautiful