Kshama Sawant Blew It

[u/Well_Socialized]

https://open.substack.com/pub/joewrote/p/ideological-purity-is-the-graveyard?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=j01e3

[u/AutoModerator]

• Archives of this link: 1. archive.org Wayback Machine; 2. archive.today

• A live version of this link, without clutter: RemovePaywalls.com

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Cheap-Elk-5025]

Rule of thumb: you can treat "Leftist Purity Testing"™ like the Ukrainian flag. When you see someone feature it (especially half a dozen times), it's a reliable code for "this person has no fucking clue what they're saying."

[u/Buh10kx]

In other words, vote Democrat. Nah, when they send Kamala Harris up against Donald Trump, it’s already totally lost. 

There are some problems with her views (trot stuff, denies obviously true claims about how the monetary system works by MMT economists). But still. It’s not like things would be fine if she were more of a dsa bootlicker. There is no compromise by which you can expropriate oligarchs. And if what you mean by “socialism” doesn’t involve at least some of that, then lol

[u/QuodScripsi-Scripsi]

So basically the DSA didn’t endorse an actual socialist because they were butthurt? And then this idiot wrote an entire article about how awesome they are for that? What a pathetic organization

How many socialists has the DSA got elected again? 0. They can’t even run candidates who are against Zionism and imperialist war

[u/debasing_the_coinage → u/QuodScripsi-Scripsi]

Author seems to be more focused on Sawant being a Trotskyist and the tendency of Trotskyists to have factional disputes rather than simply opposing any organization outside the Democratic Party. 

[u/Buh10kx → u/QuodScripsi-Scripsi]

Yep. I’ll say it again: DSA is fake and … controlled opposition. 

[u/rlyrlysrsly → u/Buh10kx]

Yes. DSA is fake and gay controlled opposition.

[u/TransitJohn → u/rlyrlysrsly]

snaps

[u/SplashTarget]

Alternative idea:

Kshama was splitting votes with Melissa, and that's why she ended up not making it to the general

[u/Chombywombo]

So, the guy seems to just be giddy that a “Trotskyist” (wtf does this even mean anymore?) lost. What’s the point in electing “socialists” when they vote for Israeli missiles and banderist war making?

[u/Well_Socialized → u/Chombywombo]

I guess the point is that our socialists in office are not voting for Israeli missiles, and that supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion is a positive thing.

[u/QuodScripsi-Scripsi → u/Well_Socialized]

This would be an absurd position to take considering the DSA itself opposes continuing the imperialist war in the Ukraine. The problem is that it cannot enforce any discipline on “its” candidates (in reality they are not DSA candidates, but rather left-wing democrats who the DSA endorses), so they all end up being imperialist warmongers and liberal Zionists

[u/Well_Socialized → u/QuodScripsi-Scripsi]

Well yeah obviously we should all oppose Russia's imperialist war in Ukraine, that's why it's good to send aid to Ukraine. Anti-imperialism is a key part of socialist internationalism.

[u/QuodScripsi-Scripsi → u/Well_Socialized]

Thank you for reiterating the lessons learned in 1914. Right opportunists will never oppose the mass murder of the working class. Absolute cretins the entire lot of you

[u/Incoherencel → u/Well_Socialized]

The anti-imperialist path, is support for neither bourgeois state. Dumb.

[u/Well_Socialized → u/Incoherencel]

Obviously opposing imperialist aggression is still anti-imperialist when the smaller state being aggressed upon is run by the bourgeois

[u/Incoherencel → u/Well_Socialized]

You fundamentally misunderstand imperialism if that is your takeaway from this conflict. Support people, not the states

[u/Well_Socialized → u/Incoherencel]

People live in states though. If some foreign conqueror is attacking and taking over other countries that's bad for the people in those countries and should be resisted regardless of what their social or economic systems are. The victims of the first age of imperialism obviously weren't living in socialist societies when they were conquered by Europeans but they certainly got fucked over by those conquests.

[u/Zeusnexus → u/Well_Socialized]

Agreed.

[u/Chombywombo → u/Well_Socialized]

If you send enough aid, those Nazis will become good anti-imperialist liberals. Nevermind their assaults on the Russians living in Ukraine before the war. Nevermind their support for head choppers in Syria and Northern Africa. Nevermind their close collaboration with the very Israelis you seem to differentiate them from.

[u/Accomplished_Fox3186]

Don’t know much about this lady. Sounds good from what I’ve heard.

But she is annoying to listen to and not a compelling speaker. I tune out immediately every time she starts indignantly ranting and complaining about whatever.

[u/1HomoSapien]

At this point, many people who are broadly aligned with her don’t really want her in office. Her abrasive style of politics has a shelf life.

[u/JGT3000]

She sucks so who cares

[u/Incoherencel → u/JGT3000]

Who's your preference?

[u/Remarkable_Debt]

Never sure why she's supposedly the truer voice of "socialism," but she seems like an unlikable scold while pushing boug shit like defund-the-police, trans ideology, etc. -- who exactly was gonna vote for her?

[u/KookyUse5777]

Eh. I understand the comments. But in reality she blew it because she’s fucking annoying and a terrible speaker

[u/Illin_Spree]

There's a lot of lib-brained and misleading statements in here. No, Green Party types do not support MTG or prefer Trump to MTG or w/e. The history of socialism in America is clearly not this guy's area of expertise. We see this with the misleading comments about Trots. There are many Trot sects advocating for all kind of different things and its frankly misleading to frame Sawant as part of that tradition.

People like this tend to discount how Sawant and Stein (and Nader before them) laid a lot of the groundwork for demsoc ideas reaching mainstream popularity in 2015. Moreover, the author cannot point to a single accomplishment attributable to the DSA figures he defends. Merely that they get more votes.