Source:Socialist Alternative– rally for a 15 dollar minimum wage in Seattle,Washington. Seattle is one of the few big cities in America where Socialists don’t seem like escaped mental patients, but rather mainstream. San Francisco and perhaps Portland, Oregon, are big cities like that.

“Everybody knows you have to accept corporate money and work within the two-party system to get elected, right?

Not so with Kshama Sawant.

In November 2013, nearly 100,000 voters elected her to Seattle City Council – as an open Socialist – and she didn’t take a dime in corporate cash!

In a huge political upset, Sawant’s victory sent shockwaves through the political establishment and even around the globe. Sawant is the first independent Socialist elected in a major U.S. city in decades. Her historic breakthrough was covered by every major newspaper in the country, major TV stations, and newspapers around the world.

Now she and her Socialist Alternative political party are leading a movement to implement their main campaign pledge: raising Seattle’s minimum wage to the highest in the country – $15/hour – and the movement is spreading nationally.

How did Sawant and Socialist Alternative succeed in unseating a well-connected, 16-year incumbent Democrat? Is Seattle just a mecca of progressive politics?

“Our campaign is not an isolated event,” claims Kshama Sawant. “In fact, it’s the bellwether for what’s going to happen in the future.”

Sounds nice. But is she dreaming?”

From Socialist Alternative

“Thom Hartmann talks with Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Council Member-Socialist Alternative Website: http://www.seattle.gov/council/ about being the first Socialist elected to that governing body.”

Source:Thom Hartmann– Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant on the Thom Hartmann Show.

From Thom Hartmann

The type of socialism that Kshama Sawant is talking about her and I guess that Socialist that she portrays herself as, is a Democratic Socialist that he believes the job of government is to see that the needs of people are met, instead of the private sector, especially private, for-profit corporations. And that the job of government (perhaps especially the national government) is to organize the resources of the country, especially in the private sector through taxes and regulations to see that everyone’s needs are met. That there is no poverty or wealth in society.

I don’t think Kshama Sawant is a Communist, but I don’t see her as a Swedish Social Democrat either. In Sweden with their social democracy, taxes on business and foreign trade are low, government budgets tend to be balanced, but taxes on individuals are high to finance their large public welfare state.

I think what you would get with a Kshama Sawant Socialist or a Bernie Sanders Socialist, is taxes so high on wealth and business, to discourage people from becoming independently wealthy and economically independent of government, to try to prevent poverty in the country.