Connelly: Sawant gives bad Marx to Women's March for Barbara Bush tribute
Updated 12:12 pm, Thursday, April 19, 2018
The Seattle City Hall's resident socialist, City Council member Kshama Sawant, has reprimanded Women's March organizers for delivering a brief Twitter tribute to America's former first lady Barbara Bush.
After Bush, 92, died at home Tuesday evening, the official Women's March account tweeted: "Rest in peace and power, Barbara Bush."
Sawant was quick to give Women's March bad Marx for its ideologically incorrect tribute.
"This is terrible," Sawant tweeted. "@womensmarch organizers have helped lead historic protests since Trump's election, but this tweet shows how even without a political compass, even well-meaning progressives can end up giving cover to ruling class and ultimately undermining struggle against oppression."
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The death of Barbara Bush has brought a landslide of bipartisan admiration, transcending the country's current political divisions. The tributes have been decidedly non-ideological, focusing on her warmth, independence, and commitment to kids' literacy.
Tributes have come from three former Democratic presidents. Bill and Hillary Clinton noted, for instance, the personal friendship with the Bushes that grew up after the often-nasty 1992 presidential race.
Sawant is not into team play or personal bonding, on the Seattle City Council or the national stage on which she has sought to play.
She is a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Alternative movement, and frequently argues in jargon that sounds like it was written by Karl Marx 150 years ago in the reading room of the British Museum/
Sawant has been leading anti-Trump protests, but spent 2016 denouncing Hillary Clinton and boosting Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in 2016.
The tweet offers more evidence of why Sawant's nimbus is wearing thin, even in a city whose protester class she fuels.
The Women's March put more than 100,000 people on the streets of Seattle in 2017, and thousands again in cities across Washington state on the anniversary of the Trump inauguration.
(SeattlePI.com writer Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or joelconnelly@seattlepi.com)
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