Sawant, left, with newly elected 7th District Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal — another Seattle woman seen as the anti-Trump
The office of Seattle District 3 representative Kshama Sawant representing Capitol Hill and Central Seattle neighborhoods has received a flurry of hate messages threatening the council member following her call for a general strike to disrupt the January 20th Inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Here is Q13 Fox on the threats:
A spokesperson for Councilwoman Kshama Sawant said the office has been inundated with racist messages and threats of violence following remarks Sawant gave during a post-Election Day press conference at Seattle City Hall on Nov. 9.
Sawant first called for the strike during a City Hall rally the day after the election.
Sawant discussed the hateful emails and messages in a November 11th appearance on Moscow-based RT America and used the opportunity to lay the blame for the anger at the feet of the “failed” Democratic party. Through the election, Sawant and her Socialist Alternative party opposed the nomination of Hillary Clinton and supported the candidacy of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
“Go back to India bitch,” reads one email released by Sawant’s office. “I am tired of being shamed because I’m a white male. You automatically think I’m a racist. How about you go the (expletive) back to India or wherever you came from?”
@BrandiKruse @cmkshama A million times over. She is a fucking disgrace to her office.
— Blair Underwood (@realblair1) November 16, 2016
Sawant’s office has not said whether any of the messages have been turned over to police or reported as a possible crime.
The criticism of Sawant has also taken the form of an online petition calling for the council member’s removal. While many have seemingly aligned against the council member, local community leaders CHS spoke to prior to the election praised her effective, and, yes, alternative leadership style as she works her way through her second term on the council and first under the new district system. In 2015, Sawant scored a convincing victory in her re-election bid to the council. Her current term runs through 2019.
Despite the reported wave of criticism, Trump’s support in Seattle was some of the lowest in the country, according to the Seattle Times, and a wave of protests, rallies, and community forums has followed in the wake of the election as people in the area sort out the best path forward and how best to fight back against the intolerance a Trump administration could represent. Plans included the formation of a Capitol Hill Neighborhood Action Coalition to organize locally against the administration.
CHS Pics | Cal Anderson at center of Seattle anti-Trump protests
Seattle responds to President-Elect Trump with rallies, protests — UPDATE: March on Capitol Hill
I dislike Trump as much as any other Seattleite, but he is our President and I think he deserves a chance. By calling for a general strike on Inauguration Day, she is again showing her very divisive ways. And she is extremely hypocritical in now lambasting Trump when she (and her party) worked actively against Hillary getting elected.
In the socialist alternative, there is only room for her.
You (and others) seem to be opposed to almost any form of demonstration.
So what is actually important enough to you, Bob Knudson, to support strikes or protests?
@ the kind of hatred Trump represents cannot be given a chance. You’re either for it or against it.
Meant to type @ Bob. Bleh.
I think that the Sawant camp is doing a masterful job of deflecting attention away from the fact that she did not vote for president in this election and the tremendous reaction that this has stirred up among her supporters, many, like myself, now former supporters. Do threats and intimidation belong in this discourse? Of course not, but I suspect that the majority of emails and calls are not hateful and instead were simply critical of her position and continued grandstanding. Sawant has cynically flipped the narrative here and made herself the victim when in reality, Seattle’s residents and the rest of the country are the true victims of her ego-driven choice, like many others, to stand on principle at time when there was so much to lose. Council member Sawant, we don’t require your leadership to direct the heartbreak and disappointment of this election into positive action. Despite the daily kicks to gut that we receive from watching this new administration unfold, we have moved on to positive, community-driven action that doesn’t a leader, especially one more interested in cultivating a brand than supporting a movement.
For those of you who do not know, RT news (Russia Today) is nothing but an anti-American and pro-“Russia is freaking awesome” propaganda tool of Putin. I watch a lot of international news and RT is so biased is almost a parody of news. It makes FOX New’s claim of fair and balanced seem, well, very fair and balanced. I defy anyone to watch four hours of RT then to have the stomach to watch it again, This is *the* news source that will vigorously fulfill their prescribed duty to defend the bombing of the people of Aleppo and say Assad is great.
Funny, Sawant is the first line in the form of elected representative gov’t for the people of dist 3 (including me). Sure it is in a big city, but she is on the lowest elected level of gov’t for a geographic area with the point being that she represents the needs of those people in that small geographic area. So what the hell is she doing on an international anti-US propaganda tool of Putin? WTF does that have to do with dist 3… nothing… which is pretty much the same story for most of what she does.
When is Sawant going to be told her job is to work with and represent the third district in Seattle locally? The term “cult of personality” is glaringly fitting for her.
This is my take too– more specifically: whether you like tRump or not (I don’t, he makes me sick), her job is LOCAL. And by local, I don’t mean coordinating Seattle protests and calling for general strikes on Inauguration Day. DO YOUR DAMN DAY JOB with the admittely mundane but still important local issues facing District 3. Yes, I know tackling problems with traffic and taxes and roads and affordability and homelessness doesn’t sound nearly as glamorous as rampaging around with a bullhorn denouncing tRump–but that’s your job. If you don’t want to do it, resign and become the professional full-time protester it seems you so desperately long to be.
Thanks Paul and Jim…..well said!
Maybe she and Trump can find common ground in liking Russian propaganda tools, and being a demagogue.
Sign the petition look at whats on her party’s site…
“Socialist Alternative gathered over 125,000 signatures urging Bernie to run all the way through November and use his massive base of support to build a new party for the 99%. But now that Sanders endorsed Clinton, we are urging a vote for Stein in all fifty states to register the strongest possible protest vote against racism and corporate politics, and to help popularize the need for independent politics.”
How the fuck are you going to urge people in all 50 states to protest vote then protest the election of Trump. She is full of shit and this is the biggest proof of it.
http://www.socialistalternative.org/2016/10/06/disastrous-failure-lesser-evilism/
I have the same idea on a “Nation Wide Sit In” Everyone stay at home for 1 day (Nov22nd, except hospitals, police, etc). No purchases over the internet, and Non Violance. My feeling is we need to do this before Trump’s Cabinet Selections. We the people have the power, this is our country and the elected few. We are over 50% of the population. Our power is Voting and Protesting. Image what they would do if we did this………….. We do not have ANY say in the Federal Government right now, and all we have to do is this old fashion Sit In. Look at history and the Jews in WWII, it began this way and they did not do enough at the beginning thinking common sense from the people running the country would not allow…………
and the rest is history. These are very Greedy people who are power hungry and do not care about us, they tell us to stop whining, well they are right, they have crossed the line and what will YOU stand up for and what are you willing to do “Just stay at home 1 day” to begin with. They know we have the power and that is why they will try to pass protest laws, well staying at home and being non violent they can do nothing. What and When are we willing to do something………