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Episode 270 - Foregone Illusion: Part 1 (w/ Kshama Sawant) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-24 11:50:49
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2026-06
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Content

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

In the first part of an epic two-hour two-parter with Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, Briahna and Kshama dive into Kshama's recent successes in Seattle before interrogating the institutional failures of the DSA & elected progressives. Why will Workers' Alternative be different? They then move on to continuing the debate over how much the left should invest in the 2024 Democratic Presidential primary. Does the energy fomenting around RFK Jr. present an opportunity for left coalition-building? Or is there a risk that encouraging strategic primary votes creates an illusion that a given candidate is a trusted fighter for left/working class interests? This Monday episode will be made available to all, and part two will air as a premium episode on Thursday -- flipping the usual schedule. You won't want to miss part two, in which Briahna and Kshama parse AOC's recent interview with David Sirota, and address the excuses given for her strike-crushing railroad vote, among other actions in office.

Listen to Part Two here. 

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Comments

Anonymous

THANK YOU FOR KSHAMA, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE workersstrikeback.org

Anonymous

Kshama’s framing of RFK Jr as an “insider” is wrong in the way she’s using it. She’s basically saying he’s an insider the way Joe Biden is an insider. RFK Jr is more like a class betrayer in the same vein as JFK. He was born into wealth and educated at the same schools as the elites but he is a champion of the working class - I would argue even more so than Bernie. The classification of him as an “antivaxxer” is also incorrect. To quote him from a WAPO article regarding the book he published about mercury in vaccines: “We don’t want to publish this book,” Kennedy told him, holding up a copy of his manuscript. “We are very pro-vaccine.” He motioned to Hyman across the table. “Vaccines save lives. We don’t want to alarm the public by showing them the science. We have a publisher lined up, ready to publish it. But we said no.” What he was pushing for was FDA to take action - when they refused, he published the book. I think RFK Jr should be brought in for an interview. Many of the perceptions about him are incorrect.

Anonymous

Love kshama but think she is wrong on her overall position on this topic. I think both mw and rfk Jr are exiting candidates for different reasons and could potentially be more effective than sanders could have been. We can never know. I don’t think just because sanders has been fighting for the specific platform necessarily makes him a stronger choice. I love Bernie and worked my ass of for him, but you could argue that because rfk Jr knows the ins and outs of power and that he could better yield it. Or that Marianne has less to lose politically than sanders by doing a dirty break. It’s too early to tell either way. In the meantime, I see only benefit in pushing through both Marianne and rfk Jr as far as they can go.

Anonymous

*sanders has been fighting for the specific platform LONGER necessarily makes him a better choice.

Anonymous
>>107049204

Also, RFK Jr. is arguably, MORE unpopular with the DNC Elite than Bernie. Bernie wouldn't even allow his surrogates to attack Biden on Biden's own record! Zephyr Teachout wrote a TRUE article on Biden's decades long fight to dismantle Soc.Security. Bernie protected his Good Griend, Joe, at every opportunity. Bernie is fucking PRO WAR and a STRIKEBREAKER! Two things I never thought I would EVER say about Bernie. Kennedy has been critical of the War, Lockdowns, Big Pharma experimenting on the public, the Billionaires & Corporations running our govt.

Anonymous
>>107049367

Fighting longer, but not winning anything. He's Joe Biden's Official Drool Bucket carrier. RFK Jr. is already an outsider, in his OWN FAMILY. Bernie has never done anything that would threaten his current gig. I think Bernie's kids & grandkids were probably threatened - as in, they'll never get a good job again, etc. Bernie abandoned the movement in favor of Biden... a RAPIST RACIST LIAR. Unfortunately, unless Kennedy decides to run as an Independent, his campaign will go no where.

Anonymous

My union is part of IATSE. The IATSE boss, Matthew D. Loeb, is 100% more partnered with the producers and studios than with the workers. Local 700 has been trying to dump him but he's held power SINCE 2008. Union boards do become totally corrupt.

Anonymous

giggling at all of the JFK jr instead of RFK

Rentaro Matsukata

It was kind of frustrating to see that Bre was not seeing why Kshama wasn't answering her directly. It's too early for her to say anything and what she says will influence her supporters. The candidates owe commitments at a minimum

Jon

While I understand and take seriously what Kshama is saying about “illusions,” it’s frustrating that no matter how many caveats Brie uses in her support of someone running to the left of Biden, the response (or at least insinuation) is always that she’s expressing undue support. It’s made each of these conversations difficult to listen to, and it’s caused any larger discussions about the utility of such runs to be stopped in their tracks.

Jon
>>107085076

Brie’s point about the effect Bernie’s run had on people like herself and Nick Cruze is a good one, and one which leftists dismiss too easily, saying that Bernie’s ideas are already so well-known there isn’t any real messaging potential left. People’s ideologies often take a long time to change. It takes sustained messaging, and presidential elections are some of the only contexts in which ideological bubbles can be spanned. Not to mention the potential of broaching topics Bernie never did. Give me a candidate who messages strongly (if solely) on the basic tenets of MMT, for example, or Palestinian apartheid. But instead we never had these messaging conversations because everyone was handwringing about the prospect of supporting, even in the most tepid terms, candidates who never stood a chance anyway.

matt penfield

Can you please have some of the recently elected city council DSA members on the show? There are things being done on the local level in LA for example that are similar to the wins championed at the top of the episode. DSA is not just the federal electeds

Anonymous

Sanders automatically endorsing Biden in 2024 is a joke.

Anonymous
>>107046265

Sanders not asking for anything and just giving his endorsement to Biden in 2024 is a joke.

Anonymous

Progressive change in the US has NEVER come from electoral politics, especially at the presidential level. It has always come from disruptive mass movements. It is true that having a more progressive politician in office increases the likelihood of getting a win. If Breckinridge not Lincoln had been elected in 1860, or Hoover not FDR in 1932, or Nixon not JFK in 1960, there might have been no Emancipation Proclamation, New Deal, or Civil Rights Act. But Lincoln, FDR, and JFK never would have done those things without disruptive action by the abolitionist, labor, and civil rights movements, respectively. US history proves that mass movements are primary to making change happen.