Campaigning Against Socialism

I walked up to Capitol Hill over lunch to pick up a tiny bottle of matte black paint -- but that'll be the subject of another post.As I got up to Broadway there were a couple of canvassers for Kshama Sawant. One of them flagged me down and we started to chat. We talked for a few moments and he invited me to their post-election party; I declined with a "I don't really support Ms. Sawant, so I don't think I'd fit in.""What don't you support?"Basically, for everyone outside of the local Seattle political scene, Sawant is actively a socialist. Not just a socialist, but one that seems to be more into grandstanding that getting anything done. If you don't agree with her then you're not someone to be compromised with. Politics is of course all about compromise.Before he was able to get out the affordable housing gambit, I cut it off. To get affordable housing you need to encourage development -- all development. It's not about the evil developers charging too much, it's completely about supply and demand."But what do you think about the fact that Washington has the most regressive tax structure?"Well, we should probably do something about that, but that's a state issue and you should pick a better venue for that. While Seattle might be able to pass something, the rest of the state is more conservative and you likely wouldn't be able to amend the constitution to change it."But the city council is trying to pass a millionaire tax! Isn't that something you can get behind?"I actually said "that's the most boneheaded thing you can do." For something that prima fascia is unconstitutional and will be overturned all you're doing is spending my tax dollars on lawyers and not changing a damned thing. Again if you want to fight that fight, pick the correct venue.Which loops back to my first point: she is all about grandstanding and not actually getting anything accomplished.Oh, and my parents grew up in socialist countries. My father left in dark of night with the threat of getting shot. My mom grew up behind the iron curtain as well and got out with her parents as well (though not nearly as high risk in her case).Socialism might look good on paper, but it's not a workable system on a large scale.