There's a Connection between Kshama Sawant and Michael Bloomberg: the Growing Panic of the Super-Rich

I learned about both yesterday late in the afternoon: Kshama Sawant's wonderful reversal of fortune in Seattle City Council District Three and Michael Bloomberg's announcement that he was entering the Democratic Primary despite a declaration earlier in the year that he was sitting it out.

On Wednesday when I made the argument to coworkers that Kshama's apparent defeat in a city council district spells trouble for a progressive presidential nominee, someone like a Sanders or a Warren, heading the Democratic ticket I was greeted with quizzical looks. Remember the Tip O'Neill line, "All politics is local." If a popular progressive incumbent with broad support (look at her endorsements!) can be knocked off by concentrated corporate cash, there's little doubt that it can be replicated nationally.

It's still early. There are two more ballot drops today, but, as Rich Smith wrote yesterday,

Sawant needed 58% of the vote today to stay alive, and she got just over 59%. Later ballots lean left, and if she repeats this performance in tomorrow's ballot drop, she'll keep her seat.

Bloomberg's promise of a presidential run reaches the front pages of the mainstream media every four years. The reason is always the same: Bloomberg, as the defender of U.S. oligarchy, feels the electorate veering too far to the left and hence in need of a little oligarchic discipline.

The chutzpah of the super-rich is amazing. Bloomberg has about as much chance of winning the Democratic Primary as any of the other neoliberal also-rans already on the dung heap -- Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, et al.

According to Alexander Burns,

Mr. Bloomberg, 77, initially bowed out of the 2020 race because of Mr. Biden’s apparent strength, but he has since grown skeptical that Mr. Biden is on track to win the Democratic nomination and he does not see the two leading liberals in the race, Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as strong candidates for the general election. [It's actually the reverse: Bloomberg sees a strong possibility that Warren or Sanders might end up in the White House.]

But Mr. Bloomberg would face a difficult path in a Democratic primary largely defined so far by debates about economic inequality. His presence in the race would offer fodder to the party’s rising populist wing, led by Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders, who contend that the extremely rich already wield far too much influence in politics. He is a former Republican who registered as a Democrat ahead of the midterm elections last year. And his mayoral record, including his support for stop-and-frisk policing and his championing of charter schools, has the potential to alienate pillars of the Democratic Party’s political base.

Ms. Warren, who has sparred from afar with Mr. Bloomberg over her proposals to tax the extremely rich, issued a blistering fund-raising message calling his potential candidacy “another example of the wealthy wanting our government and economy to only work for themselves.” Campaigning in North Carolina on Thursday evening, Ms. Warren offered a restrained comment on Mr. Bloomberg and cast her candidacy as a “grass roots movement.”

“It’s not enough just to have somebody come in, anybody, and say they’re going to buy this election,” she said.

Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, signaled the stiff resistance Mr. Bloomberg would face if he joined the race.

“More billionaires seeking more political power surely isn’t the change America needs,” Mr. Shakir said in an email.

Howard Wolfson, a close adviser to Mr. Bloomberg, said on Thursday that the former mayor has grown uneasy about the existing trajectory of the Democratic primary. He said Mr. Bloomberg viewed President Trump as an “unprecedented threat to our nation,” and noted the Democrat’s heavy spending in the 2018 midterm elections and this week’s off-year races in Virginia.

One thing is for sure. The rich are getting scared. If Kshama Sawant can overcome a tidal wave of corporate cash, it's good news for Warren, for Bernie, for all of us, and will foretell a rough road for Mike Bloomberg's candidacy.