Dennis Kucinich: A Peace-Seeking Idealist To The Core
To understand the importance Dennis Kucinich places on spirituality, scan his generally spare Capitol Hill office: a white cloth from the Dalai Lama, a bust of Gandhi, and a picture representing “conscious light” - a gift from Brahma Kumaris nuns.
There’s a Tibetan dragon washbowl and, on his desk, two heavy crucifixes once worn by Catholic nuns who taught him and who, he says, “saved my life.”
“Obviously, I connect with all religions,” says Representative Kucinich (D) of Ohio, in the midst of his second presidential campaign. “All manners of belief and even non-belief come from a common font, and that is the transcendent power of the human heart…. All those things that would separate us are based on misunderstandings of our nature.”
They’re somewhat unusual religious views for someone who still considers himself essentially Roman Catholic. But then, little about Kucinich is orthodox.
While his colleagues in Congress recently voted for more military funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he is pushing for immediate withdrawal from Iraq and advocates cutting money from the defense budget. In the middle of the war on terror, he wants to establish a Department of Peace. He’s the only Democratic presidential candidate who wants a Medicare system for all Americans, supports gay marriage, and advocates repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement and withdrawing from the World Trade Organization.
The congressman is also, by all reckonings, a long shot for the nomination. The latest national polls have him hovering around 1 percent. (He often wins online polls with strong liberal leanings.)
But Kucinich, who projects supreme confidence in both his views and his abilities, is anything but discouraged.
Another item he keeps in his congressional office is an original script from “The Man of La Mancha,” a gift from a cast member. It’s an apt memento, since Kucinich has been tilting at windmills and dreaming impossible dreams most of his life.
Quoting the romantic poets
The eldest of seven children, he grew up in a household that was chronically short of money and often had trouble finding an apartment that would accept so many children. The family moved more than 20 times and, at one point, lived out of their 1948 Dodge. Kucinich worked to pay his tuition to the Catholic schools he attended and was one of the first in his family to graduate from high school. A sports lover despite his 5-foot, 7-inch frame, he played football and basketball - and endured brutal hazing from teammates - until he was diagnosed with a heart murmur and told to stop.
From the time he was young, Kucinich has been reading the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Browning, and the Romantic poets. He still quotes them and considers many of their ideas part of his broader sense of faith. A particular favorite is Percy Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound” - whose final lines mirror Kucinich’s own belief that love and hope must challenge oppression. “Tennyson - ‘Come, My friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.’ Browning - ‘A man’s reach should exceed his grasp,’ ” Kucinich says. “The romantic poets had this understanding of the power of the human spirit…. That to me corresponds to religion, and to me the power of the human heart is an article of faith.”
Those sentiments - that one should strive for the impossible, and try to create something better - were also drilled into him by the nuns in Kucinich’s high school, St. John Cantius. Those ideas influenced his desire to be a politician - and to start young. Kucinich first ran for political office when he was 20 and nearly defeated a longtime city council incumbent in Cleveland. He looked even younger than he was, and news stories at the time referred to him as “Dennis the Menace” and “Alfalfa.” Two years later he ran again and won.
In his 2007 memoir, “The Courage to Survive,” Kucinich writes of telling a high school friend that he would be mayor of Cleveland by the time he was 30. He wasn’t far off; in fact, he was elected mayor in 1977 at age 31, the youngest mayor of a major American city.
His term lasted just two years, and it was, by all accounts, tumultuous. “He gave the town a nervous breakdown and he wore them out,” says Brent Larkin, editorial page editor at The Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It was unlike anything I’ve seen in my rather long career of paying attention to things that happen in this city. He was a different Dennis then. He was extraordinarily combative.”
Kucinich was always at odds with the city council, vetoing dozens of bills it sent to him, which councilors then overrode. He plunged the city into fiscal default when he refused to sell Muny Light, the city-owned electric utility, despite extraordinary pressure from business and a hit placed on him by organized crime, according to police.
“It wasn’t mine to sell. It belonged to the people,” Kucinich says, explaining a decision that he credits with saving citizens hundreds of millions of dollars in utility rates. Others say it’s more complicated - that the city is still paying for the decision with a poor bond rating. One panel of experts included Kucinich in its list of the 10 worst big-city mayors of all time.
But Kucinich came back from the political wasteland - he barely survived a recall election and lost reelection in 1979 - in part based on new evidence that his stand on Muny Light was not only courageous, but, in hindsight, the best decision. “Because he was right” was the slogan that helped him win his 1994 election to the Ohio legislature. Two years later, he was elected to Congress.
“He is the most resilient political figure I have ever met,” says Mr. Larkin. “I cannot overstate enough how dead he was politically in 1979…. He really is a tenacious guy.”
Against the mainstream
Kucinich has a less combative style these days, but he still relishes standing alone against the political mainstream. He was the only member of Congress to vote against a bill this fall to establish Sept. 11 as a day of remembrance for those who died in the terrorist attacks and who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Because the resolution didn’t make reference to “the lies that took us into Iraq, the lies that keep us there, the lies that are being used to set the stage for war against Iran, and the lies that have undermined our basic civil liberties here at home,” he chose not to support it, Kucinich said in a statement at the time.
In presidential debates, he calls attention to his solo positions - as the only Democratic candidate supporting a nonprofit single-payer healthcare system, the only one calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, the only one who supports gay marriage and who voted against funding the war in Iraq.
This fall he introduced a bill to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. In one debate, Kucinich whipped out his pocket-size copy of the Constitution when questioned about his efforts.
“A lot of people don’t agree with Dennis on specific issues, but nobody ever doubts where he stands,” says Andy Juniewicz, Kucinich’s press secretary and a friend who worked as a copy boy with him at the Plain Dealer and has known him for more than 40 years. “He’s probably the most courageous elected official I’ve ever known. Whatever the odds, if he believes he’s right, he’ll buck those odds and push for what he believes is right.”
Kucinich himself explains those positions, which often go against the political mainstream, as simply coming from his internal convictions. “Emerson once wrote, ‘Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string….’ I’ve been reading that essay since I was 10 years old.”
Still, Kucinich’s critics often question whether his views are too extreme, too lacking in nuance and understanding of complexities, or so politically unpalatable as to make his election or the success of his proposals impossible.
“You have to mix the idealism with the practicality or you’re foolish,” says Timothy Hagen, president of Cleveland’s Board of County Commissioners and chairman of the local Democratic Party when Kucinich was mayor. “The question becomes, can you convince enough people that what you’re saying has validity and you can make it a reality. He hasn’t been able to do that.”
It’s a criticism that Kucinich is used to, and one he bristles at. A traditional politician who, colleagues say, has probably met everyone in his district three times and is effective at delivering services to his constituents, he believes his ideas are practical - even if they’re sometimes ahead of their time.
“I’m grounded in the practical everyday experience of people,” he says. “I see paths toward civic health that are practical…. I feel I’m a candidate of the mainstream because I’m not hobbled by those who would purchase or rent my opinion.”
Kucinich still lives in the same small house he bought more than 30 years ago and still carries a union membership card - for the stagehand union - in his pocket.
His roots have helped him stay connected to the people he serves, he says.
And he credits the education he received from the Catholic nuns, and the sense of discipline his coach, Peter Pucher, instilled in him, with creating many of the bedrock values that inform his views today.
“He sincerely believes in the kinds of things he’s saying and stands for,” says Alexander Lamis, a political scientist at Case Western University in Cleveland. Professor Lamis remembers going out to lunch with Kucinich and Carl Stokes, the first African-American mayor of a big city and a friend of Kucinich’s until his death. The conversation turned to Tom Johnson, a Cleveland mayor at the turn of the 20th century and a leader of the Progressive movement. “They talked about how they considered themselves the only two Cleveland mayors to follow in the Tom Johnson mayoral tradition,” says Lamis. “Coming with that tradition is fighting against the well-to-do special interests. It’s just what Dennis believes.”
A transformational love
But if Kucinich believes he’s a candidate of the mainstream, he’s rarely treated that way by the media, which tend to highlight some of his wackier moments - his close friendship with actress Shirley MacLaine, for instance, and the fact that he says he has seen a UFO over her house, the subject of a question Tim Russert asked in a Democratic debate this fall.
These days, his marriage is also getting as much attention as his political views. After two failed marriages, Kucinich met Elizabeth Harper, a striking British beauty more than 30 years his junior, in 2005 when she visited his congressional office to talk about monetary policy. He fell instantly in love. They were married less than four months later.
Kucinich explains their meeting and their courtship in near-mystical terms, and says it has transformed his life.
“When you’re in a profound loving relationship, that’s when the heart has wings and the spirit soars and there’s a feeling of everything being right with the world,” he says. “It’s almost a fulfillment of Spirit and some of St. Paul’s epistles when he writes about love.” The couple recited the Prayer of Saint Francis at their wedding - the well-known verse that begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.” He still hopes that his political career can be a way to work toward a larger world peace. But is this idealistic view of human nature at odds with the realities of a world in which peace often seems impossibly distant?
“It’s possible to have your feet on the ground and your eyes looking toward the stars,” Kucinich says, in a car rushing to an interview on Fox News to discuss his anger at being excluded from the final Democratic debate in Iowa. “There was a time when the sailors of old sailed by the stars…. It’s our obligation to each other to catch the rhythms of the unfolding future which exist in present time, and to call forth, to name it, to set it in motion, to be as architects of new worlds.”
Amanda Paulson is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor.
© 2007 The Christian Science Monitor
Go Dennis!!!!
Great article- Common Dreams readers seem to know that Kucinich is the real deal. But we also know that they have stolen the election in both 2000 and 2004. If they can, they will do it again.
Bev Harris has written a great article on how we can fight back and expose this…
New problems identified with Iowa caucuses
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/genera_bev_harr_071230_new_problems_identif.htm
and we must take it upon ourselves, out of obligation to the nation, to RUN FOR CONGRESS and take the power back from the corporate stooges!
www.peacecandidates.com
Dennis Kucinich is the Better World Links “Hero of the Month”:
http://www.betterworldlinks.org
And here are 5000 Links on the U.S. Presidential Election:
http://www.betterworldlinks.org/index.php?cat=3925
I just wrote the following to Amanda and her editors. This is one of the best pieces I’ve seen on Dennis and encourages me that there are others who see his value in this political climate of divisiveness and nationalism. Until we include the rest of the world in our policies, there is no future for peace and harmony.
“I want to commend Amanda for her balanced and clear presentation on the spiritual politics of Dennis Kucinich. This man has the depth and perception to see that this election in particular, and politics in general are not to be confined to the United States. As a world leader and the most consumptive nation, we have a responsibility to the rest of the world to man age our behavior with the welfare of all in mind. Dennis has this perspective and he is living it.
peace,
John”
America is like a deranged patient and DK is the medicine. But how do you get America to admit it’s sick and there is a cure?
Hoa binh
If the US were sane, Dennis would be taken seriously.
But he doesn’t play the corporate money game. So we’re stuck with the corporate party of the right or the corporate party of the left.
I’d like a Kucinich/Nader (or Nader/Kucinich) ticket!
This is the second presidential election in which I’ve supported Dennis Kucinich. As a founder of non-profit arts organizations, I’m very familiar with the need to have a strong, shareable vision to guide one’s work. Dennis has that and no one who has heard him speak live can resist his message. It is so clear, untainted by politics as usual, vagueness, and equivocation. Dennis leads and inspires. Attending a Kucinich function means walking away inspired, full of hope, and with a sense that all in the world is not dirty. The bottom line for Dennis is humanity. I’m glad he chose to run again, to keep his important ideas alive and public. Thank you, Dennis and Elizabeth, for providing us with hope.
i agree with nearly all the views expressed(but,especially concerning health care), by dennis kucinich,more than any other candidate.the two things,i feel jeopordize his candidacy are his admission of ufo’s and his height.i do feel ron paul is electable,the only fault i can find with him,is healthcare.i am going to vote for ron paul,because he is taller and hasn’t admitted to seeing ufo’s.this is the stupidest thing i have ever said,but it is true.
I supported Dennis last time around- back in 2003 actually- and am supporting Obama this time because I cannot stand the thought of Edwards or Hillary- who voted for the Iraq War- representing the peace-loving side of this country. I have some major grievances with what Dennis has said about withdrawing from Afghanistan in the past, highlighted [to me] by the recent attacks in Pakistan, and his past stances on abortion, but I hope if you feel like Dennis is the best candidate that you consider casting a runner-up vote for Barack Obama, who also opposed this war from the beginning, has worked on IRV in Illinois, and who has lived a hard knock life as well. I have had the pleasure of meeting Dennis in the past and have nothing but respect for him as a legislator but I also do not feel that his personality is going to sway over the majority of Americans, including me, if I’m honest with myself about how I feel about ‘trophy wives’ and ‘ufos’. Those are just my perceptions, but they have tipped the balance for me this time around.
Peace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Funding_Accountability_and_Transparency_Act_of_2006
http://www.fairvote.org/?page=1755
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/20/america/NA-POL-US-Obama-Attorney-at-Law.php
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ethics/
I’ll vote for DK IF he gets on the ballot in NYS for 2/5 - no guarantee. If not, I’ll be forced to vote for Edwards, if he’s still in it by then, or Obama if Edwards is gone.
Re: “…he doesn’t play the corporate money game. So we’re stuck with the corporate party of the right or the corporate party of the left”
Nothing rings truer!
I also agree that a Kucinch/Nader ticket would be ideal, but this isn’t Europe. Average Americans don’t see our corporate run government as a problem. Years and years of corporate propaganda has succeeded in the ‘dumbing of America’ in which musical videos of candidates, rigged debates, height and looks and a complete avoidance of knife and fork issues rule the day.
Much support to you, Kucinich!
To nayoibi: the UFO topic is similar to many other issues - grossly misinformed public who have been denied access to serious information and those who speak out are repressed or intimidated (sound familiar guys???). I am quite sure in a short period of time we will learn not only that ET civilizations have been and are still working with us in a beneficial manner, but that enlightened Earth representatives like Kucinich are contacted for very good reason. They want to assist us in our effort to establish peace and harmony but also with utilizing incredibly advanced technologies. Until we show some maturity as a human race and live properly we must remain somewhat in quarentine mode.
Look at the household names who have either claimed outright that ET’s are real or have shown serious interest in UFO’s/ET knowledge and potential technologies related to such contact:
Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Defence Minister
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Nobutaka Machimura
James Woolsey, former US CIA director
5-Star British Admiral Lord Hill-Norton
Bill Clinton
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Former US astronauts
Credible doctors, scientists, religious figures
Retired navy, army, air force and intelligence officers
…just to name a few
In fifty years from now most Americans will be thinking cross culturally, with wisdom, and authenticity like Dennis. In the meantime what we are left with is Clinton, Edwards, and Obama followed by the rest of the shepple marching lock step.
Dennis is ahead of his time.
nayoibi:
“this is the stupidest thing i have ever said,but it is true.”
dougnwagner: “if I’m honest with myself about how I feel about ‘trophy wives’ and ‘ufos’. Those are just my perceptions, but they have tipped the balance for me this time around.”
How cowardly, childish, and just plain ASININE! You will get what you vote for, Children-of-the-Fear-Based-Program!!!
I was an air traffic controller. You want UFO sightings and stories?!?!
A comment to sharing_equals_peace: As this is a blog for comments, you are entitled to speak whatever you believe, but remember that others who might be wavering in their decision to support DK may not share your views regarding extraterrestrials. Being assiciated with the segment of the population that espouses these beliefs could push them the other way, simply so that they are not associated with the “lunatic fringe”. I am not saying that you are wrong, simply that it may not be the most judicious action to espouse your views in connection with DK. He stated himself that he had simply seen a UFO, that he had not felt it communicating with him, which had been erroneously reported. He also cited the fact that both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan had admitted seeing unidentified flying objects - Reagan twice. The more that individuals try to connect him with what the general public views as outlandish (for elected officials), the more the MSM will try to ridicule him the way they did Jerry Brown - who would have made a great president. Please consider carefully what you write, even if it is your right (at this point).
I am crazy about what I have heard but I really would like more sources of information about him. Just seems to be to good to be true……and it kills the enthusiasim that I get when I hear his view.
Dennis is a true progressive. The only thing he has in common with Ron Paul is his position on ending the war and occupation of Iraq. Make no mistake, Ron Paul is a free-market, greed pandering libertarian through and through. Don’t expect any equity for the little people from him.
(Remember that Libertarians are neocons who practice the relegion of Ayn Rand)
On second thought Dennis as a vice to John Edwards, I believe they would win by a landfall. They both remember where they came from.
John and Dennis–that has a nice ring to it.
the only honest non-thieving candidate since jimmy carter. the rest of washington hates him. but i’m voting for him in the primary. maybe he has a chance.
This election is ALREADY stolen—by the media morons who are completely lost in their own world of polished mirrors and faceless masters. I won’t vote for anybody except Kucinich, period.
Here is a site that explains what we are all up against and why/how Dennis can be part of the solution:
http://www.sonic.net/~taryfast/destruction.html
Imagine what this says about Americans—a candidate who believes in Mormonism is OK, a candidate who doesn’t believe in evolution is OK, and a candidate who wants us all to relive Vietnam in Iraq so he can get over his own traumas (suffered while bombing Nam in a criminal war) is OK. But a guy who says “maybe” about UFOs is out? FUCK THIS….
Those who want to help Dennis — even those who lack significant fiscal resources (and even those who live outside the United States and so can’t contribute directly to his campaign, as is my case: well, I hardly qualify as someone with “significant fiscal resources,” either!) — can concretely show their support by going to:
www.call4dennis.com
Log in, and you will receive a list of 25 Democratic voters in New Hampshire, along with their phone numbers. If you have a decent long-distance plan, you can contact them for mere pennies and extol Dennis’s virtues. (The site will also provide you with a telephone “script,” but I suggest you deviate from it at least a bit, because any script read over the phone can’t help but come off as profoundly wooden.)
Once you’ve dispensed with the 25 callees, you can get 25 more!
If you admire Dennis and his efforts, how can you NOT do at least this much to support him in New Hampshire? That state’s primary is on January 8, so get with the program now!
if it is a u.f. o.,you can almost count on it being ‘man’made,truth is the ‘deciders’probably were building space crafts before the harrier craft burst on the public stage.abductions are more likely carried out ‘underground’and the roswell ‘aliens’ were just humans that had been radiated ‘in vitro’ and by puberty,needed a novel way to be disposed of.dennis admitting to seeing a u.f.o. (i saw one up close one time,also)sets a dangerous precedent and i apologize for the bigoted short people view,but it is proven scientifically in test after stupid test,that height does sway people.ideally i would vote for nabob-paul in the primary and dennis in the election,i will not vote for anyone more mainstream,than that.
Since only Gravel, Kucinich, Dodd, and Clinton are on the Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary Ballot, it will be easy for me to vote for Kucinich and not think one is wasting a vote. Hilary will win but the DNC says it will not seat delegates at the nominating convention next summer from Florida and Michigan because they dare challenge the establishment rigged caucus farce in Iowa and first primary in atypical New Hampshire. In the meantime, Clinton is the one who wins by default because she backs out on the agreement not to campaign in Michigan made by all of the candidates. At least, Kucinich has a chance to finish second somewhere. Let’s see how he can do in a contest where a vote for him is not uniquely wasted because all of the votes are. Then his supporters will know how hollow their protestations that it is only reason he can’t win is that people reluctant to cast a ballot that make no difference. Even when the vote won’t count, people will vote for Hillary and she will win the election.
Americans couldn’t pick the right candidate for President if our lives depended on it. And our lives may well depend on it. Any society lead by legislators who continually pick war over peace, tax breaks for the rich instead social and infrastructure programs, raises for themselves instead of living wages for their constituents, planet pillaging policies rather than sustainable development, immunity legislation for its corporations crimes abroad and at home, intelligence agencies that create cowardly secretive operations against freedom fighters in other nations….this list is endless; such a society shall reap the rotten fruit which it has sewn. Those who planted(elected)these genetically modified toxic seeds were either too blind to study the contents of the package(dyed in the wool republicans), too blind faith ignorant(but he knows Jesus) or simply too lazy to sew anything.(all you people that have not yet grown the tiny little set of nads necessary to pitch in and vote)
Dennis Kucinich is what America needs, it’s just that Americans are too stupid to realize it.
“(Remember that Libertarians are neocons who practice the relegion of Ayn Rand)”
well i’m a libertarian so i guess that applies to me eh?
Dennis Kucinich is indeed a man before his time.
Tim Russert is a man whose time will never come. That’s why he chooses to ridicule anyone whom he sees as smarter and more astute than he. (This includes not only Dennis but the entire free world.)
Russert cannot conduct a proper interview. When he interviewed Kucinich, one would think he would ask pertinet questions about the issues; Iraq, health insurance, etc., instead he chose to ridicule a man much smarter than he with a silly UFO question.
Who the hell cares if Dennis saw a UFO…what has Kucinich’s friendship with Shirley McClain got to do with the campaign?
That was just a little diversion to keep voters from thinking about what this election is all about.
Don’t let them sway you. The media wants to shape and mold the public’s thinking, toss in a few silly queries and select our candidate and our president.
Vote for who YOU want. Don’t be bullied or miss led.
godlessrant
Not only that but libertarians are also anti- public school (under the guise of school choice), anti-union, anti-government, pro-legalization of drugs, and selfish to boot!
I finally met Dennis Kucinich yesterday and he is as real as real gets. I’ve been watching and admiring him on c-span for years. He is one of a hand-full in the House of Representatives that actually spends his time representing “We The People”.
One can only hope that after 7 miserable years of the Bush Administration’s lies and deceipt, the majority will wake up and believe in this man who has arduously and consistently worked for the greater good of this country and its citizens.
As many of us are aware, this is probably our last chance to turn this country around and be the United (not divided) States we once were and can be again!
Kucinich has my absolute confidence, vote and support. He has never wavered, and neither will I. This guy is the “real deal”.
I find all this sickeningly sweet puff abt Kucinich as some sort of champion of propressive politics, when in point of fact, Kucinich acts as a means of keeping Leftists in the DP. He makes a lot of noise, but when the rubber hits the road, he endorses and publicly supports Kerry in ‘04. He then tries to convince progressives it is important to stay in the Democratic Party, and then he disappears for four years. Was he out there organizing and leading the anti-war efforts? No.
If Edwards was smart he would announce that if he wins the presidency he will ask Dennis to be the head of a new cabinet department for peace; a Green Party person for a new cabinet department for electoral reform towards a multi-party democracy; and perhaps some strong moderate, quasi-progressives like Senator Russ Feingold who sought to censure Bush in the Senate for illegal spying. Such moves would generate a lot of excitement and energy for him by true progressives, even if others in his cabinet were less progressive. Tradition has candidates announcing their cabinet only after they win. But doing so ahead of time seems powerful to me. Anyone else on this idea?
To resistor:
“….Being assiciated with the segment of the population that espouses these beliefs could push them the other way..”
Thanks for your message and concern. Believe me, I sympathize fully with what you are saying. I’ve hesitated mentioning ET’s/UFO’s at such a key moment for our man Kucinich, but it’s really quite cowardly of me to fear talking about something I intuitively and rationally know to be true. About 50% - 60% of Americans believe there is, or could be, an extraterrestrial explanation behind UFO’s. The public IS very much interested if you present it sanely, objectively and truthfully. Dr. Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project, shown on the National Press Club, was the most watched live internet broadcast in the history of the internet!
Below is my letter to the Dallas Morning News, published on Nov 3, 2007. Within a very short time from now the world will gradually come to realize there is indeed something going on. It is risky to use in politics, sure, but all I can say is be ready…it’s worth the personal ridicule to me in the short term…
——–
Take UFOs, crop circles seriously
Re: “Candidate gets into ‘X-Files’ mode – Richardson uses Roswell question to criticize government secrecy,” last Saturday’s news story.
Aside from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson acknowledging interest in UFOs and public disclosure, the presidential candidate who would most likely take action, if elected, and for whom I give 100 percent support, is Dennis Kucinich.
I realize many people still treat the idea of extraterrestrials visiting Earth as a subject of ridicule. But they might not know that Dr. Stephen Greer briefed James Woolsey, a sitting CIA director under Clinton, for three hours on the matter.
Lately, UFO sightings have been on the rise like never before. France, Chile, Mexico and other countries are releasing reports. Crop circles are still occurring, leaving behind measurable electromagnetic energy fields and altered plant stem nodes. They are formed within minutes, exhibiting perfect shapes that defy conventional geometrical formulas, without a single stem being damaged. The ones that are not hoaxes are done without traces of footprints, often in the dark.
Nobody in his or her right mind could still accept the explanation that two Englishmen stomping around with a wooden plank have been behind these beautiful formations for more than 30 years.
When will the media start taking this stuff seriously? The public wants to know about this stuff.
———
Here’s a recent and related article in Dallas Morning News:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/123107dnmetufo.21aacfb.html
I changed my registration so I cuold vote for Kucinich in the primary–I plan to vote for him in the general election even if I have to write in his name. If he (against all logic and hope) wins, I will rejoice. If he loses I can have the satisfaction that at least like the struggling physician who loses a patient, I didn’t do any harm.
Sharing Equal Peace mentioned some household names who believe in UFO’s and one of the names is the former Canadian Minister of Defense, Paul Hellyer. Paul Hellyer has a soul like boiled ham, he was a chickenhawk who shafted the RCN and RCAF with his unified Armed forces and then gave them snot green uniforms and rather stupid rank titles. His was a household word along with slop bucket and bid cage liner. He was and still is a turd, a bit of excrement a blight on a national landscape. If you value Kucinich’s reputation don’t associate him with a detestable weasel like the hollow man Hellyer. That list has another idiot of the same water, Reagan, perhaps you shouldn’t name any names.
dougnwagner–If you think Elizabeth Kucinich is a “trophy wife” you are incredibly mistaken. She is just as passionate as Dennis about social issues, human rights, and the need for peace and sanity and balance in this insane world. Just because she is beautiful is no reason to marginalize her. That was really insulting.
Dafoe,
I don’t think I necessarily endorse Reagan’s political career by simply referencing his name. I’m just trying to basically say that when people like Eisenhower go on national TV and declare to the world “beware the military-industrial-complex”, it’s not for no reason. He knew very well what he was talking about. And since him, many other presidents have tried to obtain information but were denied! Yes, presidents were denied information or couldn’t know because of the security risks involved.
The veil of ET (and ET-related technology) secrecy is held in place mostly by a so-called “shadow government” of powerful private defense firms, former politicians, ex-military men, plus others who tend to stay out of the spotlight. I don’t see how this would be hard to fathom, given the high intelligence of all the CommonDreams readers. Surely this part isn’t a stretch to consider.
I highly recommend everyone read Dr. Steven Greer’s book “Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge” to get an idea of how real and relevant this stuff is. It will blow you away.
I take issue with the article. While it is full of praise for Dennis, a friend and someone I’ve known and respected for years, it leaves out the most important influence in his life, his long, strong participation with and support for organized labor in our nation. While I do agree that Dennis has a spiritual side, and he certainly has looked into various areas for inspiration, to have written the article and ignored Dennis’ long and deep relationship to the organized labor movement is a disservice.
Dennis (and those who know and love him here in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio know him just as “Dennis”) has been elected and reelected in the strongly working-class west side of Cleveland because he is “one of us!” His spiritualality is his, but he has been elected more in spite of it than because of it. Dennis grew up in Cleveland, in a large Irish/Croatian family, his father was a union rep with the IBT. He has long been a union member, usually holding up a his union card when he speaks, evoking the fact he is, and has always been, “one of you!” At the Democratic debate sponsored by the AFL-CIO in Chicago, national leaders of organized labor made sure (behind the scenes, but they damn-well made sure) that Dennis was not maginalized, that he had every opportunity, unlike the bullshit Wolf Blitzer show and other corporate media events, to speak of his program. As a result, Steve Skavara, retired steelworker and leader of SOAR (Steelworker’s Organization of Active Retirees) was able to make national waves asking;
“I’ve been a steelworker for over 30 years, and was forced to retire due to disability. Everyday I have to sit across from the woman I love, my wife of 35 years, knowing she doesn’t have health care. I feel horrible and can’t do anything for her. This is wrong! Something is wrong with America. If you are elected what will you do to change this.”
Instead of bullshit, Dennis was allowed to expand on his co-sponsorship (with rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, a former UAW leader) of HR 676, the bill to expand Medicare to all Americans. Finally, at long last, due to organized labor, and Dennis, the issue of real health care reform hit the public arena,
Dennis’ background, from his early youth, has been intertwined with the tough struggles of working men and women, the struggles of organized labor, in Ohio. Besides his father, uncles and other relatives were long part of the struggles of organized workers in the old country. When management at the big steelmill in Cleveland declared bankruptcy, stating that they would close, Dennis called, first, the leaders of organized labor together in the Cleveland area. They jointly developed a plan of action. Dennis then called together elected officials, community, academic and business leaders to what was termed a “Steel Forum.” As result of this development, action was taken and today that mill remains open, still as a strong USW local and key to continued the manufacturing economy in northern Ohio.
When Republic Steel, with the help of the Bush administration, stole the pensions and health care of steelworkers here, Dennis worked hand in hand with the USW to fight to help those workers (of which I’m one). We have not been 100% successful, but without Dennis’ help we’d have lost everything. He helped us, under very difficult conditions, save at least some of our hard-won benefits. Similiarly, when local auto plants threatened to close, again Dennis called together, first labor leadership, then the entire community, to organize an “Auto Forum,” which, likewise saved local plants, and the union jobs there. Dennis was key to winning a very difficult organizing drive in Cleveland at a local plant manned mainly by immigrant workers. As result of his action, with others, UNITE now represents those workers. Key to Dennis’ presidential run, also, has been his early and strong support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would give workers the right to organize, free from corporate interference and bullying.
After Dennis had been defeated for mayor of Cleveland, he was not an elected official for over a decade. When he again ran for public office, he had gold colored signs, a big shinging lightbulb, and the sign just said’ “He Was Right!” The sign, of course, referred to his defense of Cleveland’s publicly owned Municipal Power plant, (Muny Light), which he refused, as mayor, to privitatize. He was, and still is, dispised by the editors of the local newspaper, the Plain Dealer. The down-town business establishment hates him, as well, and the Democratic Party officialdom is not is his corner. It is Dennis’ ironclad, solid support from organized labor that put him, again, in public ofice and that strongly backs him, assuring his election, against massive odds, in election after election.
You might ask why I take such strong issue with the present article. Isn’t it a favorable one for Dennis, you could ask?
I don’t really see it that way. Dennis is today facing a very strong challange to his congressional seat. As I mentioned, the local press, as well as visual media, the business establishment and the powers that be within the Democratic Party are ganging up in an attempt to defeat him. Frankly, his run at this time for president, whatever it has meant nationally, has hurt him significantly within his own district. His ability to be reelected will depend, straight up, on his ability to keep his solid base of support within organized labor. An article which presents him as a spirtitualist, without even mentioning in any real way, his union background or his strong labor support is harmful, not helpful. It becomes almost, as they say, “damning with faint praise!” This is, in fact, exactly how his strongest local opposition tries to portray him, certainly not to his advantage.
Dennis has been able, as a public figure, to bring the issue of peace to the mainstream in northern Ohio not as a spiritualist, (although he has every right to how he comes to his views), but because he is able to make it an issue of self interest to working people here. Actually, he is being opposed in his reelection bid not only by a local Democratic Party “leader,” but also by a local peace “leader,” a mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, (Auggie Schroeder).
If he is to remain an elected public figure it will not be because he is “Dennis the peaceful spiritualist.” In fact, that is how the local corporate media tries to paint him. No, if our dear friend Dennis is to be reelected and remain a strong voice for progress in the cogress, it will be because he is still seen as “one of us,” a working man with a union card that always stands with us, on our side!
They just played John Lennon’s Imagine in NYC for the arrival of the New Year. If they want to promote peace then they need to promote the peace candidate Dennis Kucinich.
“do feel ron paul is electable”
That expression , more than any other , besides making me puke betrays the utter stupidity of voting with the same mindset as a lottery-ticket-buyer. Vote for the morally-best man or woman and be confident that the rest of American voters is as wisely-discerning as you.
No wonder you have an imploding empire.
Ron, I do not feel it is in any way useful for you and some others to call each others names and attempt to belittle folks in an attempt to make your point. It is harmful to any real discussion to deal with each other in a disrespectful way. I disagree pretty strongly with a number of the comments here, but I do respect you all. You are, after all, all participating here, trying to find some way to bring about change. We’ll be able to do it much better by treating each other with the resapect we all deserve.
George Bush has given us hell, and Dennis Kucinich is offering us heaven.
Why is it so much easier for Americans to choose hell than heaven?
Great article on Kucinich, I have always liked him and his ideas, too bad though that he only has 1% of the people behind him. He and his supporters needed to work much harder to grow an organizational network to bring in funds and staff, because like the John Edwards campaign, he will get no help from the corporate media, as they will not give publicity to those who would seek to restrain them.
ronald white,the problem is,the whole electoral system is like a lottery.you have to be at least a multimillionaire to even run for any office.too often people with a conscience are not that wealthy,most likely because they do have a conscience.i havent been exited about a candidate since…a long time ago.on the spaceship issue,if you believe that spaceships are from an alien planet,you are gullible.any race of aliens that needs a ‘craft’ to get around,are more likely to be humans,dressed-up as aliens.
I think this article gave me more information about Dennis Kucinich’s private life and I that’s good. Unionguy with his comment added a lot too. How tall he is shouldn’t be a factor. Here in Minnesota we had Paul Wellstone, he wasn’t tall or rich either. I believe that if Wellstone hadn’t been Taken Out, he’d very well may have been running for president at this time.
I voted for Kucinich in the last primary and most likely will do so again. However, my loyalty with the Democrat Party candidate running for office ends with Kucinich. Frankly the others don’t measure up, or gain my trust.
… Hey there ‘unionguy,’ thanks for your perspective…
… You’ve certainly helped to shed some light on a particular question that has long been a source of intrigue, at least for me. Namely, “How is it that such an unconventional individual like Dennis Kucinich can consistently get himself elected in what we all realize amounts to a very politically ‘conventional’ electorate itself?… Thanks. Now I know why -and it sure makes sense too…
… Personally, I’m one of those more ’spiritual,’ progressive types myself. However, as a former Marine, and also a current union member to boot -I also have a pretty good idea as to when and where such information is shared, and with whom. Although it can be rather intertaining at times, to throw out the ‘ol Peace and Love moniker just about the time when some of my fellow union pals start feeling a little too conservative for their own good…
… I’ve been a big fan of Dennis’ for a number of years, and even ‘hooked up’ with him a few times here in Oregon. I just met his wife about a month ago, when she came into town, by herself, stumping for Dennis… I’ll not only be voting for Dennis in our local Primary, but I’ll be voting for Dennis in the General election as well -even if that means writing him in… I am so tired of voting ‘a lesser of two evils,’ and vow from here on in, to vote ‘the best of all possibilities’ -and I will continue to do so- until (and eventually) the rest of the country finally catches up with reality…
… Thanks again for your insight ‘unionguy’ -one could almost argue that the wrong person was assigned the task to write this article…
… As a bit of an aside -with regards to the ufo thingy- Why is it that when three quarters of the electorate professes to harbor some sort of ‘openness, or belief’ in just the general ‘idea’ of the possibility of sharing this vast universe with other creatures -our mainstream media feels it somehow ‘wise’ to make jokes about these certain beliefs that, again, three quarters of the population shows an interest in?…
… at the same time, three quarters of the population also believe that there is actually a ‘real, living, breathing entity’ out there, commonly referred to as Satan, or the Devil… Personally, I’m a very ’spiritual’ fella myself, but I find the whole idea about a real, living, breathing entity called the devil as about as comical and as imature as the concept of Santa Claus -and yet where is our wise and omnipotent mainstream media on this matter?… Alien intelligence is a source of comic relief, but the boogieman must remain one of awe and fear?!…
… No need to explain the ‘reasons’ behind this hypocracy -I am well aware as to the ‘why’… Just thought I’d share a little more irony with those of us who are already drowning in it… :-p
…Hehehe, go Dennis!!!…
The system is horribly broken and corrupt!
It has been co-opted by Fascists.
They have control of our country.
Dennis K is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise polluted political process.
He is a real man of the people.
The Cor’pirates’ are raping and pillaging the world in the name of GREED.
Everything for me and nothing for you.
They stole the Media.
They have privatizing everything.
Our Militia is dying in a Halliburton/Carlyle Oil War.
While they have out sourced their jobs at home.
Dead Eye Dick sticks his finger in your face and says Funk You!
Because he knows better than most of us!
That it’s all over here except for the crying and dying.
Punish the Monkey while Dick goes free.
We must bring the system into the present with us.
It has to be updated and the viruses removed.
It must be redefined in modern terms.
The Corrupt Politicians must be cleansed from our Government.
The government is supposed to protect us from powerful private interests.
Instead they have taken it over and it is being used as a tool of destruction.
The money has to be taken out of politics.
The Media must be taken back first.
A locally controlled Media is a must for any Democracy to flourish.
We must rise up again to win freedom from our captors.
These Torturous Terrorists, Spying, Lying Cowards!
Dirty Dick and The Shrub.
The lowest of the low.
Symbols of everything that is wrong with this country.
Opposition to these Hypocrites should be more than enough to solidify,
A movement for Positive Progressive Political change.
Why should the working man get the dirty end of the stick while these dirt bags go free?
The system has to work for us also!
Otherwise shut it down.
REBOOT!
It is self imploding from its own corruption and GREED.
Now is the time to act!
Any system that is based on a negative human trait such as GREED must fail with many horrible human consequences and side effects.
These consequences are self evident:
WAR, pollution, poverty, destruction and death.
They have destroyed the American Middle Class by looting the National Treasury and destroying their savings.
Goodbye Dollar, Goodbye pension, Goodbye retirement.
Hello Wal‘FART’ and Mickey Dees!
Cheap stuff is really costly in the end!
So stand back and take a seat.
The Sh-t is starting to fly.
Be true to yourselves, your family and your community.
Invest in your own backyard instead of the Conglomerates that have enslaved you.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy is a worthy cause.
Energy independence!
Grow organic vegetables instead of eating FRANKEN Foods.
Break the hold that big oil has on our way of life.
It is a dead technology being perpetuated beyond obsolescence.
The Oil Monkey is riding us into the ground.
We have to get it off our backs.
Nationalize all energy resources.
Divest ourselves from The Mega Monopoly,
Shooting us in the face!
willmeon,tell us something we don’t already know.god bless,paul wellstone.see,that is what happens to the ‘good’ candidates.it was obvious wellstone would have won.i think i am jaded and do not trust any candidates,anymore.if they would change the electoral system.give every candidate a the same and a limited funding for campaign,than maybe we would have had a chance. as a nation,most of us have come to see the stark bogusness of the ‘democracy’i feel sorrier for the people of pakistan,they seem to still believe that ‘democracy is real.the lesson from the monks of myranmar(spell ?),should have made a more lasting impression,all it did was earn the dahli lama a congressional medal of honor.democracy is real,only as long as it is profitable.
Deran December 31st, 2007 7:54 pm
“I find all this sickeningly sweet puff abt Kucinich as some sort of champion of propressive politics, when in point of fact, Kucinich acts as a means of keeping Leftists in the DP. He makes a lot of noise, but when the rubber hits the road, he endorses and publicly supports Kerry in ‘04.”
Deran,
With Bush and Kerry running nose-to-nose, were you expecting him to endorse someone else?
unionguy: I hope you are still out there. Question: Dennis is, at least to anyone paying attention, the working person’s candidate–union or not. Please tell me WHY in HELL are union leaders supporting Clinton???!!!
IrishEddieOHara: Dennis Kucinich is WITH YOU and EVERYTHING you said except he believes in a woman’s right to choose. You are apparently a “Pro-Lifer”; well, guess what, so is Dennis! Read the following and get an education before bad-mouthing this compassionate man again, PLEASE!
http://www.kucinichonline.com/pdfs/Kucinich_Reproductive%20Rights.pdf
He’s a mensch, a human being and the windmills he tilts against are among the most corrupt. This NYTimes editorial today gives us a look into what Dennis is up against:
In New Hampshire’s hotly contested 2002 Senate race, Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks were jammed with incoming calls on Election Day. The Republican John Sununu, won re-election by under 20,000 votes, and Allen Raymond, a Republican Party operative, went to jail for his role in the jamming.
Mr. Raymond has now written a book about his experiences, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative.” In it, he paints a picture of the corruption of modern politics that should leave no doubt about the creativity and cynicism of operatives like Mr. Raymond or the need for tough new election-reform legislation.
Mr. Raymond, whose great-grandfather founded the Underwood Typewriter Company, was a privileged kid drawn to politics at a young age. He moved from small campaigns to larger ones, eventually working for the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
It was a world in which, he claims, dirty tricks were the norm. When Mr. Raymond opened a political telemarketing firm, he was hired by a Republican challenging a New Jersey Democratic congressman. Mr. Raymond’s company — in a plan he says he hatched with the challenger’s advisers — called liberal Democrats and urged them to vote for the Green Party candidate.
Those same advisers, he says, gave Mr. Raymond another assignment: to call white households asking them to vote for the Democrat, using the voice of, as he puts it, a “ghetto black guy.” He also called union households, using voices with thick Spanish accents.
No one is suggesting that Mr. Sununu knew anything about the phone jamming. Mr. Raymond says his instructions came from James Tobin, the northeast regional director of the Republican National Committee. And he says a top official of the New Hampshire Republican Party provided the phone numbers of the Democratic get-out-the-vote banks. Mr. Raymond jammed the lines — placing hundreds of hang-up calls an hour — to five Democratic offices across the state and a phone bank run by volunteer firefighters.
Mr. Raymond pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit phone harassment and was sentenced to five months in prison. Mr. Tobin argued in court that the idea to jam the phones was not his and that he committed no crime. A federal appeals court in Boston reversed his conviction, saying that the law he was found guilty under was not “a close fit for what he did.” The Republican Party has paid a high-priced law firm in Washington to defend Mr. Tobin, according to The Associated Press, and Mr. Raymond suspects it is because Republican bigwigs “wanted him to keep his yap shut” about the origins of the scheme.
Mr. Raymond doesn’t offer proof in the book and is clearly bitter about his former employers not coming to his defense. The Republicans, he says, “not only threw me under the bus but then blamed me for getting run over.”
Of course, this tradition of dirty trickery goes back decades. Donald Segretti, an operative with President Richard Nixon’s re-election committee went to jail for distributing devious, and illegal, campaign literature. Today there are many others plying the trade — for both parties.
In 2006, Republicans in upstate New York accused Democrats of calling voters at the last minute and directing them to incorrect polling places. At the same time, Democrats in several Congressional districts charged that Republicans unleashed robo-calls — calls that repeated over and over, enraging the recipients — that were made to sound as if they were coming from the Democratic candidate.
Such excesses are often dismissed as the work of a few overeager campaign staff members. Mr. Raymond argues, however, that illegal tactics are often standard operating procedure. “In my business,” he writes, “communications devices were all lethal weapons — and every fight was dirty.”
It is remarkable how little Congress has done to stop all this. A good bill that addresses some of the problems — the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, sponsored by Barack Obama, Charles Schumer and others — has been limping along, though there is hope it could come to a Senate vote this month. Mr. Raymond is the rare case of a political operative who actually did jail time for dirty tricks. Congress needs to toughen the laws protecting elections, and make clear that anyone interfering with democracy will pay a stiff price.
I’d acutally feel this country has a decent chance if it came down to a choice of Kucinich versus Ron Paul, both whom are the only two that walk the walk of their respective ideologies. Unfortunately both are treated as nutcases and pariahs, even though they are the only two that speak with rational common sense. Both offer a clean break with the power elite and a start on a fresh. Yes Ron Paul is uber conservative; but that is the real sense of a conservative (e.g a true free marekt, not a stacked corporate welfare, regressive tax structure, appoint strict constructionist judges who hold their personal ideologies aside when interpreting law, whether “fake” (e.g. neo-con, or regular) conservative or “liberal” in those views and don’t legislate from the bench, respects highly the rule or law and the limitations set forth in the Constitutional powers including the general idea that driving powers (HUD, welfare, most taxation power, etc.) from the Federal level down to the states, better yet community-level is in accord with accountability and states-rights. So he is the one true conservative and speaks with a moral high ground. Same for Kucinich, unlike most of the special interest or corporate-sponsored democrats he remains true to a moral compass,…and that’s refreshing. He don’t lie to appease the whole voting public, is bold in his ideas (he’s the only Democrat who mentions single-payer as a health care solution and to follow the model of the rest of the civilized world, which he backs up with the public health data (not to mention more effective cost to boot), like his counterpart from the right, the only true Progressive (and Populist) from the Democratic party.
It would a new awakening and I’d actually feel the country had a real choice in the general election if it actually came down to a Ron Paul versus Dennis Kuncinich ballot. And the funny thing I would guess is that both the rebuke negative smear campaigns from their handlers (who’d for once refreshingly be amateurs and ideals-driven individuals….), would actually hold intellectual debates with one another, be cordial to one another and actually entertain bringing the loser onto the victor’s cabinet…..I’d actually feel whoever was the victor that Nero would stop fiddling and Rome would cease burning in due course.
Bless, you are certainly correct: Elizabeth Kucinich is far more than just a pretty face. Her ideas, and her actions, parallel Dennis’s to a remarkable degree, so not only is calling her a “trophy wife” unfair to her, it’s also unfair to Dennis.
Much thanks to unionguy and lawrence for their comments. Yes the *image* of Kucinich as a spiritualist pacifist kook from la-la land does him a lot of damage, and that image does the most damage in the heart of his natural constituency and base, the working people and organized labor. He has withstood this in his own district, where people know him well and he can connect with them one-on-one, but in America at large where we know candidates mostly as they come filtered through the media he is not being widely embraced as a man of the people, as “one of us”, and this is part of the reason.
I wrote in response to the article by Tom Galligher (predeeding this one) about the need for a new kind of campaign to break through the media smokescreen. However there is something else here to be looked at.
Kucinich’s natural constituency is the working people, most of whom - though fundamentally pro-union - do not belong to unions. A majority of working people also do not participate in elections. Many millions aren’t citizens or have been disenfrancised by the marijuana laws, but far more simply choose not to register or if registered choose not to vote. I wish I had a dollar for each one who has told me “none of them care about us”, “none of them are going to do anything for us”, “they’re all a bunch of crooks so why bother”, or the like! Discussing the specific positions that candidates take and how these affect their interests occasionally can lead to a breakthrough, an agreement to participate, but more usually, forward movement in the conversation stops sharply at some point and the person declares “I don’t care”, or in some other way signifies that they remember themselves as a non-participant and don’t want to be talked out of it. If pushed further, the spoken “I don’t care” becomes a shouted “I don’t care, dammit, what part of that don’t you understand”? (Clearly there is a lot of emotional energy invested in not caring!)
These working people often will agree with Kucinich’s program, point for point, on what are the best policies for America. In that sense they could be identified as liberals, but they don’t see themselves as liberals and reject the label. They see themselves as outside the system. They know the media is lying to them, but don’t know what to believe, so they’ve stopped paying much attention. (Not an unintelligent thing to do under the circumstances!) They are not pacifists. They see themselves as rebels, sometimes as rebels in an occupied country, although occupied exactly by whom is fuzzy and variable. Most have guns. When they get to know you well enough and trust you they will share their secret with you, a military weapon carefully hidden somewhere in their house. Most see owning a gun as a political act, preparation for defending their family, their community and/or America from tyrants, invaders or sometimes marauding hordes of refugees from the cities. White working people may have a Confederate flag on their pickup truck, but in my experience few see or understand it as a symbol of racism; to them it is a symbol of defiance, the badge of the rebel.
How do we draw these people into the political fray? If we can, we change the whole political paradigm of America. To do that they must see their candidate as one of us, and the movement as our movement. Nothing less will do. Kucinich is who he is, completely. He is a union worker, and stands four-square for the interests of the working people. But outside of his own district he has not broken through this threshold, has not been embraced as “one of our own” by a critical mass of the people. And his pacifism is a key obstacle.
I don’t know if it is in Dennis to revisit his position on the Second Amendment, and find a creative way to reconcile his deeply held views on violence with it. But this goes to the heart of how the American working people see ourselves, as the inheritors of a country whose armed people rose up against tyranny and established a land of individual freedom.
The Second Amendment specifically ties the right to bear arms to the need for a “well-regulated militia”, something which we don’t have today. The National Guard theoretically fills this function, but in fact it is just another branch of the armed services now, its control far removed from the communities in which it is based. Yet this concept lives on in peoples’ minds.
The NRA peddles the notion that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of almost anyone to own and carry almost any kind of small arm, which contributes to heartbreaking mayhem and fear in our cities, our schools and within our families. The Minutemen and other racist militias see it as a sanction for vigilanteism. Many see “packing heat” as a way of feeling confident and powerful in a dangerous world. Yet working people react to sensible proposals to control this crazy situation as an attack on their rights. Those who propose gun control are thereby placed in the category of “one of them” rather than “one of us”.
The reality of course is that scores of millions of armed but largely unorganized working people are helpless to prevent the creeping fascist takeover of our country. Gun violence has rarely advanced our interests and has far more often been used to break our strikes and cut down our leaders; but still the romance of the armed citizenry persists. Arguing this point will get some agreement, to a point, but I have never yet found that arguing this can produce a “paradigm shift”. The basic notion of power coming from owning a gun is robust and stable.
Somehow an insurgent campaign such as Kucinich’s needs to take control of this issue. One suggestion: perhaps the idea of a real community militia, which all able-bodied adults without a recent criminal conviction are required to participate in, and from which none can be excluded, could satisfy the need to see ourselves as part of an armed citizenry, meet the requirements of the Second Amendment, and provide the framework for getting the handguns out of the house, out of the glove compartment and out of peoples’ pockets. Perhaps the insurgent candidate who proposes this will be embraced as a “fellow rebel”, which will finally unlock the fault line that is holding American political life outside the reach of the working people, and turn our sick political system upside down.
celebrity January 1st, 2008 1:16 pm
“unionguy: I hope you are still out there. Question: Dennis is, at least to anyone paying attention, the working person’s candidate–union or not. Please tell me WHY in HELL are union leaders supporting Clinton???!!!”
Why? Good question. Perhaps union members would like to read the following link and then decide why they and their leaders insist on supporting Clinton:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4830
Chris Horton,
I would agree to some degree. The issue is not so much gun control per se as it is self-determination and party organization. The reality is that the police do not come to some neighborhoods and many working poor are left to fend for themselves against a fairly lawless environment which necessitates owning guns in an urban environment neglected by city officials.
However, I disagree that there is a need for government-regulated militias- whose political party is ‘the government’ a surrogate for? Rather, this should be what a political party should be doing if it were serious about self-defense. One of Trotsky’s old points.
“The problem of revolution, as of war, consists in breaking the will of the foe, forcing him to capitulate and to accept the conditions of the conqueror. The will, of course, is a fact of the physical world, but in contradistinction to a meeting, a dispute, or a congress, the revolution carries out its object by means of the employment of material resources – though to a less degree than war. The bourgeoisie itself conquered power by means of revolts, and consolidated it by the civil war. In the peaceful period, it retains power by means of a system of repression. As long as class society, founded on the most deep-rooted antagonisms, continues to exist, repression remains a necessary means of breaking the will of the opposing side.
Even if, in one country or another, the dictatorship of the proletariat grew up within the external framework of democracy, this would by no means avert the civil war. The question as to who is to rule the country, i.e., of the life or death of the bourgeoisie, will be decided on either side, not by references to the paragraphs of the constitution, but by the employment of all forms of violence. However deeply Kautsky goes into the question of the food of the anthropopithecus (see page 122 et seq. of his book) and other immediate and remote conditions which determine the cause of human cruelty, he will find in history no other way of breaking the class will of the enemy except the systematic and energetic use of violence.
The degree of ferocity of the struggle depends on a series of internal and international circumstances. The more ferocious and dangerous is the resistance of the class enemy who have been overthrown, the more inevitably does the system of repression take the form of a system of terror.”
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1920/terrcomm/ch04.htm
However, if we had a legal and democratic system that ventilated disputes there would theoretically be no need for gun violence between political parties. A single transferable voting system seems arguably like the best way to achieve the ventilation necessary so that the governing political party’s tendency to exact violence on its opponents is reduced to stealing yard signs: single transferable voting is a methodology for counting votes that initially allocates an individual’s vote to their most preferred candidate, and then, after the least favorite candidate is eliminated in a round of voting, subsequently transfers votes for the least favorite candidate in the previous round according to those voters’ ranked preferences for the remaining candidates. Example: A Kucinich voter in round 1 becomes an Obama/Edwards voter in round 2, etc. until one of the candidates receives 50.1% of the general vote or there are only 2 candidates left competing for the single seat. (Ireland’s been doing it since 1919 and it seems to work).
Note that Obama introduced resolution SB 1789 in 2002 to introduce single transferable voting in Illinois. http://fairvote.org/?page=1755
The Green Party also is also in favor of single transferable voting.
Additionally, in many states of Europe the bar for participating in government is usually around 5% for a political party on a national scale. Germany has a dual proportional representation/single-member-district system where there are representatives of both geographic locations and of the proportional representation vote of the national electorate.
Seemingly, if we had proportional representation, single transferable voting, a legal system people felt adequately worked, and police that people felt adequately protected them than there would be institutionally no need for militias.
Of course then there is the economics of shifts in the political economy:
“The revolution would probably be more humane if the proletariat had the possibility of “buying off all this band,” as Marx once put it. But capitalism during the war has imposed upon the toilers too great a load of debt, and has too deeply undermined the foundations of production, for us to be able seriously to contemplate a ransom in return for which the bourgeoisie would silently make its peace with the revolution. The masses have lost too much blood, have suffered too much, have become too savage, to accept a decision which economically would be beyond their capacity.”
Which points to the need not only for those institutions but also economic equality, something on the decline in America.
However, I would also note that Trotsky was not an anarchist, and believed in the use of organized mass parties as legitimating agents of change of the political economy.
“In our eyes, individual terror is inadmissible precisely because it belittles the role of the masses in their own consciousness, reconciles them to their powerlessness, and turns their eyes and hopes towards a great avenger and liberator who some day will come and accomplish his mission. The anarchist prophets of the ‘propaganda of the deed’ can argue all they want about the elevating and stimulating influence of terrorist acts on the masses. Theoretical considerations and political experience prove otherwise. The more ‘effective’ the terrorist acts, the greater their impact, the more they reduce the interest of the masses in self-organisation and self-education. But the smoke from the confusion clears away, the panic disappears, the successor of the murdered minister makes his appearance, life again settles into the old rut, the wheel of capitalist exploitation turns as before; only the police repression grows more savage and brazen. And as a result, in place of the kindled hopes and artificially aroused excitement comes disillusionment and apathy.”
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1911/11/tia09.htm
Things I too hope Kucinich will think about next time he runs for president.
great piece, Amanda. thanks very much.
To the folks above that asked “Why are the unions backing Clinton?,” (and the friend that sent the NAFTA article)—-
First of all, the ‘unions’ are not backing Clinton. My union (USW–steelworkers and most of the industrial unions) are strongly supporting John Edwards. The reason they are backing Edwards are numerous. He has always supported org’d labor, comes from a mill workers family. After the ‘04 election he returned to the Carolinas and has been working, pro bono, for organizations of poor folks and working for labor’s right to organize. He, and most Dem candidates, support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would give workers the right to organize free from corporate interference and bullying. He is viewed as the most pro-labor candidate with an ability to be elected.
All of org’d labor strongly opposed NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA and other “free trade” agreements, organizing wide coalitions to fight against those pacts. In fact, one of the main issues for the industrial unions is to demand that any candidate that wants labor support MUST oppose these type of job destroying pacts.
AFSCME, and a couple of the other white collar based unions, have endorsed Hilliary. They have a history of supporting the more conservative Democratic candidates, based on so-called “electablity.” Many, (myself included) would argue that these types are the most UN-electable. I believe SEIU has endorsed Obama, but I could be incorrect here. The major problem here is that there have been splits and therefore there is no common, unified approach to one candidate.
It is a good discussion, working toward how to be effectively involved effectively. The Union movement does have a unified approach, in general, working to build the huge, new people’s movement around a number of key issues, concentrating on these issues rather than concentrating on candidates. I believe this is the best approach, one that every one of us can be part of, even if they are supporting different candidates in the primaries.
Labor, with its many allies, is organizing big meetings of activists in every major city, on the major issues— natl. health care, end the war and spend monies on peoples needs here, workers right to organize, creation of green jobs, etc. Organized labor is moving in a much more independent direction and welcomes the help of activists of many stripes. They are not tied to a political party, but to the mass movement. They will work like hell to defeat the ultra right, GOP, in order to create a new situation in which this mass peoples movement can push whoever is in office and win these important demands.
The entire labor mvement, we expect, will be strongly supporting Dennis for reelection to congress.
Lets hope, and fight for, a much better New Year!!
dougnwagner,
Good Grief! What did I set off over there? Evidently I pushed some buttons.
I am merely pointing out that a great many working people are attached to their guns and see that as a political issue, and that this is a serious problem for a progressive who supports gun control. I’m sure my suggestion raises problems. Maybe it’s a bad idea. Maybe you have a better one. But let’s keep it simple and concrete, shall we? Do you have any other ideas on what has been stopping a majority of the working people from engaging in the political process for, well, all of my lifetime anyway, and what it will take to achieve a breakout from this?
Per GKL: “Not only that but libertarians are also anti- public school (under the guise of school choice), anti-union, anti-government, pro-legalization of drugs, and selfish to boot!”
Ok GKL, I see that you are moronic drug warrior. You like locking people up for making personal choices that hurt no one? Makes for great TV on “Lockup”. Screw your Drug War!!!Thank God Dennis is against that insanity!
Chris,
you didn’t push any buttons, I agree with most of what you say, but I think the way that Dennis could relate is to work on IRV and proportional representation to bring more people into the process. Something Barack has done and an Obama Presidency would be for if the people in congress weren’t afraid to push it the way he did in Illinois. I think the ‘gun-rebels’ you speak of understand the second amendment and the political reasons it is there. I think the way to relate to that resentment some ‘gun-rebels’ may have towards an overly pacificst candidate is for that candidate to talk about the necessity of upholding the second amendment, but regulating guns in public places: there’s obviously a difference between brandishing a gun on your rural road in a pick up truck versus your local bus stop.
However, I would never be for a government-run paramilitary which is what I think your proposal may unintentionally foster, and also believe, that for practical reasons, gun ownership makes sense when the police don’t do their job, when criminal organizations in your neighborhood have guns, and of course I think hunters are entitled to their guns. The fact is, in a place like Ohio, where I’m from, there are too many deer and they have no natural predators. What are you going to do if you don’t have deer season? It’s screwed up ecologically, but unless we rewrite the english common law on owning property people are not going to move to make way for wolves in Ohio.
My original response is how I view the gun issue as a totality. No offense intended, I just think the second amendment is a good thing given the reality of places I have lived in and my activism in politics. And I think most of our problems with gun violence boil down to societal issues that go unaddressed or failures to do appropriate background checks. However, many criminal organizations obviously never get their guns on the basis of a background check. I think community organizing is the best way to meet people halfway who own guns in your neighborhood, not insisting on the utopic gun-free America. In urban America, our political economy is significantly underventilated and underinvested in, in my opinion, for people not to feel threatened and marginalized and hence want to own a gun for protection or other political reasons. I think we all would ideally want to live in a gun-free world, but we have to deal with the reality at some point that there are violent people, ecological imbalances, and other practical problems that governments and communities have to solve and I just don’t think we’re to the point that really people trust the federal government to regulate the peace, the environment, or anything else that involves turning in your guns to the world’s largest military, and we may never be in America. Look how many people don’t vote or don’t participate in community events or election day.
my two cents.
diebold alive and re-charging….watch out world more bombs arriving… raytheon to the rescue..the parking lot is full
mandatory voting in belgium and it works without millions for stupid wasteful fund raising as the worlds people starve
Published on Tuesday, January 1, 2008 by the Chicago Sun Times
Kucinich Supports Obama for Second
by Lynn Sweet
AMES, Iowa — White House hopeful Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is likely not to survive a first round of balloting in Thursday’s Democratic Iowa caucus, today told his supporters to back Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as their second choice.
“I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care and trade. This is an opportunity for people to stand up for themselves. But in those caucus locations where my support doesn’t reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: change,” Kucinich said in a statement.
While Kucinich was barely pulling any backing according to all polls - thereby making it likely he would not make the 15 percent threshold vote needed to win delegates - his voters going for Obama in a second round could be critical for Obama coming out of Iowa ahead of rivals Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) or former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.)
Kucinich spokesman Andy Juniewicz said the deal was finalized today and Obama called him at about 2 p.m. Central Time to thank him for his support. In making the second choice deal with Obama, Kucinich decided not to do a replay of 2004, where his followers were asked to support Edwards as their second choice, helping to provide Edwards with his margin for coming in second.
In a statement, Obama said, “I have a lot of respect for Congressman Kucinich, and I’m honored that he has done this because we both believe deeply in the need for fundamental change.”
Kucinich struck a deal with Obama. Anyone who was going to caucus for Kucinich should shift over to the most progressive top-tier candidate, and that is without a doubt, JOHN EDWARDS.
Micheal Moore knows that EDWARDS is the man.
Check it out here on CD -
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/02/6108/
He’s the only one who has the courage to look you straight in the eye and tell you what he believes is right for America. Let’s hope he has a hand in choosing our future. I hope he wins. He has demonstrated extraordinary courage in speaking out on many issues that the media and most of the candidates are afraid to touch, such as impeachment, immigration reform, NAFTA.
My biggest compliment to anyone is, you are a really good person. Dennis fits this in spades. It would be a pleasure, and an honor, to call anyone like Dennis, a friend.