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01.21.10 - 1:05 PM
Clarity = Kucinich
In the wake of the Massachusetts debacle, Rep. Dennis Kucinich slammed Democrats for betraying their principles and caving to special interests, which are "more entrenched than ever." He said "there's nothing liberal" about what they've done on bank bailouts, health reform, the environment and pretty much anything else that matters.
"Every area of the economy is still about taking wealth from the great mass of people and putting it into the hands of a few...You ask the banks to reform banking? Put in the insurance companies to reform insurance? Call in nuclear to reform energy policies? Are you kidding me?"
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45 Comments so far
Show AllThis is why I was a Kucinich supporter, but by the time it got to where I COULD have added my vote to his campaign, he was already gone from it. The man gets it. He always has. It's PEOPLE that matter, not the goddamned corporation's money.
I'm going to write to all the reps and senators from my state and tell them that I'm NEVER voting for a) an incumbent, b) a democrat or republican, or c) THEM again. EVER. It's third party all the way for me from now on. I've been watching both parties betray this country for far too long.
And now with the SCOTUS TREASON today, there is NO way I will EVER trust either party again. I can't. They haven't shown themselves to be anything but traitors, and I've been fooled enough. I don't trust EITHER party now. Republican lite and fascist, what a choice to be left with.
Kucinich gets it. Bernie Sanders gets it. Feingold gets it. Grayson seems to get it. But the rest of them can go straight to hell, and take the SCOTUS with them.
The country's over with. Last one out get the lights.
WJM sez: "Kucinich gets it. Bernie Sanders gets it. Feingold gets it. Grayson seems to get it."
***
What they need to "get" is out of that sad-sack party.
The only thing most of the self styled liberals I work with know about Kucinich is that his wife is taller than he is.
In Amerika where celebrity is everything, substance plus three bucks buys a good cup of coffee.
That's so totally not true. I know that he's got big ears (he's a good listener) and his wife is not only taller than he by a considerable margin, she's also pretty damn good looking. So THERE.
...and he saw a UFO ;)
I love you Dennis!!!
Goebbels
Bingo! One has to believe that however well intentioned and intelligent and progressive Kucinich is, he must also seem to have a high degree of masochism to remain in a party that seems to take great delight in continually kicking in his teeth along with kicks to his groin. If Kucinich and Feingold and Sanders had a lick of common sense, they would wake up, smell the roses and realize that the Democrats do not have a progressive and antiwar bone in their collective bodies. As you correctly note, what they should be doing is to either form their own party or seek out another third party that is more in line with their type of thinking. Otherwise they should finally arrive at the realization that the Democrats will continue to ignore them in order to pursue and maintain the favor of the vested interests while the interests of the people will continue to be trampled upon by both the Democrats and the Republicans.
Whoops - need to self-correct:
Sanders is already outside of the Democratic party. Unfortunately, he caucuses with it as the lesser of two evils.
The Democrats. The lesser of two evils. Indeed.
Dennis, Ralph or Cynthia are real leaders. Any of them would of had us on our way for real reform. Instead the Democraps put our current Corporate Prick in office to ensure corporations maintain their power. You Obombya voters are who brought this on because your too stupid to look at candidates actions rather than their rhetoric.
Dennis does get it, with the exception of how to bring his dreams to fruition.
He keeps coming to Iowa to campaign as a Democrat. They diss him, exclude him and act like it's an anomaly when he always gets the most enthusiasm and applause in debates. The ones that they allow him in.
I always work for him, always contribute, have caucused for him the last two times.
Basta. No more. The D party is going nowhere I want to follow. I want all my hard work to mean something.
If Dennis isn't tired of the dissing, harrassment, exploitation and abuse yet, then he should stay where he is. Stay in the D-party and devote his life to creating the false impression that there bis a chance in hell it will ever represent the interests of the people.
But he should know that a lot of the troops, as much as we admire him personally, are completely fed up with the D's and have already made our minds up to move on.
Hey Dennis - Time to make your debut, again. Get appearances on Democracy Now, and push for Colbert, Stewart, Maddow, Moyers while he lasts - fight to get heard! People are ready to hear your message. (And I am so tired of seeing generals and people like Yoo get a platform to promote their books.)
I hope that once people hear you, you will be able to throw off the Dem Party, who undermined and betrayed you in all their sneaky petty High School G.O. election ways.
Joe
Dennis, Ralph, Cynthia, Bernie, Mike Gravel - now that's a pary I could vote into office.
Dems and Goppers have been ruining this country since after Ike, and even Ike turned a blind eye to McCarthyism.
Time for a revolution - by any means necessary.
Now's the time to flood DK's office with emails begging him to turn independent and start running for Pres 2012 right now! Also he needs some help marketing himself, so he doesn't fall prey to the idiotic gotchas like the UFO thing.
I respect Dennis as a rare man of integrity, but he needs to go independent as the demo rats will never,never support him for President! Mr. Kucinich: When you and Mr. Gravel were excluded from the democratic debates that should have been a wake up call that you are not wanted in your party!
To this point we have a near-consensus: we all want to support Dennis but would do so only if he left the Democratic Party. I join that consensus, having campaigned for him in 04 and 08 but have likewise taken the "never again" pledge against supporting him as a Democrat. The question is: when and if he does leave the party, will he find a mass of people waiting to welcome him as their leader; or will he find a fearful nation of wimps who find ridiculous excuses such as his stature and that of his wife, his brush with UFO belief, whatever; and feel that they have to troop sadly once more to the polls, hold their noses and vote for one of the "lesser evil" of the candidates whom the corporate duopoly and the corporate media have chosen for them?
Who do you believe will do right by you and the American people, Kucinich or Obama? Unfortunately, Dennis as president by himself would be a total failure without a strong group of progressive representatives in the Congress and the Senate. So it's time to get with it folks, especially after todays Supreme Court decision!
We need to support Dennis Kucinich now.
Dennis has been a tireless public servant for many years as Mayor of Cleveland and in Congress. He is everything a democrat should be; an outspoken voice of truth and reason for social and economic justice and someone who is clear and concise on what needs to be done. Dennis acts to benefit the people, not corporations.
Whether he switches parties or not, he is, and always will be, a compassionate, articulate, tenacious, effective and well-respected individual working for the people of Cleveland, the people of the U.S. and the people of the world.
"Everything a democrat should be."
Wish you'd rephrase that to "everything a progressive should be." Democrat is a political party that is no different in its platform, voting record, and principals (or lack thereof) than the Rethuglican party.
I wish we didn't have political parties at all, actually. Too many sheeple are loyal to their party over their own best interests, or the Constitution.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
Rep Kucinich is the member of Congress the corporatist hate and the people love . The corporate media makes every effort to squelch him . What he is trying to tell us is when dealing with the Congress of the United States Of America we must remember that we are dealing with very rich individuals that are and have been invested for years in or have family members invested in and on the boards of many of the largest corporations . In other words , our law makers have been and are making laws for their own benefit . High energy prices , high health insurance rates , high banking fees , high cost health care providing , and cheap labor are all to the benefit of many members of Congress . The very people we hired to design and fund our laws are getting richer from burdening us with a higher cost of living while lying about inflation . Lets not fool ourselves : Health insurance rates can not be reduced without reducing health provider charges also . And that means some corporations must reduce income to improve conditions for the public . After years of gouging us does anyone think Congress is going to give up that pleasure ? The fact that they made laws forbiding us to buy cheaper drugs across our borders pretty much tells us where we stand .
So what would a realistic third party look like to all those who favor it? I know we'd all like to see the likes of the Green Party in the White House because that's what we need. I personally don't think that's going to happen. I envision a mix of ideals....like if you were to put Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich together in a room and have them make a list of the things they agree on and another on the things they don't and then run on a ticket based around the things that they do agree on bringing supporters from both sides of the political spectrum. Dig? I think then though that they'd need to pick a few of the items that they don't agree on and included them in their platform...smaller things that aren't Earth shattering like perhaps the Kucinich supporters compromising on gun control and the Paul supporters backing off on anti-choice fanaticism? Personally I think the things that Paul and Kucinich DO agree on are the things that are on the verge of destroying our country and our planet. Getting a handle on the corporate world is absolutely critical...#1 in my opinion as it's such a strong contributing factor, ripple factor if you will, to so many other issues that are so probmenatic.
SO...fire away with comments. I'd like to know what your realistic 3rd party would look like. Don't forget to include how you'd get a grip on the main stream media and where you'd get your campaign funds. You're dead in the water without those two elements.
I love the Green Party, but it has too much of a "hippie" connotation to it, unfortunately, for many 'Merican couch potatoes. "Socialist" - too many negative connotations as well, also unfortunately.
I'd like to see a new political party born called "Progressive." Not liberal, not left-wing, not green, not independent, not socialist - just "Progressive."
Simple Platform:
- Remove corporate personhood. Restore Glass-Steagall and regulations on Wall Street/energy/banks/etc. Impose fines and heavy taxes on all US corporations that outsource American jobs/factories to other countries. Restore anti-trust laws so no more "too big to fail" corporations can exist.
- Public finance reform. Remove the lobbyists and corporate influence in the political/electoral process once and for all. All candidates get the same amount of airtime on TV and radio, paid for by we the people.
- Medicare for all. Expand the Medicare program to all Americans. PERIOD. Allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Allow importation of Canadian drugs. Remove the profit factor from the healthcare field, and watch the insurance companies file bankruptcy in droves. Good riddance.
- Restore and enhance environmental protection laws decimated over the last two decades. Restore regulations on mercury, lead, chromium, and all other chemicals/toxins that have been loosened by the last two administrations. Start fining corporations who violate these laws. Outlaw mountaintop removal mining.
- Massive reduction of funding for the US military behemoth. Closing of most foreign bases, withdrawal from the middle east countries we currently occupy, and return to a friendly, law-abiding, diplomatic foreign policy of working peacefully with our neighbors, instead of being the global bully. Aside from saving hundreds of billions/year and tens of thousands of lives, we will also stop being a recruitment tool for terrorists all over the globe.
- Massive funding for a Green Energy program, to get us off our fossil fuel dependency, kick-start the American green economy and watch as we lead the world in clean energy production, vastly reducing our carbon output and finally doing something about global warming.
P.S.: For the wingnuts who say "yeah, but how will you pay for all that?" - easy. The cutting of our annual military budget by 50% alone will pay for all of this and more. Only in America can a country be so stupid as to have no problem spending over one trillion dollars a year on their military (despite having not a single adversary in the entire globe), but yet can't seem to come up with a few billion to make sure every man, woman, and child has good healthcare.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
Excellent stuff there Demonstorm.
Now, how do you get the media on your side and how do you fund a campaign big enough to compete with the Dems and Repubs? It's going to cost a lot more than it will them because you're going to have major obstacles to getting on the ballot. That and many other issues that will require a kick ass small army of lawyers. Got any money ideas?
It would be great if we could figure out some way to get a handle on the military budget-cutting it in half (for starters) and diverting that money to other urgent needs would be radical.The problem is, the military is deeply embedded in the fabric of American life at every level, from the national to the very, very local.For a long time, I lived in Southeastern Ct., home to Electric Boat in Groton, the "Submarine Capitol of the World",the Coast Guard Academy in New London, and a huge submarine base further up da ribba.Military spending was the life blood of the area, not just in the form of wages paid to EB workers or military personel,but in the form of money flowing into the local building supply places, restaurants, car dealerships, machine shops, jiffy lubes and muffler shops.You couldn't run for any office of any importance in the area without being in favor of military spending.Southeastern Ct. is extreme, but some version of this goes on in just about every region of the country.The people who live in these districts continue to vote for state-wide and national reps who will reliably support military spending.How do we change this? By rational argument? Fugeddaboudit.
You shift from a WAR economy to a PEACE economy. That simple.
Don't even THINK about gutting our military. DO think about bringing them all home. Use our GIs to rebuild the American infrastructure that so desperately needs work. In particular, we need out railroads rebuilt, shipping canals cleaned out and rebuilt. We need alternative energy sources built. We need some of that military research put into alternative energy. BUT we need a strong military. It doesn't have to be used for protection of the wealthy interests, as it is now, but it does need to be strong. I have learned a number of languages in my lifetime, at least one of which was paid for by the military. I would rather not be forced to learn Chinese, however. I also, as a progressive of sorts, have finally come around to opposing rifle control. Guns maybe. Our new party has to know the difference. A strong militia is beneficial to the nation. Use ankle bracelets for control of minor criminal behavior, keep the death penalty for horrid crimes like child molestation and premeditated murder. When someone opts out of the constraints of human behavior, we need not treat them as human, and we definitely cannot afford to pay 50 thou per year to keep them alive. Rehab for such criminals does NOT work. I would like to see all drugs decriminalized, as in most of Europe, but I doubt that can happen in Christian dominated America. The big problem, of course, is how to break up the media monopolies and remove control of them from the big corporations that rule the world.
How about a Kucinich/Nader ticket in 2012. They would both gain credibility with the other's name. I just think that if Kucinich isn't running for President then his ideas won't be at the forefront. I have found little from him with which to disagree. I have voted for him in every Missouri Primary that he was on the ticket; 04 and 08. If there is any time to vote for someone, it is in the primary! If they don't win those, they don't get on the ticket in the general election. I believe that Kucinich could maintain his place in congress as an Independent in his home state because of his record, although he would need much grassroots financing to overcome DNC financing for his would be then Democratic opponent. Look what the DNC and MSM did to him in 04 and 08.
I agree with just about everything that comes out of either Nader or Kucinich's mouths, BUT they're old news. They're seen as defeated losers. I think we need fresh faces but with the same ideals that Nader and Kucinich have. And I think we need to try to get the support of the Ron Paul crowd. We probably disagree with a lot of what they believe, but there are some really critical, major points that we agree on. Bringing down the corporate establishment and auditing the fed....I think we could agree on these and if we could all suck it up and put up with the crackpot ideas that we see the other side having....well, that could be a dangerous combo. How though, are you going to come up with the money for a campaign?
Pearl of Earl
I think that the money for the campaign should be preceded by the corporate media allowing diverse voices to be seen and heard in the mainstream media. All one has to do is to recall how the cable and network giants conspired with the Democrats in 2000 to make sure that Ralph Nader would not be seen and heard on the same stage as the Democrats. They realized that the last thing that they desired was for Americans to see and hear viewpoints from Nader that would have actually been in line with what most Americans believe such as universal health care and a decent living wage, etc. Until this is done it will not matter how much money is spent on a grass roots campaign as long as the American public is shut out in realizing that there are actually other parties and views that are present in this country [socialist, Green Party, etc.] besides the ubiquitous Democrats and the Republicans. It certainly would be quite gratifying for the average American to finally understand from a socialist [a socialist! God forbid!] being seen on the corporate airwaves that socialism, far from the propaganda that is spewed forth from the mainstream media and the tea baggers, is not interested in bailing out the titans of industry in this country. On the contrary, socialists desire to make sure that the average worker in this country is not trampled upon by the elites of this country. But since the elites control the major media in the United States, it seems quite unlikely, unfortunately, that most Americans will ever hear from a group that actually aspires, unlike the major parties today, to look after the interests of the average American.
The Democrats learned after seeing what happened to the republicans because of Ross Peroit!
Unfortunately, without a strong progressive House and Senate a Kucinich/Nader adminstration would be nothing but a daily target for corporate and media hacks! You can be assured that the bluedogs in the house and the neocon dems in the Senate would work against any programs that they would send to Congress. Better that Dennis stays in the House and Progressives work to elect Ralph to the US Senate.
Rep. Kucinich and Mr. Nader along with Reps. Grayson and Weiner and Senator Feingold would be a good base to build a new Progressive Political Party on! Just a thought!
The choice seems to be between working for progressive positions from within the Democratic Party, or working to establish a viable Third Party.The Green Party is not viable, not nationally, not on the state level, and not locally (expect in a handful of places). It has no legs, no momentum, and is hobbled by Ralph Nader, who should have packed it in long ago.There is no Third Party Alternative to the Green Party, so that leaves us with Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Barbara Lee-and a few others- working within the Democratic Party.It's the best we can do at the moment.
I worked hard for Dennis in 04 in MA and NH, and watched from the sideline as his campaign in 08 fizzled out before it ever got going.
I LOVE this man in a way I've never felt about any other politician, but I no longer think he needs to be POTUS. I want him just where he is, gathering tenure in the House and free to speak his mind.
Though I live in NH, I support his campaign for his House seat every 2 years in Cleveland, and encourage everyone else here to do the same:
kucinich.us
drift
I like the title.
You think you folks have it bad. I live in his district, and it's harder and harder to pull the lever (well, fill in the little circle) for him every time I have to vote, all because he's a Democrat.
I suppose I'll do it again. Heck, if I could bring myself to vote for Kerry (because of the Supreme Court), then I guess I can do this, too.
Just wish I didn't feel like taking a shower after voting.
http://voxsjournal.livejournal.com
I don't respect Dennis Kucinich at all. All he is is the last Hope that you shouldn't believe in in any significant way, and he is not going to break from the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party has a place for him as Magnet for Liberals who still just do not get it. So where's the HOPE? It's not with Dennis.
So what would you suggest: The Bull Moose Party, or the Hopeless Greens?
Representative Kucinich, you observe the steady stream of data and unceasing rightward drift of the Democrats, yet you still remain part of the apparatus. Are you kidding me?
Come on all you people who want to elect Ralph Nader. He's 76 years old. He's done much for our country but his age is not in his favor at this point. Dennis Kucinich has been my candidate of choice for years but I, too, have taken the pledge not to vote for any D or R every again. Until DK renounces the Democrats as they have renounced him, I can no longer support him.
Nader is 76 years young in my book. How old was Ronnie Raygun? Does anyone know why Kucinich stays in the corrupt Democratic Party?
The most salient accomplishment of Mr Kucinich has been to run for President every 4 years, talk a good Progressive game in between, and continue to delude the "left" that there is hope (pardon the expression) in the Democratic Party.
He is the Gatekeeper and has done his job very well. How many times have we heard "...if only we could nominate DK..." Like that would ever happen in a Wall Street, Big Business party like the Democrats! But as long as people believe it's possible they don't go anywhere else. There is no delusion like liberal self-delusion.
Kucinich is basically irrelevant, as are Feingold, Lee and the few other Not Horrible democrats. When (if) DK leaves the Dems I will pay some attention to him. Otherwise it's a Waste of Time.
Establish a new party and maybe Kucinich, Fiengold, etc would join. It would be political suicide at this point.
The Socialist and Green parties should think about merging. Many independents would be more than willing to support a new party. The country is chock full of disgruntled former republicans and disgruntled former democrats. I'm not talking about the media controlled tea version republicans though they might be brought aboard with a little re-education. Many farmers (fiscal pragmatists) have been traditional republicans and the cheney years broke the generational repub loyalty. The dems got Obama. The time is ripe. These people know they are being screwed and are looking for new options.
Frankly, I have little hope that the rigged system will allow a third party to arise. But, barring full blown revolution which is a near impossibility in an apathetic, complacent, media influenced cowardly society, a new party is the best bet.
Jeevee
Very good commentary, Buck.