Just in case TroubleMan's excellent rant on why Kucinich is electable is getting too long for those with a dialup connection, here's another effort to persuade doubters before it's too late. If Kucinich wins, the world immediately becomes a different, better place. If he simply makes a strong showing, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is revitalized.
We don't have to spend the rest of our lives trying to build a workable "progressive" coalition with moderate Republicans. Kucinich's family was, at times, homeless. He and his siblings spent five months in an orphanage. Who better to speak for the millions of people out there working at terrible jobs for miserable wages, people sending their kids to horrible schools, people without health care, people without hope? For the first time in ages, the dispossesed would have a candidate who would fight for them, would have every reason to again become involved in the political process. The resulting Democratic coalition would be unstoppable.
How many opportunities will we have to vote for a genuinely progressive Democrat for President? Let's not waste this one.
http://www.opednews.com/kall10010301Heart_Versus_Hope.htmHeart Versus Head; Finding Hope and Fighting Your Inner Wimp
Rob Kall OpEdNews.ComI haven't spoken to a progressive, a liberal, yet who has not told me that he or she loves Kucinich, that Dennis is hands down the first democratic candidate choice. But then I hear the story-- "he doesn't have a chance.." "there's no hope..."
My reply is: "That's what they all said about Dean six months ago."
I can live with Dean. He's a good guy. But I am not ready to give up on Dennis Kucinich. On issue after issue, Kucinich has the right policies, the right answers and perhaps most important, the right history.
He'll take the US out of the World Trade Organization as soon as he's elected. He'll cancel the tax breaks Bush handed over to the wealthy. He'll cancel NAFTA. He'll start a department of peace.Now the right wingers laugh at the idea of a department of peace. But then there's Maslow's widely cited saying,
"If you all you have is a hammer, then everything is a nail."
We've had a military since our country's birth. But we only get a vision that sees war, fighting, weapons and attack as a solution. A department of peace would provide alternative solutions that could keep us not only just as powerful, but also, since we'd be building better alliances, investing in peace, prevention and partnerships, more money in the till. That's not funny. It makes sense. it provides balance. Geez, the US military can't account for over a trillion dollars worth of spent money. We should invest at least a hundred million a year in a serious commitment to a department that attacks opportunities for and challenges to peace.
It's been said that Kucinich's economic policies could produce more jobs than Roosevelt did. Killing the WTO and NAFTA does not mean the end to globalization. It means taking a second look at the failures that we've seen so far and, learning from them, taking a second try that builds on the learning, that prevents the removal of the democratic process that the WTO commits. His position is clearly the best for US manufacturing and for unions. Gephart may have had family who were union, but by supporting the WTO he is basically selling them short. Kucinich's solutions offer the best hope for preventing the total loss of manufacturing as a viable business in the U.S..
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Rob Kall rob@opednews.com is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders, such as the Winter Brain Meeting and the StoryCon Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story. This article is copyright by Rob Kall, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this entire credit paragraph is attached