The progressive case for Kucinich.

[John Q. Citizen]

A lot of people say Kucinich can't win.

Well the truth of the matter is that only one candidate out of the, what, 9 or 10 potential candidates (running or rumored to be maybe running)in this primary can win.

We just still don't know who that candidate is yet. And who the candidates who won’t win are.

In the mean time, progressives have an articulate, smart, and strangely entertaining champion of progressive values and legislation in the form of Dennis Kucinich running for the Democratic party's nomination.

We would be stupid to send him to the Democratic convention with any less delegates as a percentage than we have in the form of the progressive caucus in congress.

If progressives made the connection, we could send Dennis to the convention with 20% or better of the delegates.

While Kucinich might not be the one out of ten elected as nominee, he'd be able to exert considerable pressure from the left on who the nominee is and what the platform looks like.

The left wing off the party would be represented at a split convention.

If Gore enters, I'd back him based on his support of single payer health insurance, his stance on the war, his stance on the environment, and his odds to be one of the many to win.

In the mean time, progressives from everywhere should be jumping on the Kucinich bandwagon.

He's the peace candidate;
He's the single payer fee for service health insurance candidate
He's the increase education public college education candidate
He's the re-examine the wasteful and stupid war on drugs candidate.
He's the get rid of the machines/clean elections candidate.
He's the should we bring back the fairness doctrine candidate.

In fact Kucinich may be the only candidate in tune with the American people on every major issue.

He's one of the few with extensive and detailed analysis of the problems and a detailed explanation of how he would solve the problem posted at his web site.

I would think a good number of Deaniacs, a good number of the left side of Kerry's campaign and a good number of the members of MoveOn, should show the backbone to stand up for the courage of their convictions and send delegates to the convention for the guy who is stand up enough to introduce legislation backing those very issues.

In fact, everyone agrees. They all love Dennis on the issues. Even lots of people who say they plan not to vote for him say that. Love his issues, hate his odds of winning.

Well I'm voting for Dennis because I know he can't be President. But he can promote my issues, he's the perfect place holder for a Gore candidacy, and I’d like to see a real discussion about Democratic Values as expressed through policy initiatives in the Democratic Party at the convention.

Kucinich ain’t a rock star. He’s not a minority or a non-traditional candidate. He’s the only horse running who has put together an impressive wide range of progressive policy initiatives that explain what he would do and why he would do it. To not support the guy is to waste an historic opportunity to actually exert some counter balance on the forces in our party who would just lead us to the right.

[soulcore]

1. Hear, hear! Until Gore announces, Kucinich has my support.

Imagine having a first Lady this smart in the White house to boot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJtp1KzVBdg

[Czolgosz]

3. Kucinich, Gore, Edwards, Obama ... it's all good.

[Czolgosz]

2. K & R

[rinsd]

4. Kucinich released his delegates to the nominee last time without conditions

He did so as a good party member and its likely he wwould do so again.

You really think he is gonna cause a row over the platform at convention time?

[John Q. Citizen]

7. No, I think he will ask that his perspective be acknowledged and considered,.

especially if he has a good chunk of delegates.

Who do you suppose formulates the platform?

[rinsd]

8. That didn't happen last time.

Granted he had nowhere near 20% of the delegates.

But to grab that large a percentage (or even 5%) you have to be competitive in the big states like CA and NY.

But he couldn't even pull above 5% in the CA (which one would assume to be a natural base) when voters were free to vote their conscience (ie: the race was already decided).

I don't think that bodes well for him in a race where the top tier are close and the primary has nominee implications.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. This is a different race at a different time. Progressives from all walks

of life and from all parts of the country should come together to send a message to the pro-war factions of both parties and of all countries. No!

SInce we have the public on our side, that should help....

[Flabbergasted]

5. Thanks You So Much for this OP.

[The Sushi Bandit]

6. K&R

[Rhiannon12866]

9. K&R from me, too. I voted for Kerry in 2004, though Kucinich had my heart.

I am continually baffled, and angry, I'll admit, when he seldom even receives a mention on discussions of the candidates. I realize that he doesn't have as much support as Obama or Clinton or Edwards, but he did run in 2004, spoke brilliantly at the convention, and continues to speak out, so has a national forum. He is the only 2004 Democratic presidential candidate who voted against the war and has continually voted against funding it, since he believes that this is the only way that we can end it. He continues to speak up on health care, was the only one of our legislators to visit Lebanon after the terrible war there, supports labor and speaks out for all of us. I've often wondered what anyone in the House does, compared to Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers.

I took that SelectSmart test in early 2004, and again now, and I still match up 100% with Dennis. Al Gore and Barak Obama finish a close second and third for me, and I'll vote for any Democratic candidate who gets the nomination, but I'm grateful that Dennis is running again, since I think that we need to hear his voice.

[John Q. Citizen]

10. We need to not only hear his voice, but work to increase the size and reach

of his voice.

For the sake of the party as well as for the issues.

The public wants out of Iraq for crying out loud. Are we just going to pretend that away?

[AnOhioan]

12. Great post, K&R

[cosmicdot]

13. knr

[NYC]

14. K & R.

:hi:

[Pushed To The Left]

15. He's one of my favorite candidates, but I'm still undecided

Kucinich is the most progressive candidate, Obama can bring diverse groups of people together, and Edwards made poverty the top issue of his campaign, which is very smart. Too many good candidates!!

[eridani]

16. Supporting Kucinich is a must for progressives in caucus states

$5000 Or Best Offer

That's a typical newspaper ad that you'd place to sell a used car if you thought that $5000 was the most you could probably get for it, but would be willing to take $3000. What you would most definitely NOT do is to write the ad with $3000 in your subject line. My $5000 presidential candidate is Dennis Kucinich, because he

1. Sees the need to quit wasting all our resources on the imperial conquest of a diminishing resource, and put that money into education, rebuilding infrastructure and inventing the next economy.

2. Knows that the only way to stop the madness in Iraq is to stop funding it, really intends to have no permanent military presence there, and also intends to pay for the destruction we caused.

3. Supports investigation of government malfeasance, including about $1 trillion a year in unaccounted-for Pentagon spending, and refocusing our armed forces on threats that we face in the real world instead of the imaginations of those who have nothing to sell but fear itself.

4. Stands for universal health care; everybody in, nobody out, no exceptions.

5. Understands that the deindustrialization of our economy and deskilling of our work force is one of the most serious security threats we face, and is foursquare for fair trade and against outsourcing, and wants to repeal Taft-Hartley.

6. Wants to reform or get rid of the PATRIOT Act and restore our Bill of Rights.

7. Is unequivocally against the War on Some Drugs, in favor of medical marijuana, and for defunding the prison-industrial complex.

8. Favors paper ballots for presidential contests, and full election transparency for other tabulation methods.

9. Favors full equality for everybody, including marriage equality for LGBT people, and knows that full equality for women means control of our reproductive lives.

10. Opposes further concentration of the media and favors the fairness doctrine, stands for net neutrality, and favors an open source approach to intellectual property.

---and has lots of other excellent proposals. (I left out increasing the minimum wage and preserving social security, because there is already really solid Dem unity on those issues.)

Even more importantly, he is willing to stand up in public and ask for these things specifically and by name. No waffling, no triangulation, no substitution of feel-good rhetoric for concrete proposals. In the primaries, I'm supporting the candidate who stands for what I actually want, and more importantly, where I want our party and our country to be going. If we refuse to ask for it on the grounds that doing so will scare people with money who will then blow huge wads of it to make what is plain common sense seem marginal and foolish, how in bleeding hell are we ever supposed to get it? Republicans have been repeating "Social Security is in trouble and needs to be privatized" so long that way too many people still believe it. Whenthehell are a critical mass of Dems with national stature going to start doing the same repetition in service of real universal health care? Or keep repeating that repealing Taft-Hartley might give labor unions another chance to regenerate a middle class in this country? Kucinich on a national stage will push them that way at least.

If my $5000 guy can't go the distance, there are quite a few very worthy "or best offers" out there. Even the few who fall into the hold your nose as you vote category are still vastly better than anyone the Republicans have to offer. In the general election, I'll support whoever we get, confident that if it isn't Kucinich, that candidate will have been made better at both campaigning and governing than if Kucinich had not run. And that we will have made some progress toward building a more participatory political culture in which real flesh persons have more of a fighting chance against immortal sociopathic persons that exist only as legal structures.

Washington Democrats are going to choose our delegates through the caucus system, so we have the luxury of leaving the beauty contest stuff to other states. Let's choose our delegates based on the direction we want our party and our country to go, not on a guessing game about what hypothetical candidate other people might want to vote for. That will get settled one way or another regardless of what we do.