[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] Farewell Congressman Kucinich

[C. G. Estabrook]

Why doesn't Dennis challenge Obama for the Democratic nomination, as  
Sen. Eugene McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson in 1968?

--CGE


On Mar 14, 2012, at 9:32 PM, David Johnson wrote:

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>
> Freedom Rider: Farewell Congressman Kucinich
>
> Wed, 03/14/2012 - 01:43 — Margaret Kimberley
> Obama health care |
> Kucinich defeated
> Printer-friendly version
>
>
> by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
>
> With the gerrymandered defeat of Dennis Kucinich, the Congress has  
> lost its last, best progressive. “Called crazy or wacky, Kucinich is  
> nothing more than what other Democrats ought to be.” Kucinich stood  
> firm, when all in the Progressive and Black Caucuses folded. “If  
> there is no room for one, not even one true Democrat, then there  
> should no longer be any allegiance to that party.”
>
>
> Freedom Rider: Farewell Congressman Kucinich
>
> by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
>
> “His eight terms in congress will end this year because he was not  
> tolerated by the rulers.”
>
> If America were a democracy in the truest sense of the word, our  
> political representatives would in fact represent our interests.  
> They would fight for public education and against wars. We would  
> have single payer health care and affordable housing. Banks would  
> not be permitted to devastate our communities with red lining or  
> foreclosures and the top 1% wouldn’t be allowed to create bubble  
> economies which create havoc around the world.
>
> But our country is a democracy in name only. We do get to cast our  
> votes periodically, but anyone who does want to represent the  
> interests of the people is not tolerated by this system.
>
> Dennis Kucinich is such a person. His eight terms in congress will  
> end this year because he was not tolerated by the rulers. Kucinich’s  
> congressional career ended because of the time honored yet often  
> corrupt process of gerrymandering districts. Electoral district  
> lines are redrawn every ten years based on census data, and because  
> the state of Ohio lost population, it also lost congressional seats.
>
> The Ohio rulers in the Republican-run state legislature decided to  
> redraw lines which pitted two Democratic incumbents, Dennis Kucinich  
> and Marcy Kaptur, against one another. The new district was mostly  
> made up of Kaptur’s old district, and Kucinich was defeated in the  
> primary election.
>
> “Anyone who wants to represent the interests of the people is not  
> tolerated by this system.”
>
> The corporate media and their pundits were always quick to dismiss  
> Kucinich, and wasted no time in kicking him now that he is down and  
> out. Called crazy or wacky, Kucinich is nothing more than what other  
> Democrats ought to be. He represents the interests of most  
> Americans, and calls out the powerful for their abuse.
>
> The rightward shift in American politics puts anyone who truly  
> believes in democracy on the outs. When Kucinich sponsored articles  
> of impeachment against George W. Bush, his effort was righteous but  
> doomed, and doomed by his own.
>
> His fellow Democrats couldn’t get behind him because some of them  
> were collaborators with the Bush regime. Then Speaker Nancy Pelosi  
> couldn’t support articles of impeachment which charged Bush with the  
> crime of torture because she was briefed on and tacitly supported  
> the practice. It is but one example of why Kucinich’s political  
> career was also doomed, and why he finally was unable to dodge that  
> last bullet.
>
> Dennis Kucinich stood up when no one else would. In 2006, when the  
> first reports surfaced indicating a death toll of 1 million Iraqis  
> at the hands of the United States, it was Kucinich, alone among  
> members of congress, who demanded answers. Not one other member of  
> Congress, not from the Progressive Caucus, or the Congressional  
> Black Caucus joined him. It is that kind of bravery which finally  
> cost him his political career.
>
> “He finally was unable to dodge that last bullet.”
>
> If there can be any criticism of Kucinich it should be leveled over  
> his support of Barack Obama’s health care plan. For many years  
> Kucinich was steadfast in his support of single payer health care,  
> Medicare for all. But Obama was having none of it, and as always  
> crushed the party’s progressive wing in order to get his way. He  
> threatened to campaign against any Democrats who wouldn’t support  
> his wolf in sheep’s clothing corporate health care bail out.  
> Kucinich succumbed to the Obama steamroller and lived to see another  
> day in 2010, but his number was up in 2012 and he will soon be a  
> former member of congress.
>
> In an era when presidential campaign spending hits the 1 billion  
> dollar mark, and the once progressive Congressional Black Caucus is  
> as corporate controlled as any other, the likelihood of true  
> democracy is slim. The pressures which compromised Kucinich in the  
> health care debate and which finally took him out altogether will  
> not permit his like to emerge again.
>
> In an era when representing the desires of the people makes one a  
> political outlaw, it is time to ask some hard questions. If there is  
> no room for one, not even one true Democrat, then there should no  
> longer be any allegiance to that party. When the attorney general in  
> a Democratic administration asserts a government right to  
> assassinate at will, then it is passed time to leave that party  
> behind.
>
> “The pressures which compromised Kucinich in the health care debate  
> and which finally took him out altogether will not permit his like  
> to emerge again.”
>
> If Dennis Kucinich, who was truly antiwar, is shown the door, while  
> the drone-dropping Obama sits in the oval office, then we know  
> everything we need to know. Supporting the Democratic Party is a  
> losing proposition, as Kucinich discovered when his support of the  
> health care bill only postponed his inevitable political demise. We  
> should laud the many courageous stands he took on our behalf, but  
> learn a lesson from that experience.
>
> Hopefully Kucinich will find other ways to make a political impact.  
> His voice is an important one, and shouldn’t be silenced because he  
> is now out of office. Perhaps being out of Congress will give him  
> greater power, the power to move people to political action without  
> the constraints of party loyalty. It is difficult to imagine a  
> better person for the job.
>
> Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and  
> is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated  
> blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley  
> lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at  
> Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
>
>
> Comments
> I don't know what Obomber and
>
> beverly - 03/14/2012 - 21:40
> I don't know what Obomber and henchmen said to Kucinich when they  
> had him on Air Force One (probably threatened his and/or his  
> family's lives) to get him to vote for that horrid health deform  
> bill.  If threat didn't involve bodily harm, Kucinich should have  
> taken the high road and voted his conscience.  The party had been  
> dirisive and dismissive of him for years.  Even if voting no cost  
> him re-election, he had in enough years to qualify for a nice  
> pension and certainly could have supplemented his income with a  
> professor gig at a liberal arts college.  Voting yes did him no  
> good; I'm sure most party money went to Kaptur's campaign, not  
> Kucinich's.
>
>
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