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

Thu Mar 15 03:02:34 UTC 2012

Because he'd be singled out as an Enemy Combatant or Domestick Terrorist?

On 3/15/2012 10:38 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 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:
>
>>
>> <a 
>> href='http://d.tradex.openx.com/ck.php?n=af970eed&cb=0.7456302168251752' 
>> <http://d.tradex.openx.com/ck.php?n=af970eed&cb=0.7456302168251752%27> 
>> target='_blank'><img 
>> src='http://d.tradex.openx.com/avw.php?zoneid=6430&cb=0.7456302168251752&n=af970eed' 
>> <http://d.tradex.openx.com/avw.php?zoneid=6430&cb=0.7456302168251752&n=af970eed%27> 
>> border='0' alt='' /></a>
>> Home <http://blackagendareport.com/>
>>
>>    *
>>
>>
>>   Freedom Rider: Farewell Congressman Kucinich
>>
>> Wed, 03/14/2012 - 01:43 — Margaret Kimberley
>>
>>     * Obama health care
>>       <http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/obama-health-care>
>>       |
>>     * Kucinich defeated
>>       <http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/kucinich-defeated>
>>
>> Printer-friendly version 
>> <http://blackagendareport.com/print/content/freedom-rider-farewell-congressman-kucinich> 
>>
>>
>> *b**y 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*
>>
>> *b**y 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 
>> <http://blackagendareport.com/content/kucinich-black-candidate>_ 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 
>> <http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-inc-triumphs-kucinich-folds-his-hand-health-care>_. 
>> 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. 
>> <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
>>       <http://blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-farewell-congressman-kucinich#comment-32615>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> __._,_.___
>> Reply to sender 
>> <mailto:dlj725 at hughes.net?subject=Re%3A%20%28no%20subject%29> | Reply 
>> to group 
>> <mailto:sf-core at yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20%28no%20subject%29> | 
>> Reply via web post 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sf-core/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJwdTZkZmJxBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzc4OTI2NjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BG1zZ0lkAzM1ODcEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDcnBseQRzdGltZQMxMzMxNzc4ODMw?act=reply&messageNum=3587> 
>> | Start a New Topic 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sf-core/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlMjVzMWRkBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzc4OTI2NjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTMzMTc3ODgzMA--> 
>>
>> Messages in this topic 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sf-core/message/3587;_ylc=X3oDMTM0OGdyZzg3BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzc4OTI2NjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BG1zZ0lkAzM1ODcEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDdnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMzMxNzc4ODMwBHRwY0lkAzM1ODc-> 
>> (1)
>> Recent Activity:
>>
>> Visit Your Group 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sf-core;_ylc=X3oDMTJlYjRwODYyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzc4OTI2NjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWUDMTMzMTc3ODgzMA--> 
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups 
>> <http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkYm5jaTVuBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzc4OTI2NjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMzMxNzc4ODMw> 
>>
>> Switch to: Text-Only 
>> <mailto:sf-core-traditional at yahoogroups.com?subject=Change%20Delivery%20Format:%20Traditional>, 
>> Daily Digest 
>> <mailto:sf-core-digest at yahoogroups.com?subject=Email%20Delivery:%20Digest> 
>> • Unsubscribe 
>> <mailto:sf-core-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe> • 
>> Terms of Use <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>
>> .
>> Web Bug from 
>> http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=7892663/grpspId=1705060375/msgId=3587/stime=1331778830/nc1=5758223/nc2=3848627/nc3=5191953 
>>
>> __,_._,___
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>    