Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing
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Most folks I know have a preferred candidate – Hillary, Obama, Edwards or Gore. But the crazy thing is, they will turn right around and say, “you know who I really want to vote for? Kucninch.”
I have those same feelings – I love Kucinich and think he would make the best President. His values most closely resemble my own. Why not vote for him?
Irrational fear. Total fear that the Republicans will lie about Kucinich and Fred Thompson will win the election. Wait, the GOP is gonna lie anyway, no matter what, so why the fear?
One thing I finally noticed about Kucinich during the AFL-CIO debate was how Kucinich always made more points during his alloted time than other candidates. I have been thinking about this and found the answer when I was reading the transcript. Kucinich doesn’t equivocate. He doesn’t dance around an issue – he goes straight for the explanation and since his past is not littered with idiotic support of bad bills, HE has nothing to fear, so why do I?
Yes, why do I fear? Do I think Hillary can win? No. I think she loses the election, the second she is nominated. Isn’t THAT something to fear? Do we think Fred Thompson, Gingrich or whatever other ass-wipe the GOP nominates will give a shit about universal healthcare, the environment or peace? Nope, it will be a straight continuation of 8 years of BushCo. Isn’t my fear displaced?
Who is the strongest Democrat in Congress? Kucinich.
What Congressman never LOST their spine in the politically crushing days after 9-11? Kucinich.
Who knows how to answer a direct question asked by We The People? Kucinich.
I think something changed for Kucinich during the AFL-CIO debate – I can’t put my finger on it, but something changed. Maybe it was his eagerness to address We The People with truth, honesty and integrity? Maybe it was just the other candidates equivocating on whatever nonsense answer their staff prepared for them months ago?
Maybe it was because the other candidates showed fear and Kucinich didn’t. He never flinched.
That is leadership as I see it. And from this point forward I will NOT fear to support Kucinich.
He is just like me. My values are the same as his. If I was in Congress, I would vote like he does. I no longer fear. I refuse to allow the GOP to manipulate me into supporting lesser candidates.
That just might be called courage.
SPECIAL FAVOR SECTION
Never let it be said liberals don’t support the troops.
During the first Gulf War, I began collecting books to send to my college friends serving in Saudi Arabia. I must have sent hundreds of books. When US troops got deployed to Iraq, I started doing it again but I knew the job was too big for one person to do it, so I set up Books For Soldiers, a 501 (c)(3) charity to send free books, dvds and video games to deployed US soldiers.
But I wasn’t that smart since I only thought the war would last 6 weeks tops in Iraq. What was I thinking? Now, FOUR years later, we are still shipping books.
But today I need your help. There is a contest sponsored by VAJoe.com, they will contribute $2,000 to charitable military organizations next month in its Charity for Charities event. You can vote on your favorite charitable military organizations. The top four charitable organizations and a randomly selected organization will share $2,000 in donations from VAJoe. Books for Soldiers has been included in the event.
The Alexa Traffic Rank for BooksForSoldiers.com is 242,975 and you would not believe our bandwidth bills!
So these next few days, I am asking (begging actually) for your vote for Books For Soldiers. It won’t take you 30 seconds to help a liberal out!
A short, fast and easy site registration is required.
P.S. Thank-you Michael Moore for supporting BFS.
“I refuse to allow the GOP to manipulate me into supporting lesser candidates.”
This where I disagree with your post. It’s far and away the democrats and their supporters in the media and on political blogs that relegate Kucinich to the unelectable fruitcake bin.
Otherwise, I agree completely with your take on him. Voting for the candidate who most closely represents your ideals….what a concept!
I agree super and I’ve said it before lots of times..I don’t get why so many dems especially progressives trash Kucinich. I’d much rather have a ‘fruitcake’ elected than some democratic corporate warmonger.
One thing I would say is that not one single vote has been cast in the 2008 elections. Anything could happen, we just have to be willing to fight for it.
In the run-up to the 2004 primaries, I took some on-line test that asked basic questions on a wide variety of issues. In the end, it would rate each candidate based on your answers and tell you how close that candidate was to your own beliefs. I got something like 97% for Kucinich. No other candidate was even remotely close. On that basis, I voted for Kucinich in the primary, knowing full well that Kerry had already won.
I did the same thing in 04 and then went on to vote for Kerry in the primary. I wasn’t going to vote for Nader again after Gore and the democrats siphoned off all his votes in 00 and caused him to lose ;o) I figured Kerry was a sure bet. I’ll vote for Kucinich in the primary again, only this time I won’t be contributing to the downfall of the country by voting for any of the current crop of enablers. First time in decades that I’ll sit out a general election, but I just can’t, in good conscience, support this group of dancing monkeys. And I know I’ll take a lot of heat for it but i’m sick of enabling the enablers.
Meant to say I voted for kerry in the 04 general, not primary.
Which is the dilemma of our system. Do I vote for the candidate that I like, and hope enough other people join me? Or do I vote for the least bad candidate that the media has appointed as a front runner?
My motivation for voting for Nader in 2000 was, aside from feeling that he had the best grasp on issues and wasn’t afraid to say what he thought, was to help get him, the Green Party and all third parties the 3 percent they needed to qualify for matching federal funds and to be included in the debates. To see him escorted from a debate by the police was about as far from what I thought at the time to be American. In New York it was safe for me to do that because Gore would win the state by a wide margin and I assumed, wrongly it turns out, that there weren’t enough idiots in this country to vote Bush into office. Even taking the election fraud into account it never should have been close enough to steal to begin with. But I’ve been repeatedly reminded over the last 6 years in particular that American voters and the population in general are far more ignorant and lazy than I’d imagined. And the 2 party system plays to that ignorance and unsophistication. Why take risks with bold new ideas when you don’t have to? They can get by with dim witted talking points year after year after year because no one challenges them to dig any deeper. That’s where I think voting in larger numbers and more consistantly for third parties can put pressure on the current system and hopefully put a little fear in their complacent asses. The risk of course is that it draws votes away and gives republicans a better chance to win. But how else are we to get the democrats to sit up and take notice? You wouldn’t spoil your own child for behaving badly and sadly the democrats haven’t proven themselves much more than a bunch of spoiled rotten brats who thumb their noses at us because they know there are no consequences. It’ll never change until they are forced to change by threatening their comfy little worlds. With all the painful and dangerous results that go along with taking the third party route.
I saw Kucinich in person and he does not duck any questions, he seems very honest and willing to explain the Oil Law the U. S. wants the Iraqi Parliament to pass. Some pundits mention the Oil Law but no one explains it.
I have heard some say that even if a Kucinich type Democrat were elected, if the big money wanted a war and the president refused, he would be taken down and thrown out of office by the big money. No matter they all do it to raise their ratings. I often wonder if something like that happened to Clinton when he did not go to war when presented with the PNAC letter requesting he do so.
What happened to John Kennedy kind of answers your question.
I just did the same thing a couple of days ago, same result for me: Kucinich by a mile.
I’ve been leaning Edwards, but I’m rethinking that. I’m tired of trying to calculate who might do the least damage … I want to actually vote for someone for a change. Someone who believes what I do.
I am (was?) leaning towards Edwards, but after last night’s “civil union” bs, but I am seriously considering “throwing away” my vote this time around again on Kucinich. The difference this time is that California (like several other states) have moved up their primary elections so Iowa will no longer be the sole forerunner. By the time California voted in 2004, Kerry was a done deal. This time, it won’t be so clear. I know Kucinich is a supreme long shot, but I prefer to vote for people I might actually agree with, rather than vote for people who might actually win.
Thanks for the link stormbear, I went and voted for Books although given the charities named it’s almost impossible to pick one…but I am a sucker for books.
Books Rock!
Books do rock! The great thing about them is they are portable and can be shared many times over, even in the desert, before they are no longer readable. Kudos to you!
BTW, I noticed when I voted that Books is very close in votes to several other charities. So, every vote will count here people!
P.S., I used a throw away email since I hate spam. It was accepted and my vote counted and I didn’t bother to go any further with the registration. So, don’t worry about giving out info…you can make it up.
Thanks for posting this! I was reluctant to go vote, but after reading this, I did.
Cool. I thought I might not be the only one who hesitates on these kinds of things. I get so much unwanted email because I signed this or that petition, that I no longer do them. I think I am going to set up some weird email address for just this sort of thing. The email address will be real, but I will never read it, unless I have to.
This is probably a good time to apologize to anyone who might actually have the weird addresses I’ve made up for nosy sites.
They almost never check the zip code against the city and state you enter, but just in case, I also apologize to anyone who gets mail based on my imaginary addresses.