I just want to show people something that's missing from Kos's recent diary regarding Kucinich's vote against the SCHIP bill:
"I cannot support legislation which extends health coverage to some children while openly denying it to other children," Kucinich said. "This legislation is woefully inadequate: and I will not support it.
"Legal immigrant children deserve the same quality health care as other children receive. It is Congress’ responsibility to address the main difficulties that prevent legal immigrant children from gaining access to health care. Today, we did exactly the opposite.
I reached into the Buckeye State Blog to grab that and put it here, because it didn't appear right on the front page along with a pair of quotes deriding Kucinich.
So, in short, Kos's assessment that he voted against it because it "wasn't perfect enough" far from tells the whole story. But there's something a little more essential to consider than just that...
I am not a Kucinich supporter. The odds that I will ever vote for him are slim to none. But every movement needs its ideologues and Kucinich's is sympathetic to our cause, nothing close to the Bush-loving back-stabbing Joe Lieberman engages in.
Kucinich is doing what Ralph Nader is many times derided for not doing. Trying to affect the Democratic Party from within, instead of compromising its effectiveness from the outside.
Realistically, his one vote against SCHIP is meaningless except for the statement it makes, because it doesn't prevent anything from happening on its own. Can you argue that it makes the wrong statement? Sure. Was the vote a bad idea? I think so. But the point it raises is similar to Congressman Charles Rangel's move to introduce draft legislation. The point was not to reinstate the draft. The point was to teach people that the Iraq War is fought on the backs of the poor and thus largely minorities.
The same here. The point was to show that this legislation would not cover quite a lot of children who are just as deserving of health care.
So please, quit with the "he voted against health-care children" and "he voted with the Republicans" rhetoric. His vote alone prevented nothing. Such arguments fall flat on the ears of thinking people and smell like the language of a cheesy 30-second ad. At least within the Democratic party, we should know better than to assail each other with talking points.
Thanks for reading.