Look, I'm as happy as anyone here that the Dems are as unified as ever in their single minded focus on defeating George Bush. Though a bit too centrist for my tastes, I, too applauded Obama's speech as an encouraging prologue to a Democratic convention main event which can at last define a positive agenda, and I thought Edwards did a fine job last night making the same old phrases somehow sound inspiring.
But considering how vehemently Nader supporters are attacked here for being the folks that could essentially prolong our descent into fascism for at least another four years unless they wise up, I sure wish these opening days of the convention would have given the Left a bit more to inspire them to fight the good fight for Kerry. I thought Dean's speech was vacant and I have no idea what Kucinich said because he was relegated somewhere to a mid-afternoon speaking slot that got zero coverage as far as I can tell.
C'mon, doesn't Kucinich deserve a bit more credit than that for running the kind of campaign he did? By all accounts he has done the gentlemanly thing by fighting like hell for delegates through a year-long ordeal, building a decent constituency everywhere, and then releasing his delegates on the eve of the convention to support Kerry and the call for unity. Are we that afraid to let Americans know that we oppose the war in Iraq, support single-payer universal health care, are sickened by the Patriot Act? I mean, aren't these mainstream democrat views that basically everyone but Kerry supports? True he may not inspire the rank and file passion that someone like Obama would but he brings more substance and legitimacy to the democratic left than anyone out there. Marginalizing this stuff, in my opinion, makes unity sound rather bland and makes the Democratic tent seem not so big after all. It empowers Nader more.