Today Dennis Kucinich started his campaign. Those who followed his campaign in 2004 know he believes his role is put issues in the public arena and that he should be able to be elected or rejected on issues, not personality. He continued his run right up to the convention, long after the nominee was well known. He consistently undermines his own success rate in Congress by putting forward "pure" bills based on issues that his colleagues don't like and won't touch.
Is he crazy? Is he naive? Has his golden opportunity to launch a campaign in which the metaissue of whether ideas alone should be the only criterion we use to elect a President finally come?
We all know Dennis Kucinich wants as many debates as possible. He is willing to dance before the Devil (e.g., Fox News commentators) to get a chance to debate. He is determined to set an agenda for the Democratic candidates in which they each have to take a specific stand on these issues:
- Ending the war in Iraq
- Holding those who supported the war accountable without dithering or evasion, regardless of party
- Cracking down on law enforcement to instill professionalism instead of arrest rates
- Ending the prohibition of hemp
- Ending the violation of civil liberties
- Ending packing our prisons with political prisoners at a rate that leads the world, including Russia
- Making peace our constant, overall and only objective in foreign policy
- Making trade fair, education an ongoing and lifelong right of every citizen and worker safety and well being the legitimate role of Government -- not laizze faire "free market" insanity in a world where nothing is free, especially not any markets
- Making the environment, and the new economy such an objective would create, the way to national security, domestic prosperity and world leadership again
among others. Everybody in power hates him for this single-mindedness. He doesn't care, and that makes them even madder at him.
After Cheney's vicious attack on Reid standing on the Capitol steps only a few feet from Reid's office, Kucinich decided the latitude he gave for Cheney's medical situation was null and void. Kucinich's self-interest is involved as well. Come Thursday night, he hopes impeachment -- the 800 pound elephant in the Democrat's living room -- will be an issue posed to every candidate, and that they all have to deal with it. He needs a single issue which clearly defines his agenda, his vision of campaigning for President, his devotion to issues above success rates in the legislative process -- his belief that he is the only one addressing the whole panoply of issues progressives know should be law, policy and custom.
Will it work? Will those questions make it on the pundits' sheets and be posed to all the candidates? Will they answer? Would it matter? The cynical among us can at least agree that he has no other chance to show up on the radar. The charitable among us can ask whether Dennis' point is hitting too close to home for his colleagues, who have placed political gamesmanship and double-talk above clear calls for principled stands. Other than his stand on abortion rights, which he has explained, but the timing of which (right before getting underway in the 2004 election cycle) will forever cast doubt on his sincerity, Kucinich has articulated and put on the floor of the House the laws progressives want passed.
But that has not been enough to get him traction. Or money. Or any say in whether there will debates and what the debate rules will be. Or any way to influence the agenda of those debates. Until today, that is.
I don't support Kucinich more than any other candidate. I don't oppose him more than any other. I want to know what all the candidates have to say to these questions, especially impeachment. I want to know if they will actively rip down the precedents, policies, laws and regulations that support the Unitary Executive theory -- all of them, from Woodrow Wilson to now. I want to know which candidates are gaming, and have no vision, and those who have a vision to carry this nation through the wasted opportunities of the dawn of the 21st century to make this the century of American progress unlike any which have gone before.
In this, Dennis and I are in sync. I know what he says, but not what he can do if in power, and that is my doubt about him. I know what the others can do with power, some more than others, but none of them has spoken with vision and to all the issues on the table.
Tonight on CNN's Situation Room, Representative Dennis Kucinich spoke clearly and without evasion. He presented his case for the impeachment of Cheney in three particulars:
- Lying to get us into war in Iraq
- Using 9-11 to justify wasting our time and not getting bin Ladin
- Lying right now to get us into war in Iran
He said Cheney needed to go so we have a real shot at taking out President Bush without impeachment insurance. He said it was time for the People to engage this conversation and all politicians, especially the Democratic Party, to take that conversation seriously.
I agree with all those points. Let the discussion begin in earnest. Let Kucinich's agenda move forward, for the betterment of the nation and the rededication of our cause to liberty. Whether we think he is electable, let us respect his questions, and ask them, and answer them and not hide them from our fellow citizens through political calculation.
The agenda has been proposed and is on the table. What say you, Kossacks -- not about the man, but about the message? Is it time to come clear and be direct, or should we continue to fight a rearguard action against this Administration, fearful of defeat by a wavering electorate? Shall we wait for the investigations to get a little further; for the trial balloons to not be shot down; or for events to take the President's approval ratings so far down we will know the Republican party is broken and cannot stand against us?
Seriously. Where are we? What are we to say to our fellow citizens, and when can we say what our hearts know should be said? I saw a Democrat stand and deliver today. Without party support. Without a fancy room. Without a war chest in the bank. Without a prayer of being President according to any pundit, and even most of his own supporters.
But fellow citizen -- fellow Democrat -- Dennis Kucinich, an elected Representative of the People, stood alone today. He stood, and he delivered. He awaits a response. Silence? Real debate? Pie fights? More cynical, focus-group-tested rhetoric?
As Thursday's first debate approaches, he seized the moment to lay before us all an agenda. The rest is up to us, all of us. It may be his only chance, and a desperate one. It may be our best chance, or our greatest weakness, as well.
Let the campaign begin.