My 13 year old son has been exposed to political activism his whole life. He first appeared at a major political event when we took him to a celebration party on election night in 1990 to celebrate Bernie Sanders election to congress. At 6 weeks old, he was wearing a Babies for Bernie t-shirt. This year, sharing our repulsion for the Bush administration and reading two of Michael Moore's books, he has become energized and active. I've taken him to two Meetups for Howard Dean in Burlington where he wrote wonderful supportive letters to undecided NH voters. Last night, for the first time, we sat down and watched a debate from beginning to end. And the boy's observation was pretty much the same as mine: there ain't much difference between Dean/Edwards/Kerry/Clark. They're all middle of the road DLC democrats. Any claim Dean makes to being an outsider was shown up when he played the DLC card on NAFTA and Health Care. Does he really, truly believe that Honduras and China are going to enact worker friendly laws to satisfy us? Does he really believe that Universal Health Care is going to happen while his friends in the insurance industry continue to reap immense profits at our expense? In the end, the astute 13 year old was quite able to discern that the only candidates in this race who are anything other than the same old story are Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich.
As I've said repeatedly, I'll gladly support Howard, Edwards, Kerry, or Clark because I know they are the best we're gonna get. But I really think it is time that the Deaniacs of the world really need to get over the sanctimonious notion that he's any different or better than the others, simply because he saw through the Bush War Scam first. And they really need to get over the notion that Kerry is not preferable to Bush. Unless, of course, they can prove that Kerry would have left Pedro in to pitch to Matsui.
So, I will work for and vote for any of the above, but when primary time comes to Vermont, I'm gonna vote for Dennis, because he and Sharpton are the only ones offering real change.
