Partisan Witch Hunt endorses Kucinich...but also likes Dean. (June 2003)
If you're like me, you've been thinking about whom to support in the Democratic Presidential primaries since the Supreme Court ruled on Bush v. Gore.
I strongly believe that it's essential to be informed by one's ideals during the primaries. It's a time to put yourself behind the candidate who has the best chance of broadening the dialogue and bringing the issues you value to the surface. So-called electability should be the smallest of concerns during the primaries. The primaries are essentially about the direction of your own party. Concerns about how to compete in the general election, how to sell ourselves to voters, how we will play, have their place, but have a corruptive effect when over-emphasized in the primaries. For example, the Democratic Leadership Council values marketability over substance to such an extreme that they actively seek to alienate issue-driven democrats by characterizing us as fringe-freaks and activist elitists. Like the Republicans, the DLC will apply the term Special Interest Groups with full venom to organized citizens concerned about the environment or civil rights, while never referring to the hoards of corporate lobbyists who actually help to compose policy and legislation with anything close to similar condemnation.
I've never once supported a winning candidate in the primaries, but my candidates, empowered by my support, have always been able to force the more mainstream candidates to address under- represented issues and to fight for the people who are most easily left out.
In any case, it may not be much of an advantage to have been thinking about whom to support in the primaries for longer than there have been declared candidates, as essentially, I'm still undecided--torn between a true liberal with one terrible flaw and a fearless moderate, both of whom strongly opposed invading Iraq, and both of whom want ensure that the Democratic Party of the future is a true and strong alternative to neo-conservatism and aim to resist the faction that has made possible expressions such as Democrat in Name Only and GOP Lite.
I've already announced to many of my friends that I support Dennis Kucinich. He has been the most vocal about the need to repeal the PATRIOT Act, saying boldly and correctly what too many shrink from saying, "The PATRIOT Act is not what American patriots have fought and died for. To allow our Bill of Rights to be nullified without judicial supervision invites tyranny." He has been most steadfast in his opposition to Bush's doctrine of preemption. His is the only campaign that addresses the need to protect the water supply from privatization. He wants to cancel NAFTA and the WTO, declaring unabashedly, "The global trade regime of NAFTA and WTO has enriched multinational corporations. But for workers, family farmers, and the environment, it has meant a global race to the bottom. ... Trade treaties must be conditioned on workers' rights, human rights, and environmental principles."
His aforementioned flaw, his record on choice is abysmal. He has made a pledge to hereafter vote in favor of reproductive freedom, called an election conversion by cynics, and an evolution of thought by the forgiving. So far, he has kept his word, and I believe he is likely to keep his word despite the outcome of the election. In fact, I trust that he will protect reproductive freedom.
But I just can't let go of Dean. By adopting the language of the late Senator Paul Wellstone, "I represent the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party," Dean has recognized the important conflict within the Democratic Party and put himself on the right side of it. He has strongly opposed preemption and calls for an independent investigation into Bush's pre-invasion statements regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. And in his truthout interview with author, William Rivers Pitt, Howard Dean said, "When I was up in Seattle last week, there were 1,200 people who came out. In the middle of it I asked, "How many of you have not been involved in politics in the last ten or fifteen years?" Half of them – 600 people – raised their hands."
We need to appeal to the people who are not voting now. Democracy demand participation, and we can't restore democracy to America without getting people involved who aren't involved now.
In my heart, however, I have to give Dennis Kucinich the last word. "...the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget. ... Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people..."
René Bouchard
