'Because He Was Right: The Long Campaign of Dennis Kucinich'

[Newsjock]

Source: The Stranger (Seattle)
Top story this week
By Eli Sanders and Dan Savage

Is America ready for its first vegan president?

Please.

Maybe its first woman president. Perhaps a black president. Possibly even a Latino president. And, as Chris Rock pointed out, we've got a retarded president right now. But a guy who faults a cheeseburger on two counts, the meat and the cheese? A vegan president? No fucking way. Don't be retarded.

And most certainly not this particular vegan, Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich. This is a candidate who announces, on national television, that he would refuse to shoot a Hellfire missile at Osama bin Laden if given the opportunity; a guy who prattles on about the interconnectedness of humanity and his plans for creating a cabinet-level Department of Peace; a man who brags about the wonderfully low blood pressure his animal-cruelty-free diet has brought him (memo to the Kucinich campaign: Americans like their leaders carnivorous and on the verge of cardiac arrest, thank you very much—see, for example, our last two presidents: Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney).

Sure, it might be unfair, a cosmic and karmic injustice even, that Kucinich, who was more right about the Iraq war than most Democrats (and, for the record, more right than one of the meat-eating authors of this vegan-bashing profile), now has less chance of being president than U.S. troops have of stumbling across those alleged Iraqi WMDs.

But that's the way we roll here in America.

This is a country in which 41 percent of people still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. This is a country in which some people still believe that there is some sort of dignified way out of Iraq—"home with honor" is how the pollsters and strategists describe the widespread sentiment—and, delusional or not, these Americans don't see much "honor" in our troops marching out of the Middle East on the orders of a five-foot-seven, turn-the-other-cheek waif who flashes peace signs without irony and wouldn't eat a steak with the boys once they're back home.

... Kucinich, 61, has long been an "everyone else is wrong" type of guy, the type of politician who strikes a certain type of liberal as totally righteous for his unwillingness to compromise. But he strikes a lot of other liberals—a clear majority, as evidenced by his vote totals in liberal-dominated Democratic primaries—as obnoxious and inflexible to an agenda-hobbling degree. It's hard to find anyone, however, who doesn't see him as exceptionally driven.

Read more: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=413457

[The Traveler]

1. The inconvenient truth about Kucinich

Dammit, the veggie munching little nerd winds up on the right side of complex issues more often than not and more often than not is one of the first ones to get there.

I like my steak rare. Burgers are indeed best served with cheese. I live with large carnivorous beasts commonly referred to as Great Danes. I must sometimes fight them for a share of the steak. I own several well maintained combat knives and fire arms. So far I have not resorted to their use to defend my steak. I am an expert marksman. I am a motorhead, and when my old 91 Camaro finally bit the dust I rebuilt the thing. I like going fast. I like NASCAR. And being properly raised by a mother of quality, I like Chevrolet.

I am not a pacifist. Rather, I am a hawk who would prefer to find a way of resolving problems between nations that do not involve the slaughter of innocent bystanders and the expenditures of large amounts of ammunition. Department of Peace? Sounds good to me. Right next to a beefy Department of Defense. A little investment in peace can save a lot of blood and ammo. Simply good strategy, and morally correct.

Cetainly, I do not fit the profile of the average Kucinich supporter. But over the years I have noticed that I find myself winding up being forced to admit that (**gulp**) Dennis Kucinich and I agree on a great matter of things and where we disagree he turns out to be, uh, right about it at least half the time.

These days, I find myself leaning towards Edwards. But would I hesitate to vote for Dennis? Hell no. Not for a heart beat.

The point of this rather lengthly response is that if Dennis Kucinich can appeal to this Southern boy, he might be capable of generating broader appeal than is generally conceded.

[eridani]

2. Surprising that a gay sex advice columnist wouldn't mention--

--Kucinich's support of full marriage equality. And he's against the War on Some Drugs.

Righty whackjobs have been inflexible for 30 years, and they've gotten a lot of what they want just because they insist on asking for it all the time.

But lefties aren't supposed to do that. Fuck that, sez I. Keep asking for a pony even if you'll accept a kitten for the time being.