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Edited on Tue Feb-03-04 03:12 PM by IrateCitizen
The Spirit of Fighting Bob is Alive and Well
by Christopher Harrison
Just under 83 years ago, an incumbent Senator from the Midwest embarked on his re-election campaign. Although previously popular, this Senator’s political career was seen as all but finished due to his outspoken opposition to US entry into World War I – and his subsequent defense of many who were imprisoned due to their activism against it. Political rivals and even Federal Judges across the country had repeatedly called him a traitor to his country. His advisors told him that, in order to secure his re-election, he would have to backpedal on all of these stances. Moderation, they told him, was the key to holding on to his political career.
Well, this Senator, a Wisconsin Republican named Robert Marion (“Fighting Bob”) LaFollette, had never been much of a fan of “moderation.” Instead, he took to the podium and upon going through the standard formalities at the beginning of the speech, raised his fist in the air and pounded it down on the lectern. In a thundering voice he declared, “I am going to be a candidate for reelection to the United States Senate.” Raising that defiant fist into the air, he continued, “I do not want the vote of a single citizen under any misapprehension of where I stand: I would not change my record on the war for that of any man, living or dead.”
After sitting for a few moments in stunned silence, the crowd erupted in a standing ovation. Even a long-time political enemy of LaFollette was seen at the back of the hall with tears in his eyes, remarking to a bystander, "I hate the son-of-a-bitch. But my God, what guts he's got!"
LaFollette went on to win re-election to the Senate in 1922 by an overwhelming margin. He proved that courage and conviction – not moderation and backpedaling – was the way to really make a difference. However, he saw his work then as being far from complete.
In 1924, he brought together a never-before seen coalition of socialists, farmers, African-Americans and organized labor under the banner of his Progressive Party campaign for President. He ran on what was considered by many to be a radical platform: government takeover of the railroads, elimination of private utilities, easier credit for farmers, the outlawing of child labor, the right of workers to organize unions, increased protection of civil liberties, an end to U.S. imperialism in Latin America, and a plebiscite before any President could again lead the nation into war.
Although he didn’t win, he did manage to capture a significant tally of five million votes – and it could be said that his campaign helped to lay the groundwork for FDR’s eventual victory in 1932 and the emergence of the New Deal.
LaFollette was obviously not a believer in moderation. His message, however, was hard to paint as radical. Everything he fought for during his political career came down to one simple belief: America can never live up to its values so long as militarism and corporate power warp our democracy.
Looking back upon history through this lens, I am forced to always ask when I think of LaFollette’s candidacy, ‘What if?’ What if enough people across the country had been able to see through the mindless jingoism, militarism and emerging commercialism and instead embrace this steadfast commitment to the ideals upon which the country was supposedly founded?
Making a fast-forward to the present, I am confronted with the same feeling when I look at the Presidential candidacy of Dennis Kucinich. Here is a man who has based his entire life on fighting the very forces of corporate power and militarism so despised by “Fighting Bob” LaFollette – a man who literally sacrificed a promising political career in the 1970’s in order to stand up to these forces. Here is a man who has made it the centerpiece of his entire political life to stand up to these forces and communicate to people that there is a better way out there, a way that will enable us to live according to America’s true values and ideals.
And yet, he is somehow dismissed as a ‘radical’, or at least as ‘unelectable’.
To those who see him as such, I would ask you several questions. Do you enjoy the neverending cycle of militarism and war that has plagued our country? Do you gain fulfillment from increasing corporate control over everything you see, read and hear? Do you believe that ‘freedom’ is a word that can be summed up solely in what consumer goods you are able to buy, no matter the true costs of obtaining them? Do you feel at peace with the idea that your government is free to monitor your communications and travel in the name of ‘national security’? Do you think it’s a good idea to continue sending our young men and women in uniform to far-away lands to die for ‘national interests’?
If you find nothing here do take issue with, you can stop reading now. But if you do feel a pang of discomfort at these questions, then you need to take a second look at Dennis Kucinich.
Dennis is the only person proposing bold ideas in opposition to these dilemmas. The return to a more soft unilateralism and realpolitik of previous administrations will not solve these problems – that is what got us to this point in the first place. Like LaFollette, Dennis Kucinich recognizes that old problems require bold departures from our current course, because slight changes are too easily co-opted and forgotten. Like LaFollette, Dennis Kucinich recognizes that there is a vast spirit of democracy just waiting to sweep across the land – if only the American Public can be awakened from the American Dream that numbs them from action.
It is because of this vision of an America that puts people first, and America that works for all of its citizens, an America that works in true cooperation with the world community, that I support Dennis Kucinich with every fiber of my being. It is also why I ask everyone else to consider this message of hope, rather than fear, when making their choice.
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