Who is your all-time political hero?

[book_worm]

For me it's still "The Man from Plains" James Earl Carter. In '76 I was 12 and he made a huge impact on me and I can remember how sad I was in 1980 and yet how proud I was of what he did and what he tried to do. He is still a great man.

[MadBadger]

1. I'm a young one, so as a University of Wisconsin, I'll say Russ Feingold.

[yourout]

3. Ditto....Feingold is honest, couragous, and everything a Dem should be.

[PeaceNikki]

58. Mine, too.

:patriot:

[Fireweed247]

70. Jesus!

He was the original rebel and the inspiration for so many others.

Be kind to the poor, be humble, the meek shall inherit the earth.
Fight for your what is right no matter the cost.
He correctly pointed out the the churches were full of hypocrites.

K&R this thread because we need to appreciate these great heroes. God knows they are few and far between these days!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

2. I've Only Followed Politics Closely Since 2004, So I'm Limited. But I'd Say Barbara Boxer.

I say that, because the way she stood up in 2004 to protest the Ohio vote, all by herself as the Senator needed to object, was as brave as anything I've ever seen and took spine the likes I haven't seen since. To this day, I admire the hell out of her for it and consider her my favorite Dem.

[rurallib]

4. Harry Truman

I'm still a bit young to recall him or FDR. But Truman stood up for what was right. People first.
And when he was done, he and the Mrs. got in the car and drove back to Independence by themselves, simple citizens again. And he never asked for any privileges because he was a citizen.

[Joe Chi Minh]

99. What a contrast to today's chancers.

[Mojambo]

5. Came before my time, but it's gotta be Bobby Kennedy. n/t

[LibDemAlways]

17. Me too. He was assassinated when I was in

10th grade. I attended school in a well-to-do mostly republican community and it didn't seem to have much of an impact on the kids. Finally, in English class the teacher got pissed and said something to the effect of "What is wrong with you? A candidate for President was shot dead last night and it seems to be business as usual around here." That got my attention. I was so glad he spoke up. Still remember it.

[kwassa]

6. George Washington

He was so widely admired at the end of the Revolution he could have been crowned king with acclamation. He walked away from that power.

Mikhail Gorbachev is another. He de-powered himself to create a democracy, of sorts, in what we now call the former Soviet Union.

[Muttocracy]

11. thoughtful responses. nt

[samdogmom]

7. John Conyers is a great man...But I'm waiting for the impeachment

hearings to start. Who ever gets this rolling has my vote as "all time hero". I'm waiting for justice...please make it happen!

[C_U_L8R]

8. Gandhi

[gateley]

9. Tough one.

What I've learned about Wellstone posthumously is beyond impressive.

What I'm learning about Barbara Boxer is impressive as well.

The person I would trust the most to be our President is Biden.

There are others, too. They're not ALL creeps.

[razors edge]

10. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. n/t

[Diclotican]

22. DiktatrW

DiktatrW

My hero to; mr Gandhi was a man of courage, and a man who was doing what he believed in was the right thing to do. Peacefully and non-violent..

And he beat the hell out of the British empire in 1947 when India, and later Pakistan was declared as sovereign nations..
With the use of little more of him self, and his standing.. Okay the British empire was on their way down anyway, but the end of British rule in India was given away werry much of the decline of the once powerfully empire, ruled from London..

... He may play it little well sometimes, but he was a big man, bigger than everyone may believe to this day...

Was seeing the movie Gandhi on TV the another day.. And I was impressed how this little man, could beat the all-powerfully empire. Even get along with them, if they treated him bad, and imprisoned him.. From the racist in South Africa to the Indian sub-continent... This little brown man was more powerfully than the 8000 British strong army based in India..

Off course FDR, Truman and a lot of other political "gig ants" are too people I admire.. But mr Gandhi are maybe the one I admire most.

Diclotican

Sorry my bad English, not my native language

[asdjrocky]

28. Your english is just fine

I've seen worse here from people who have English as their first language.

For me it's still Bobby Kennedy.

[razors edge]

79. Your english is fine.

And I agree completely with your post.

[Diclotican]

82. DiktatrW

DiktatrW

Thank you;). I am doing better and better: And I am using the spell check often, just to get it right..

Diclotican

[razors edge]

83. Don't worry about it,

The ones who have a problem with your spelling, really just have a problem with what your saying.

And I say F**K EM, pardon my French. :blush: :hug:

[Diclotican]

90. DiktatrW

DiktatrW

Yes, they may have problem with native English speaking people too, they who have some problem with my spelling;)

Excellent (the voice of mr Burns in the Simsons, when he is thing hing about some evil stuff)

:pals:

Diclotican

[mitchtv]

12. Leo Ryan

RIP
George Moscone
Harvey Milk

[lpbk2713]

13. Claude Pepper

Pepper was a Liberal before the wingnuts made it sound like a dirty word.

[pbca]

14. As a dual citizen

I'll take one on either side of the border

Pierre Elliot Trudea for Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Trudeau

For the US Paul Wellstone - sure there are others but, being a fan of Mr. Smith goes to Washington, I once saw Paul Wellstone do a one man filibuster. They were debating a bill that would have cut home heating oil subsidies for low income people (a bill supported by Bill Clinton). Being from Minnesota Wellstone stood alone and filibustered, talked for hours: Ultimately he was defeated but few, if any, in US politics are willing to take a stand, all alone if necessary, for something they feel strongly about. Especially not something that actually benefits their constituents.

[Swamp Rat]

15. Mark Twain

among many others

[sharesunited]

18. Clemens was a literary hero. It is Lincoln you want to honor.

Lincoln who took all the risks of being too extreme on the fringe of the status quo social order. But when he had a military victory, despite the cost to the North, he embraced it as a reason to issue and pronounce the emancipation proclamation.

[Swamp Rat]

21. No, just as my words are printed above, I want to honor Mark Twain.

Mark Twain is my political hero.

Woodie Guthrie is another political hero of mine.

So were Red Cloud and Chief Joseph.

If you want to honor Lincoln, then I respect that, but I do not feel like honoring him at this time.

[LWolf]

24. All of those, plus Gandhi. n/t

[zonmoy]

16. I would have to find a democrat that was still willing to fight for progressive values.

perhaps fighting bob La Follette or some other progressive that is or was willing to fight for his beliefs.

[cynatnite]

19. Thomas Jefferson n/t

[jkshaw]

20. FDR

No president or presidential candidate has impressed me at all since FDR -- until Barack Obama.

[Indenturedebtor]

71. Yeah FDR for me as well

We owe his legacy so very much.

[usaftmo]

23. Tip O'Neill n/t

[Jack Sprat]

25. FDR

[Zynx]

26. Truman.

He was a great man who made very few wrong decisions and a lot of right ones.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

27. whomever is successful in bringing

universal health care to this country and thereby doing a heck of alot to preserve good paying jobs and the middle class. And the one or ones who get corporate money out of the election process will be my heros and the ones I will tell my grandchildren about.

[timtom]

29. I can't believe no one has mentioned my particular hero

John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

[Justitia]

30. Benjamin Franklin! Also FDR, LBJ.

[blonndee]

31. I think Bobby.

Even though I wasn't around at the time, all I've read about him and the movement he started tells me so.

[readmoreoften]

32. Subcomandante Marcos

Of the EZLN.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4991113462859476761

[otherlander]

56. I was going to say Eugene V. Debs, or Hilda Gadea,

but now I have to agree with you. Marcos es teh awesome. :D

[readmoreoften]

88. Glad somebody knows who he is. Best thing is, as the Zapatistas say....

We're all Marcos. Marcos is us.

[otherlander]

100. No!

nononono!!1 He's a guy! Named Marcos! That's it! That's some creepy kind of groupthink stuff... :scared:

Hey, who do you think less DUers know about, him or Hilda Gadea? She deserves to be nominated for sainthood just for putting up with Che for as long as she did.

[gorbal]

33. I'm a fan of Cheri Honkala

I have lived all over the country and every state I have lived in has an outgrowth of the "Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campagn". It ticks me off how people put them down when they get so many things done.

This moving and engrossing video is from an Al Jazeera segment called "Homeless Hero". It explores the activism of Cheri Honkala, a single mother and former homeless person herself, who has fought passionately in defense of homeless Americans, who are routinely abused by authorities and/or the system itself. It's a powerful and important story of the millions of forgotten Americans who are bound to be overlooked in the Super Tuesday hoopla. Check out the video to your right for more.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/75947

[McCamy Taylor]

34. MLK Jr here and Gandhi world wide.

MLK Jr was putting together a coalition of all races plus immigrants, unions, also included gays and was beginning to recognize poverty as the common factor in all oppression before they killed him.

[judasdisney]

41. MLK Jr here and worldwide

"America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today... America is the supreme culprit." MLK, Apr. 4, 1967, Riverside Church, NYC.

[judasdisney]

42. Current hero: Sibel Edmonds

She stands alone. Nobody current is standing with her: Not even Feingold or Waxman or any of them.

[Fireweed247]

67. He warned us...

[0rganism]

35. Shirley Chisholm For President!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm
The FIRST black congresswoman, representing NY's 12th, she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

[Ysabel]

81. she was great...

- i miss her...

[Alexander]

36. Paul Wellstone.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

37. Eugene McCarthy.

New Hampshire, 1968.

[loyalsister]

38. local people

who have followed a standard set by the Unbought and Unbossed Shirley Chisholm.
I am optimistically waiting to see if Obama delivers.

[Norrin Radd]

39. Tank Man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man

[datasuspect]

40. there was still evidence of FDR in my childhood in the early 70s

many households i went to when i was a kid had the mandatory pictures of kennedys, FDR, the pope.

growing up in chicago, we were taught that old man daley was a tremendous man, someone who helped people who lived in our neighborhoods, back when chicago was the city that works, not the city that catapults newly minted college grads to the top of the heap, while consistently making it impossible for working class people to live (thanks richie jr.!); the city of broad shoulders, not the city of elfish hipsters with peg legs and tousled hair.

i know now that he was a repressive, authoritarian type, but he was a democrat, he did help the working person, and the patronage/nepotism/reaction against outside hippie agitators was what made the chicago democratic machine unique.

you had to play the game, get out the vote, but at least you got something in return. the aldermanic system worked in favor of the voiceless--a regular person could walk in and for a little "tit for tat" you could get a decent job with the city. or someone knew some kind of union steward somewhere. something.

[martymar64]

78. Love your Sig Line! Not Sure for President!

:)

[GliderGuider]

43. Gandhi and Tommy Douglas

Gandhi is an easy choice for the world stage. On a national level Canada's Tommy Douglas showed all the qualities of a political hero -- courage, commitment and compassion. He changed the face of our nation, and made it a better, more humane place.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

44. Gahndi as the greatest. Within the US, Paul Wellstone. nt

[Echo In Light]

45. Herbert Marcuse

When I was still fairly young I stumbled upon a tattered paperback copy of his One Dimensional Man in this great old used book shop {had cats running around through the labyrinth of stacked books} I used to visit regularly ... sadly it went out of business. His book, however, had a profound impact on me. From there I'd cite former Dead Kennedy's front man, Jello Biafra, and life long dissident/linguist, Noam Chomsky, as being of substantial influence on my views.

http://igw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse/odm.html

Herbert's Hippopotamus: Marcuse and Revolution In Paradise {VIDEO}
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5311625903124176509&q=herbert+marcuse&total=12&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[Thothmes]

46. Abe Lincoln, FDR, Winston Churchill

[Vidar]

47. FDR, with Teddy, our greatest trust buster, coming in a close second.

[sinkingfeeling]

48. Bobby Kennedy.

[slackmaster]

49. Not sure about the hero, but my ultimate anti-hero is James Traficant

[amandabeech]

52. Is he out of jail?

Does he now have a better rug?

LOL

[slackmaster]

64. One more year

September 2009 IIRC.

[amandabeech]

75. Oh goody!

When I worked on the hill, he was one of the office's favorites.

It looks like he'll be out in time to start serious fundraising for 2010!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

50. Mikhail Bakunin, Gandhi, and Tom Paine

"Freedom is the absolute right of all adult men and women to seek permission for their actions only from their own conscience and reason, and to be determined in their actions only by their own will, and consequently to be responsible only to themselves, and then to the society to which the belong, but only insofar as they have made a free decision to belong to it." Mikhail Bakunin

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
Thomas Paine

[HamdenRice]

51. Nelson Mandela, Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer

Everyone knows who Nelson Mandela is, of course. They may not be aware of the almost unprecedented mix of moral strength, idealism and pragmatism that enabled him to survive being a political prisoner (largely by choice -- he was offered release if he denounced the ANC's armed struggle), and then leading the negotiations to democracy.

Almost no one outside South Africa knows who Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer are, however. They largely are the fathers of the South African Constitution and entire new political order.

Ramaphosa had been a career labor lawyer and union negotiator. After gaining about a decade of experience negotiating for black trade unions with South Africa's biggest corporations, including the mines, and rising to the leadership of its trade union confederation, he was tapped by the ANC to lead their constitutional delegation.

Roelf Meyer also a lawyer and a member of the white, Afrikaner dominated National Party, which had given South Africa apartheid, was the head of one of South Africa's intelligence agencies, and an early proponent of talks with the ANC.

In one of the most important personal incidents in South African history, Ramaphosa and Meyer became close friends just as the negotiations were starting because Ramaphosa performed impromtu surgery on Meyer! Ramaphosa, an expert fly fisherman, was trying to teach Meyer how to fish, and Meyer got a hook caught in his finger, which Ramaphosa extracted.

Despite horrific political violence, endless party political squabbling and eventually civil war, Rampahosa and Meyer remained close and determined to give birth to a democratic constitution.

Interestingly, both of their parties ditched them shortly after the democracy was born -- probably because they were both so competent they were a threat to the existing party heirarchies.

[Ordr]

53. Harry S. Truman

[L. Coyote]

54. Ben Linder deserves a mention. Las Casas too.

Linder gave his life in Nicaragua. When will there be justice?

His example is one of how everyone can do something,
and, you do not need to be POTUS to change the world.

===========
Ben Linder - Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Linder

Benjamin Ernest Linder (July 7, 1959–April 28, 1987), born in California,
was a young American engineer who was working on a small hydroelectric dam in ...
===========

Bartolome de las Casas ...(1484-1566) ... Las Casas has been called the Father of anti-imperialism and anti-racism.
oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/las_casas.html

---------
Bartolome de Las Casas was born in Seville in 1484 ... immigrated to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1502
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomé_de_las_Casas

[WA98296]

55. Can't decide between Michael Moore and Thom Hartmann

[annabanana]

57. Thomas Paine. . . . . .n/t

[MinM]

59. Henry González

As hard as Lee Hamilton tried to sweep Iran-Contra under the rug. Henry González, with hearings and special order speeches, did as much as anyone to expose it.

[susankh4]

60. Clara Barton

Florence Nightengale and Margaret Sanger.

[karynnj]

61. John Kerry

I've posted enough reasons over the past 3 years - I'll spare everyone this time.

[mariema]

62. Frank Zeidler

He was the socialist mayor of Milwaukee from 1948 to 1960.

"Frank Zeidler said he chose his political affiliation in 1933 after, characteristically, undertaking a study of ideologies.

'I particularly picked socialism," he said in an interview years later, "because of several things in its philosophy. One was the brotherhood of people all over the world. Another was its struggle for peace. Another was the equal distribution of economic goods. Another was the idea of cooperation. A fifth was the idea of democratic planning in order to achieve your goals. Those were pretty good ideas.'"
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=459264&format=print

When I was 6 he helped me get my first library card at Merrill Park Public Library.
He was my neighbor and my hero.

[lumberjack_jeff]

63. Smedley Butler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

[annabanana]

93. A True Patriot! . . . . . . n/t

[Fireweed247]

65. Current hero- Kucinich

I could never decide between MLK, RFK and JFK. They kill our heroes for a reason.

But as for currently- who else but Kucinich has introduced Impeachment of Cheney, introduced legislation for hand counted paper ballots, is fighting for real universal health care??

Kucinich has also promised to introduce articles of Impeachment of Bush, but someone? something? has stopped him.

[RB TexLa]

66. Padraig Pearse

[immoderate]

68. George McGovern

Probably the smartest man to run for the presidency in the 20th century. A true war hero (who wouldn't allow those facts to be used in the campaign) and a great intellect, who showed extreme political courage going against the American war machine.

--IMM

[CTyankee]

74. Mine too. Along with Eleanor Roosevelt.

n/t.

[Dr Fate]

69. TJ, MLK, HST, Twain, The Obama Girl.

[LeftishBrit]

72. Quite a few....

Worldwide:


Gandhi

Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

Martin Luther King.


In England specifically:

The Pankhursts, and other Suffragettes

Clem Attlee, our postwar Labour PM; and his Health Secretary Nye Bevan who introduced the NHS

More recently:

Robin Cook, who resigned from the Blair cabinet in protest against the Iraq war

My local heroes: the Oxford schoolchildren who were the first people in the country to take to the streets to protest the Iraq war

[Eric Condon]

73. Here's mine.

[martymar64]

76. Abbie Hoffman

Radical left politics with a sense of humor.

[Book Lover]

77. Cincinnatus

Even if he is just a legend.

[Anexio]

80. Nixon!

LOL, before you get all crazy on me let me explain.

I read through the entire thread and everyone had already mentioned all the great ones so I wanted to add my two cents.

Nixon was the man that turned my parents away from uptight conservatism and turned them toward open mindedness and progressive liberalism.

After my parents, Richard Nixon is a hero to me.

Peace

[VotesForWomen]

84. Susan B. Anthony. without a doubt. nt

[Solon]

85. I don't know about political heroes, but I have many activist heroes...

Most are dead, MLK Jr., Fredrick Douglass, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eugene V. Debs, Mark Twain, and many more. Oddly enough, of all of them, none held an elected office, even though some ran for it, sometimes multiple times(Douglass, Debs). Of the ones who are alive, let's see, Cornel West and Subcommandante Marcos are at the top.

[Raejeanowl]

86. Another FDR Admirer Here n/t

[stanwyck]

97. Me, too. He saved the country. n/t

[aaronbees]

87. Harold Washington

First black mayor of Chicago. A great man and politician who accomplished something incredible in that city.

[enigmatic]

89. Tommy Douglas

http://www.tommydouglas.ca/
http://www.cupe1975.ca/bursary/burs5.html

Tommy's "Mouseland" speech:
http://recluseshow.blogspot.com/2007/03/mouseland-tommy-douglas.html

[blindpig]

91. Fidel Castro

He defeated the repressive kleptocracy which ruled his country, has resisted the greatest empire in history and brought economic and social justice to his people.

But he couldn't have done a thing without the support of the majority of the Cuban people.

[nealmhughes]

92. Tom Paine sans doubt! Could we only resurrect him for a month or two to churn out some new copy!

The status quo would shudder and then tremble in fear.

[Unvanguard]

94. Just one?

Sylvia Rivera
Buenaventura Durruti
Martin Luther King

Probably others who don't come to mind immediately.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

95. Florida Governor Clinton "Skink" Tyree

Any good Hiaasen fan will concur with me.

As for real politicians, go ahead and flame away, but I do like Bill Clinton. Love him, like him, dislike him or hate him, you have to agree he has an amazing life story and he's just an incredible dynamic speaker and fascinating figure in general. He's also all too human, and that's also what intrigues me about him.

I'm also a big Carter fan. Always was brutally honest and did what he thought was right. Unfortunately, America was fooled by a souless B-movie actor in 1980 and our country is worse off for it.

[Diclotican]

96. PeterU

PeterU

True Mr Clinton WAS a great politician, and even a very good president.. And he was a speaker that was amassing to lining to.. Was coming to age in the Clinton Ages. And I would say I prefer him over this shitbag you have had the last 8 year..

Mr Carter was little before me, but I do remember that the carter Administration was someone who always get a friendly face back home.. He was honest, and maybe little naive when it come to it.. But he was a good president..

And mr Reagan.. Well he was mr Reagan....

Diclotican

Sorry my bad English, not my native language

[mondo joe]

98. Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

[jmowreader]

101. Frank Church

The last Democratic senator from Idaho. He helped shut down the Vietnam War, was one of the key players in getting FISA passed, and investigated CIA drug smuggling in the Iron Triangle. Among other things.

He's also the only Idahoan ever to win a presidential primary.

He's also the reason the networks don't announce the winners of presidential elections until all the polls close. Now...understand first that Idaho spans two time zones. South Idaho is in Mountain Time; North Idaho is in Pacific Time. When the networks announced that Bankruptin' Ronnie had won the election, there was still an hour of polling time left in North Idaho...and, because they figured it wouldn't matter anyway (like there was any doubt Reagan was gonna take Idaho--that state has ALWAYS been full of Republicans) people stopped going to the polls in the North...Church lost to Steve Symms by one percent, and in the Pacific Time Zone part of Idaho lie Moscow (location of the University of Idaho), Coeur d' Alene (one of Idaho's most populous cities) and Sandpoint (also populous, and it's been an artsy resort community for a long time). Church probably would have won if North Idaho would have voted--he was popular and trusted all over Idaho, while Symms was not only an unknown quantity he was from South Idaho, and there's some animosity there.