It might be better if the disaffected didn't cluster around "colorful" figures

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Winning by default is much better than losing, but it does not enrich the spirit.

It might be good for the nation if the alternative-seeking left coalesced around folks like Feingold and the pugs coalesced around someone like Mitt Romney (or any other fork-using, hair-combing, hind-leg walking pug)

Such an environment might be challenging for president Obama but would probably be better for American civilization if we ever got real choices, rather than forced moves of picking a centrist over one or more loons. (Could America handle a campaign not entirely driven by personality? Hmmm...)

Why is all anti-war sentiment in the Republican Party represented by an actual nut? (Ron Paul) Why is the icon of the anti-war left (Kucinich) such a weirdo that he talked about Ron Paul as his running mate? Is opposition to international violence such an outre notion that it is restricted to um... let's say colorful figures?

The media loves a side-show, which accounts for some of it. But people outside the mainstream also seem to want a side-show... extreme figures to represent strong passions.

It cannot be good for the system to have a blah guy between poles symbolized by people perceived as clowns (Sorry Dennis) or actual clowns (sorry Sarah... nah, I'm not sorry)

It reinforces the American dogma that the slightest deviation from hrumphing orthodoxy marks one as something akin to a Batman villain.

(Everyday pugs are more like Dick Tracy villains. Boehner sure is! Can't we at least work our way up to James Bond villains?)

______________

ON EDIT: The original headline juxtaposed Kucinich and Palin in a way that many took to suggest an equivalency beyond the perception of fringiness. Since Dennis was the only guy in the Democratic primaries arguing for many things I believe in I certainly did not mean to suggest any equivalency of validity of views, hence I edited the headline.

[rudy23]

1. Again with the constant attempts to brand the left as teabaggers. "Message Discipline"?

You just don't quit, do you?

This is pathetic. What you're trying to do with this is just awful. Dennis Kucinich and the vast majority of DU who supports him are good Progressives. Obama is not going to make progressivism "uncool" by throwing Dennis Kucinich's name at us, and trying to compare us to Sara Palin.

If we find out for certain that Obama or Rahm Emanuel is funding this bit of propaganda, it's revolt time in '12. I wonder what MoveOn knows about their long term strategies for keeping the left at bay?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

10. Please try to have some concept who you're talking to

"You just don't quit, do you?"

Quit what? Do you even know who is posting? Do you just go by avatar? I am a strident critic of Obama, often among the most strident short of being TS'd and generally criticizing from what would be called the left.

As someone disappointed by all the centrism I wish that DU dust-ups didn't come down to personality contests between Obama and Kucinich.

Kucinich is not the totality of the left but centrists promote Kucinich because he is an easy, dismissible target. And then other people coalesce around Kucinich because he is under attack.

And the result is, as usual, a boring guy versus a "wacko."

And that is very convenient for the boring guy!

American politics is set up to promote a narrow centrism and ridicule all else. Palin deserves ridicule and Kucinich not so much, but Kucinich is an exceedingly easy target.

That's the point.

[donco6]

2. Kucinich-supporters are "frothing loons?"

That's pretty harsh.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. In the eyes of the "sensible" center?

I tried to separate perceived insanity and real insanity because I don't hate Kucinich and admire many, many of his fans.

But in the eyes of the broad public Kucinich is at least as loony as Sarah Palin. Sucks, but that's where we are.

Recall that perfectly reasonable fellow Howard Dean somehow ended up as a frothing loon in the eyes of the public after the Dean scream.

(The media powers that be probably play a part in the loonification of non-mainstream views.)

[donco6]

7. But sensible people know that he's not equvalent to Palin.

So why feed into that? You're actually creating and reinforcing a false equivalency.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. The equivalency isn't the people, it is the poles.

The poles are clowned by the culture. In the case of the RW that's good. In the case of the LW it retards the range of "acceptable" options.

A polar figure would have to be even more boring than Obama to be taken at all seriously, but people who perceive themselves as outside the box seem to gravitate toward colorful figures.

The media is part of the problem, of course. Only weirdness or drama can attract attention to polar positions. (That's why PETA does all those nude photo ads... otherwise nobody would pay them any attention.)

[eShirl]

3. the anti-war left clusters around Kucinich like the teabaggers to Palin?

News to me.

[AllentownJake]

5. I cluster around Matt Taibi and Michael Moore

The politicians will do what politicians always do.

[stray cat]

6. We would be better off if people worked to become informed instead of acting like sheep

instead we have sheep that follow their chosen leader and never take the time to figure out the real facts and options versus what they happen to "feel" at any point in time.

[izquierdista]

8. It might be better not to lump Kucinich and Palin together

If Kucinich is perceived as a clown, it is because the MSM work tirelessly to paint him that way. I have yet to see interviews where they have added a funny hat and some greasepaint as special effects, but I wouldn't put it past them.

And if Sarah comes across as a clown, it is in spite of their best efforts to lob softballs and put the best spin on the stories she generates.

Were technology not so advanced, say back in the days of radio, where all that mattered was the coherent spoken word, Sarah would be Knucklehead Smith's girlfriend and Kucinich would be a reliable voice of reason.

[man4allcats]

9. The perceptions of mediocrities are just that; i.e., the

pedestrian views of the mundane, the incurious, the unthinking. Dennis Kucinich has the insight to recognize what the real truth is in our social system, the courage to speak that truth to power and the ability to think outside the box to not just promise necessary change but to actually bring it about. These are not the characteristics of a clown. If our society views DK as a clown, then that is a commentary on our society; not on Kucinich the man.

[snagglepuss]

12. Well said. nt

[Berry Cool]

13. If you think Kucinich actually has the ability to bring anything about

I'd love some of what you're smoking.

And yes, that IS a commentary on "Kucinich the man," whom I remember when he was mayor of Cleveland. A clown...only he wasn't funny.

[man4allcats]

14. What I'm smoking is reality. You should try it sometime.

It's great stuff though a bit hard to come by these days. In any event, you are of course entitled to your opinion no matter how misguided it may be.