Home > Open letter to Dennis Kucinich- where is the hope?

Open letter to Dennis Kucinich- where is the hope?

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 29 July 2004
12 comments

Dennis,
I am truly wondering, how are we supposed to have hope now? John Kerry has promised to continue this illegal immoral war and did not provide the much needed checks and balances to prevent the war. Did you happen to see how many innocent Iraqis died yesterday as you gave John Kerry a pass?

If you were the candidate, this election would over by now. The only thing lending Bush credibility is John Kerry’s utter lack of ability to take a stand on what is the most important issue to the majority of americans, the war in Iraq. With Michael Moore finally informing the american people of what is really happening in Iraq, John Kerry has not seen the movie and is still pretending that we are protecting the Iraqis from the bad guy zarqawi. Everyone know this is a lie. How can you expect us to support John Kerry who is supporting these lies?

You talk of Unity. How are we suppose to unite behind a war monger? 95% of the delegates are against the war, the majority of americans are against the war, why is John Kerry choosing to pursue the few clueless voters who might believe in the war but not Bush. It makes no sense unless he is purposely throwing the election to Bush. He said himself in a recent interview that Bush will probably bring the troops home before the election as a ploy to win. He said that Bush will bring the troops home before him. Since the war is my number one issue, John Kerry’s statement is making me want to vote for Bush. Do you see? That is what he is trying to do. He is throwing the election to Bush on purpose because they are old frat brothers, tied together forever in a ploy to dominate the world for their evil purposes. He cares more about his promises to this secret cult, than our country. Anyone who believes we can talk Kerry into changing his mind on the war is delusional. This elite group, the skull and bonesmen used everything they had to pursue this war. They used their extensive media ties to promote the war and hide the truth. They have waited many years to make this move on our country, which is precisely why they now offer us this choice between war and war. They are telling us we have NO choice, that we should just get use to it.

You talk about accountability. Does anyone think that John Kerry will hold this administration accountable for what they have done? I think it is generally understood that he will pardon Bush and his cronies for their crimes of treason against our country, and for that reason alone John Kerry is unacceptable.

Why has the need to win for the democrats overcome all forms of reason? What have we won if John Kerry will send more innocent americans to kill and die for a lie? It needs to be said that it is not just the troops that are dying that are our problem here. It might be said they are the lucky ones. It is our troops that are being forced to kill for these lies, they will have to live with this knowledge forever. They are coming back to our country deeply scarred. What are we going to do to stop this?

I refuse to fall in line. I refuse to submit. And I hate to admit it but I resent you for asking me to. You are my hero Dennis, but I am deeply dissappointed. The whole democratic convention is about control. Kerry and his ’people’ have told everyone what they can say and do. Is this democracy? It seems to me this is a fine example of what we are to expect from Kerry. He believes in controlling the poople just like Bush. The finest example of patriotism I saw at the convention was Wyclef Jean singing before you took the podium "If I were president I’d be elected on friday, I’d sign a peace treaty on saturday, I’d stop the war on sunday, I’d bring the troops home on monday" This song was Beautiful! and was followed by cheers of approval and then a really strange ’sound’ and video. It reminded me of the sounds one hears listening to Rush Limbaugh. What was that?! What are they doing to people in the convention center? It seemed like some strange mind control to me, I seriously hope someone looks into that. Our country is closer to 1984 that anyone realized.

Dennis, did you hear the cheers every time someone brought up the war, which wasn’t very often? The delegates were dying to hear someone speak the truth. The platitudes are killing us John Kerry John Edwards John Kerry John Edwards...as John Edwards has said "the people have a radar for the truth" and we can tell all we are hearing from this convention is anything but. The biggest issues to delegates are the war and patriot act, neither of which anyone is allowed to really talk about because of Kerry’s position in support of both. Does the democratic party belong to John Kerry or the people? We have seen speaker after speaker, platitude after platitude, about how Kerry will make things better and yet the delegates are smart people, just saying it does not make it so. The people want a real plan. We want our politicians to stop lying to promote imperialism. We need the truth Dennis and you were the only one speaking it. How are we supposed to unite behind false hope?

Forum posts

  • I’ll Follow Kucinich to Kerry, Sorry Ralph
    July 27, 2004
    If Kerry is a "flip-flopper" because he won’t end the war (or the "Patriot Act" or NAFTA or private health insurance) even as he speaks against these horrors, what do we have to call Kucinich, who insists on ending these things even as he endorses Kerry? And what can we expect Dennis to say on Wednesday when he delivers a Kerry-approved speech to the Democratic National Convention? Will he speak against the war, as he told "Democracy Now"’s Amy Goodman he would?

    I expect in fact that Dennis will not need to tie himself in knots or reverse any positions. Understanding this helps me to accomplish something I find extremely difficult - sympathizing with John Kerry.

    A year ago I would not have lifted a finger to help Kerry’s campaign. I did, however, quit my job to become Kucinich’s press secretary, a position I quit in February. I was attracted to Kucinich’s campaign by a platform that does not at first seem to have much overlap with Kerry’s. Our biggest plank was a plan to end the occupation in 90 days. The two positions that Dennis stressed most frequently after that one were creating single-payer health care and withdrawing from NAFTA and the WTO. Some other key proposals not supported by Kerry were repealing the "Patriot Act", creating free preschool and college, guaranteeing full Social Security benefits at age 65, substantially reforming our tax laws to lower most Americans’ taxes, developing a WPA-type jobs program, creating a department of peace, and cutting the Pentagon’s budget.

    On every one of these points, Kerry has a position distant from Kucinich’s but also - and more importantly at this stage - distant from Bush’s. Kerry favors rebuilding alliances with other countries and abandoning the doctrine of "preemption." Kerry does not support the use of torture and has not begun hinting at which country he’d like to attack next. Kerry has a plan that at least for the short term would provide many more Americans with health coverage, rather than fewer. Kerry proposes to improve rather than worsen our trade laws, to restrict rather than expand the rights violations permitted under the "Patriot Act," and to fund public education far more substantially than Bush while opposing vouchers. Kerry wants to give free college in exchange for two years of national service, to protect Social Security from privatization, to repeal Bush’s tax cuts on the super rich, to invest in infrastructure, and to refrain from further increasing the bloated military budget while redirecting portions of it to the needs of soldiers and veterans rather than non-functioning weapons systems.

    Then there are the issues on which Kucinich and Kerry come close to agreeing: women’s rights, workers’ rights, environmental protections. In each case, Kerry’s positions are much closer to Kucinich’s than to Bush’s. Kucinich committed to not nominating any Supreme Court justice who would not promise to uphold Roe v. Wade. Kerry is very likely to follow through on that promise without ever stating it. Kucinich would join the Kyoto climate change treaty. Kerry might, which is much more than can be said for Bush. Kerry would devote at least a Carter-sized effort to conversion to renewable energy, and he would - as he accurately puts it - "repeal the Bush environmental onslaught." Kucinich would expand workers’ rights by repealing the Taft-Hartley Act, but Kerry, in stark contrast to Bush, would work to protect the right to organize and support the use of card-check. Kerry is a cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act.

    Kerry’s positions are light years ahead of Bush’s on immigrants’ rights, veterans’ rights, and gun control. While he won’t support same-sex marriage, he will support civil unions. And one can picture him eventually coming all the way around on that issue under pressure, as one cannot with Bush. Kerry sees affordable housing as a problem to be addressed. Bush does not. Kerry would reduce the use of the death penalty, not expand it. And on and on. The choice between Bush and Kerry is like night and day.

    And I believe that Dennis will be able to say so. I even believe he’ll be able to say so with his usual passion. He is likely, as usual, to generate tremendous applause and to go unmentioned in most of Thursday’s media. It’s the story of his campaign. And that applause will not come because convention delegates are out of touch with the mainstream. Don’t believe the hype! These are Kerry’s delegates. These are typical Democrats who in many cases voted for the candidate they were told had "electability" and "momentum". Applauding is not yet controlled by those factors to the extent that voting is.

    The few media outlets that do cover Kucinich’s speech will likely accuse him of contradicting himself. To some extent he may be doing so. To some extend Kerry has been doing so ever since he discovered that illegal wars and attacks on the Bill of Rights are not popular. But, as Walt Whitman would have pointed out, what counts as a contradiction is not black and white.

    Do I contradict myself? Very well, but at least I am lessening the chances of world destruction during the next four years.

    How can I justify not supporting Nader? His positions are more to my liking and in my opinion more likely to win wide support. But those positions are only likely to win an election if backed by a major party - which is why I supported Kucinich in the first place. If you backed Kucinich in the primaries and now insist on backing Nader in a state that’s fairly certainly decided, I won’t argue with you too much. But please consider the need to devote our energies to turning out votes in swing states for Kerry in order to be rid of Bush.

    I do think of it as voting against Bush rather than for Kerry. The endless convention speeches bragging about Kerry’s exploits in a war that killed countless Vietnamese almost bring me to tears. Kerry’s stubborn refusal to oppose the Iraq war, even at the serious risk of losing the election, strikes me as perverse. And yet, I will dance and sing when Kerry defeats Bush and the Supreme Court steps aside to let the results stick. Think what a Supreme Court we’ll have for the next generation if Kerry loses or has the election stolen.

    We’ll have to get through a Kerry-Bush debate or two between now and November — and a few months of media. It won’t be pretty. On the Charlie Rose Show Monday night, the host asked Newsweek’s editor in charge of Democratic convention coverage what five questions he would be trying to answer in Boston. When he’d responded, Rose had the decency to point out that four of the five questions were about Bush.

    The media, having already given more than enough fair and balanced coverage to substantial issues, are not just focused on the convention and who may be upstaging whom. They are also busy hyping an internet animation, a remake of "This Land is Your Land" on a site called JibJab. The animation, just like most news talk shows, ridicules politics and seems aimed at lowering voter turnout. The animation repeats various media-generated myths: for example, suggesting that Bush comes from a less affluent background than Kerry. In fact, it’s not clear what this animation does that’s different, except in style, from what Ted Koppel or Bill O’Reilly does. The media are enthralled with this thing.

    Here’s what the New York Times says:
    "It was not supposed to be that way, but the tone of political discourse on the Web is often intensely partisan. After all, the Internet can be a medium of infinite narrowness, where the like-minded can visit the same Web sites, blogs and mailing lists, confirming their shared beliefs and prejudices. But in a refreshing break with form, one of the big new hits on the Web is a silly, two-minute satire of the current Republican-Democrat bun fight, starring President Bush and Senator John Kerry as animated cutout figures."

    Get it? Partisanship is bad. Disparaging both sides evenly, whether the facts merit it or not, is good. Is it a wonder we "elect" a fascistic freak and half the country still may not vote while others will waste their votes on hopeless candidates? Seriously, how does JibJab’s song differ in approach from that newspaper in Appleton, Wisc., requesting pro-Bush letters from its readers in order to create "balance" with all the anti-Bush mail that keeps pouring in?

    Silly me. I should have thought that political engagement by democratic citizens, i.e. partisanship, was exactly what this country was running dangerously low on. I should have thought the high level of energy coming out of the convention, despite the fact that it’s completely scripted, was a hopeful sign for our democracy.

    http://www.davidswanson.org/columns/ill.htm

    • David, you wrote "Kucinich committed to not nominating any Supreme Court justice who would not promise to uphold Roe v. Wade. Kerry is very likely to follow through on that promise without ever stating it." As someone in the journalism field, you owe it to yourself - if not to others - to check your facts. Kerry voted to confirm Scalia. He also recently stated that he would be open to nominating anti-abortion judges, as long as that doesn’t lead to an overturn of Roe v Wade. Does he really think anti-abortion judges will vote to uphold? Delusional.

      Greg Stricherz
      MN for Kucinich

  • note to David Swanson:

    IT’s THE WAR STUPID!!!

    People are dying EVERY DAY!

    The US is now a rogue nation after illegally invading and occupying Iraq, and supporting Israel against the orders of the world court and the UN. How do Americans feel about that? Kerry supports it. How is it we have a false choice between war and war. Who is controlling the media and the American people? Waiting for peace is not good enough!

    • We lost this time. I suggest we build from the groud up. www.progressivevote.com

    • Who would you rather try to pressure not to start another illegal war, Kerry or Bush? Who would you rather protest and scream at in hopes of getting them to end the current atrocities, Kerry or Bush? I don’t see any way you can avoid facing that question or pretend that there are more than two choices just because we wish there were and worked our asses off in hopes of making it so. Refusing to face that question is perhaps not as immature as calling people stupid, but it may prove far more tragic.

  • What real choice does Dennis have? He doesn’t have the delegates to force any of his positions or take the nomination. It’s that simple. If I were in his shoes, I would accept Kerry over Bush, knowing there is likely to be less damage done, and possibly some good on a few fronts. Then I would continue building name recognition and more importantly ideological definition, and run for nomination in the next round of primaries with four years of campaigning hard added to the last two years’ work. What exactly do you propose that Dennis do with the delegate count he had? You rail at him for making the only realistic choice he has. Nader can’t win this, and God forbid Bush does. With any luck, Kerry can open dialogue with the resistance in Iraq and make things better than they are now for everyone there. Hopefully he will build a truly international coalition to restore Iraq to order, and initiate global cooperation and competition to restore Iraqi infrastructure so that Iraq retains as much treasury capital and resources as possible. Dennis Kucinich has done everything he can in this election cycle. Now he must think beyond the election. It is that simple. Far better you ask "how can I help going forward" instead of "why didn’t you perform a miracle?" Dennis Kucinich can not violate U.S. election law and the votes were counted as best they could be under the circumstances. Now he needs to work within that system to push for incremental change without breaking traction completely by going outside the law and sanity. Stay behind him and help push, or sit down and stop pushing the other way, and in the long term things will be better than they are now.

    Dan

  • Dear Concerned Patriot,
    I, too, share your concerns about the situation in Iraq, but I must agree with the others who have posted messages to you to ask you to support the far saner of the candidates for the Presidency. The war is one we must leave, but we have wars we must fight for at home, too, such as universal health care, more aid to the infirm and disabled, clean air and renewable sources of energy. Like the others, I think Kerry will be far more likely, once he is elected, to move on these issues. And I think he will listen. Please don’t give up. Please. Vote for Senator Kerry in November and then let us all work on the wonderful platform that Rep. Kucinich has laid out before us.

    • "A nation that continues to spend year after year, more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death."MLK

      You see, Kerry cannot keep his promises( if there was anything specific) to take care of our country here at home, while he is spending billions of dollars occupying Iraq, taking the war to the enemy on every continent, doubling special forces etc. He is working for the corporations, the military industrial complex, and for the skull and bones, PNAC plan of world domination. He has not been, nor will he ever work for the american people. Why does he talk about working for the american people at some point in the future, 120 day review of nafta, prosecute corporate criminals....where has he been? What has he been doing since this corrupt adminstration has taken over? He has been helping them do it. He is helping them now. He is giving them crediblilty on the war in Iraq even after it has been exposed as lies. We bombed more innocent civilians in FAllujah today. This is not the time for Unity. We must stand up and fight for truth. We to fight for the innocent people our government is killing every day. It is bad enough what we have already done, but we can stop the needless deaths of tommorow. We cannot submit. WE cannot wait until november.

      If we don’t stop this assault on innocent people in the world, as well as the assault on our own civil liberties, our country is doomed. Our ’leaders’ have stomped all over everything that is sacred about our country and John Kerry makes no plans to make it better.

      Look at the convention. The democratic party showed everyone that they do not believe in free speech. The speakers were not allowed to exercize their freedom of speech. No one could speak of the war or the patriot act, the two most important topics to americans today, In the name of unity?!! This seems like the same line the Bush’s used to sell their war. Now we are only patriotic to the democratic party if we get behind this horrible ’leader’. Get it! We have become the thing we hate. We are now letting Kerry and his handlers push us all around within our own party. With John Kerry we are just as screwed, if not more so. Everyone is fooled thinking that if we don’t give up our convictions and vote for Kerry, we are responsible for Bush getting elected. But KERRY is responsible for Bush even being in the running. Kerry will be responsible for Bush getting elected. He seems to want it that way, because he couldn’t be a worse candidate for us. Kerry is not speaking to democrats, more like stifling them. Kerry is really NOT speaking to republicans either, he is validating their choice to stay with Bush. Because the war is the defining issue in the election, republicans seen no reason to leave Bush for Kerry. They are both stating the same lies. Bush and Kerry are both standing naked before the American people. WE must expose BOTH of them, not just grin and bear it for four months and hope Kerry comes around. Any other candidate that spoke to the democratic party and spoke the truth would be winning this election. The republicans should be looking for another candidate, but Kerry only ’thinks’ he can do better. WE have been had. Kerry was a set up. No one looks at him and thinks he was the most qualified. So how did he get in there? Diebold. He is Karl Rove’s dream candidate to run against Bush, who normally would lose in a landslide. The republicans have infiltrated the democrats and we have been had. War or War? Support Israel in their war crimes...or support Israel in their war crimes? This is outrageous! WE have already lost. Why should we pretend we’re all united? We are being just as fake as Bush and Kerry.

  • Fear....now we are all fear based? Because we are afraid of Bush, we give Kerry a pass, simply because he calls himself a democrat. Fear begins, hope dies.

  • Michael Moore and Dennis Kucinich should invited John Kerry and John Edwards to a showing of Fahrenheit 911, it is about time they find out the truth about this evil and futile war.

  • I think Dennis Kucinich owes us all an explanation. We are not sheep. You said you would take the issue of the war all the way to the convention. What happened? So many of us still believed you would stand up for what is right. Who cares about the media, your career, the DLC...you said you would take this nomination all the way to the convention so that we might make progress, and bring truth to light. You have now allowed them to walk all over anyone with common sense, not to mention the majority of the american people who want to stop killing, and supporting killers.

    Giving up on the platform, endorsing Kerry beforehand, taking your name out of the running, freeing the delegates and actually asking them to vote for Kerry, and then not talking about the war, falling for the Kerry induced patriot act of the democratic party...I just don’t understand. Who cares what the odds were, who cares what you were up against, you had truth and love behind you and the people needed to hear from you. Where is your courage? The delegates needed you to unite them against the war. You needed to show John Kerry that ’we the people’ are against the war. So now you have John Kerry and the DLC behind you.....big fucking deal. What about your people? Taking it to the convention is not the same as giving up beforehand. Please help me understand.

    • Over the next week, thousands of loyal Democrats of all ages, races, religions, and life experiences will gather here in Boston to raise our Party’s banner, make our case to the American people, and set the stage for the one goal that unites us all – to take back the White House so that the politics of hope and inclusion can replace the politics of fear and divisiveness.

      I have pledged my support to Sen. John Kerry and to Sen. John Edwards because it is imperative that our nation change course. Under the current administration, we have been going in the wrong direction for almost four years. How much worse will we be in four more years if we don’t change course?

      This week, our voices will be unified in calling for change and pledging ourselves to achieve it.

      But there will also be thousands of other voices here this week. Thousands of people who are skeptical and unconvinced that the Democratic Party and the Democratic candidates are the answer. Drawn by our presence, they are here to voice their questions, their concerns, and, in some cases, their outright opposition to what we, the Democratic Party, are promising.

      As a candidate for our Party’s nomination, as a member of the United States House of Representatives, and as a delegate to this convention, I would strongly suggest that we have another “job” here in Boston this week besides our officially proscribed duties. In some respects, it is just as important as casting our ballots and launching a unified effort to regain our country.

      That job is to listen.

      All over this city, in the convention hall, in meeting places, and in the streets, voices will be raised by those who want to be heard by the Democratic Party. Voices for peace and a speedy end to President Bush’s war. Voices for a totally new kind of health care system that transcends “reform.” An unequivocal position on laws affecting civil liberties and equal rights. A more definitive denunciation of the job-gutting trade and economic policies of the Bush Administration. Tax reform, workers’ rights, energy and environmental standards and policies.

      They are here because we, the Democratic Party, are here. And I believe that we have a responsibility to ourselves, to the people we represent, and to all Americans, to listen.

      The strength of our Party is, and always has been, its willingness and ability to represent diverse and divergent points of view and constituencies. Engaging in serious discussion with “non-mainstream” voices within in our Party and on its periphery will broaden our base by sending an encouraging message to millions of citizens – regardless of their political affiliation – that they are welcome in the Democratic Party and their support is important to us.

      The people of this nation demand and deserve a new direction. That is what the Democratic Party can provide, if we are willing and determined to do so. That includes, I would suggest, the willingness to listen to those who may not agree with us.

      My good friend Sen. Kerry and I have disagreed on a number of issues. Neither of us is abandoning our principles nor our beliefs to “accommodate” each other. The beauty of the Democratic Party is its capacity to accommodate, even encourage, debate and diversity of views. In my opinion, that diversity is also the path to our Party’s future success. If there is room for me and for my supporters in this Party, there is certainly room for millions of other Americans in search of a political home that provides the promise and the hope of a new vision for America.

      If we listen to them, and they listen to us, we may find more common ground than we thought. And by working together, we will certainly find more strength.

      I believe in this Party, and I believe in its potential to change our nation and the world for the better. That is not blind loyalty. It is eyes-wide-open confidence in our potential to honestly and effectively represent the interests of the vast majority of Americans who yearn for something better. If we just listen to what they are saying, we can be the answer to what they are seeking.